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What are PCI Express 4x slots made for?

Forum Motherboards & Memory : General Motherboard - What are PCI Express 4x slots made for?

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dougx1317   06-09-2009 at 07:47:01 AM

I have a PCI Express 4x slot on my Asus Crosshair motherboard. It is open ended, but there are capacitors directly behind it blocking any 16x cards. So, what are PCI Express 4x slots for? What would I put there?

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starams5   06-09-2009 at 08:56:16 AM
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Hi D

The PCI Express 4X connector has 64 pins and is intended to be used on servers, but not limited to servers:

- PCIe x1 card in a PCIe x16 slot will run at PCIe x1 speeds
- PCIe x16 card in a PCIe x16 slot will run at PCIe x16 speed.
- PCIe cards are all backwards compatible, as in a x1,x2,x4,x8 cards will all work in a PCIe x16 slot
- x1,x2,x4 will all work in a PCIe x8/x16 slot
- x1,x2 will all work in a PCIe x4/x8/x16 slot
- x1 will all work in a PCIe x2/x4/x8/x16 slot


Message edited by starams5 on 06-09-2009 at 08:56:55 AM
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wuzy   06-09-2009 at 09:24:53 AM
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As starams5 mentioned, you can use 1x, 2x and of course 4x in a PCIe 4x slot.
Cards that are made using those can include (but not limited to) SAS/SATA RAID controller, sound card, dedicated A/V encoders, TV tuner..etc.

It just so happens PCIe 16x is mostly used by graphic cards and that's what most users see.

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apache_lives   06-09-2009 at 09:33:31 AM
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future hardware, or atm raid cards etc

im supprised nvidia and ati arnt making basic dual display cards for pcie 1x/2x/4x especially for workstations etc needing more monitors

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mindless728   06-09-2009 at 06:39:22 PM
- 0 +

if you are lucky like me, my server's pci-e 4x slot is open ended, meaning i can put any card in (though at reduced speed if it requires 8x or higher)

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dougx1317   06-09-2009 at 06:58:13 PM
- 0 +

Thanks for the replies.

Unfortunately the slot is blocked off by capacitors, so no 8x/16x cards will fit. It seems like every mobo I see has raid built in, so why would need an extra raid card? I guess I'll just treat it like an excess 1x slot. But I never even use my 1x slots.

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starams5   06-09-2009 at 07:15:54 PM
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The 1x slot is cool, I decided to take advantage of it. My Xonar D2X works well in the 1x slot, sits above all others allowing more space and air flow below.

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wuzy   06-09-2009 at 07:43:33 PM
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My 1x slot in the HTPC is used by a DVB-T tuner card for example

Quote :

It seems like every mobo I see has raid built in, so why would need an extra raid card?


The software RAID solution which consumer chipset uses functions serves a totally different purpose compared to expensive hardware RAID needed by servers for reliability reason. Also useful for migrating RAID arrays between different motherboards that have different chipset.


Message edited by wuzy on 06-09-2009 at 07:43:59 PM
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Brand is for the weak-minded, only product matters.
Resilient to marketing.
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chunkymonster   06-09-2009 at 09:24:08 PM
- 0 +

dougx1317 wrote :

So, what are PCI Express 4x slots for? What would I put there?



Hardware RAID controller
Gigabit NIC
TV Tuner
10GBe Fiber channel controller

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kevchat   11-22-2009 at 12:51:25 AM
- 0 +

starams5 wrote :

The 1x slot is cool, I decided to take advantage of it. My Xonar D2X works well in the 1x slot, sits above all others allowing more space and air flow below.






is that the slot the soundmax normaly sits in ?

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starams5   11-22-2009 at 04:41:41 AM
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kevchat wrote :

is that the slot the soundmax normaly sits in ?



That little sound card uses the x1 slot as well. If you have an older board that came with the SoundMax audio card, the x1 slot was useless because the x1 slot was positioned on the board exclusively for the SoundMax card. ASUS has since made changes to the design to allow other x1 cards to work in the slot. I tried to link you to a pic of the P5N32-E SLI Plus which has offset x1 slots, but maybe I did it wrong.

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dougx1317   11-22-2009 at 06:47:35 AM
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My Asus Crosshair is that way. I can't use the slot for anything else, and I can't put the soundmax card in any other slot.

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starams5   11-22-2009 at 07:48:28 AM
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dougx1317 wrote :

My Asus Crosshair is that way. I can't use the slot for anything else, and I can't put the soundmax card in any other slot.



Funny how things changed when they came out with the Xonar, there would have been some pissed off D2X customers.

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