Wireless PCI Card - 32-bit/64-bit Confusion

[miss_fugg]

Hey there,

I'm looking to purchase a wireless PCI card for my PC, but I'm confused when it comes to choosing which one will be supported by my system.

The card I'm looking at is compatible with 32-bit PCI expansion slots, but I have no idea if my PCI slot is 32-bit or 64-bit, therefore I'm looking for someone to point me in the right direction as to how I can determine this.

Thanks in advance,
Jen

 

[mi1ez]

all PCI slots in common PCs are 32bit. if it was a 64 bit slot it would be longer and have 2 notches. I believe a 32bit card would fit into a 64bit slot anyway in the way a PCIe 1x card will fit in a 16x slot.

 

[mike99]

32/64 bit PCI slots are nothing to do with 32/64 bit software. A standard 32 bit PCI slot can transfer data faster than any wireless network --- 133 x 4 = 532 Mbytes/s or more than 4 Gbits/s.

Mike.

 

[pbrigido]

Short and sweet answer. If your computer has an open PCI slot, just but a PCI wireless card and it will work.

 

[Devastator_uk]

32/64 bit PCI slots are nothing to do with 32/64 bit software. A standard 32 bit PCI slot can transfer data faster than any wireless network --- 133 x 4 = 532 Mbytes/s or more than 4 Gbits/s.

Mike.

I think PCIs only run at 33MHz (or in some cases 66), so 33*(32/8) = 132MB/s or ~ 1Gbps. But either way it's still faster than wireless.

 

[mike99]

Sorry, my mistake, I was short of time. It's 33 x 4 = 132 Mbytes /s, or just over 1Gbits/s, still more than a wireless link can manage.

Mike,