ASUS Z97-A PCI support ?

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NelGaming

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Hello !

I am thinking about buying a pci ethernet slot for a bridge connection to my wifi powerline.
I saw some threads that it wont work with the pci-e slots. https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z97A/specifications/ in the expension slots it says 2x pci. I dont have any white slots ?
Just wondering


Thanks
 
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Z97 refers to the actual chipset which houses all the IO connections. All Z97 chips are the same, but it's up to the actual board manufacturer to actually 'connect the dots' and physically connect to the hardware.

So - while the Z97 has the physical internal hardware, if the mobo manufacturer doesn't put a PCI slot on the board and connect the traces, it won't work. Usually, PCI is reserved for older, legacy hardware, and it doesn't have the bandwidth that PCI-e does. So - on a shiny new Z97 board, most will not have a PCI slot.

Meanwhile, I just picked up a Gigabyte B85 mATX board, it has the socket 1150, 2 DIMM slots, 1-PCIe.x16, 2-PCIe.x1, and the aforementioned PCI slot that you're looking for.

The board is model GA-B85M-HD3...
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Rookie_MIB

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Z97 refers to the actual chipset which houses all the IO connections. All Z97 chips are the same, but it's up to the actual board manufacturer to actually 'connect the dots' and physically connect to the hardware.

So - while the Z97 has the physical internal hardware, if the mobo manufacturer doesn't put a PCI slot on the board and connect the traces, it won't work. Usually, PCI is reserved for older, legacy hardware, and it doesn't have the bandwidth that PCI-e does. So - on a shiny new Z97 board, most will not have a PCI slot.

Meanwhile, I just picked up a Gigabyte B85 mATX board, it has the socket 1150, 2 DIMM slots, 1-PCIe.x16, 2-PCIe.x1, and the aforementioned PCI slot that you're looking for.

The board is model GA-B85M-HD3, so PCI slots while certainly on the way out, do exists on modern boards. The thing is, PCIe has more bandwidth, chipsets require less legacy support and you can really buy almost any type of adapter in PCIe format now.

I'm curious why you have to have a PCI ethernet card. They do make PCIe ethernet cards as well. Here's a nice Intel one.

http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Gigabit-Network-Adapter-EXPI9301CTBLK/dp/B001CY0P7G/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1444145224&sr=8-2&keywords=pcie+ethernet

 
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NelGaming

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Thanks ! I just went to the product page and saw those two :D Before i was looking into my pc and apparantly didnt notice them :p Thank you again!
 
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Rookie_MIB

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Oh - gosh, I didn't realize that link actually went to a motherboard page. I thought it was just on the generic 'Z97' chipset. Lol. Took a second look - boy, Asus has really simple/boring names for their motherboards. Yes, that board has two PCI slots, slot 3 and slot 6 as alexoiu correctly pointed out.

Remember, not all pci/pcie slots are specific colors under some standard, that's completely up to the manufacturer of the board. If they wanted pink and green, they could just as easily do that. (ewwww).

Anyhow, one thing to be aware of is that it doesn't look like the placement of those PCI slots is very ideal. If you only have one GPU, you'll be fine. If you're running a SLI/Crossfire setup you'll be in trouble because both PCI slots are adjacent to the corresponding PCIe slot required for SLI/Crossfire. Almost every single GPU is two slots wide, so if you have one GPU, the lower PCI port will be free. If you're using both PCIe's for dual slot GPUs, BOTH PCI slots will be covered.

Not the best design, and it shows how they tend to depreciate legacy hardware. Is it that strange to Asus that someone might have a dual-GPU setup and (heaven forbid) a legacy PCI card for something like a legacy SCSI drive system? I actually have several PCI cards for a SATA RAID system. I'd be out of luck if I needed that on that motherboard with a dual GPU setup.

 
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NelGaming

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Wow didnt even notice that you cant have sli if you are using these slots. Well not that i do use it. I am more of a one ,more powerful gpu kinda guy :p The more you know :D Well anyways thank you for all of the very usefull help!
 
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Rookie_MIB

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Welcome! And single GPU is usually the best way to go. BIG single GPU. :)
 
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