Posted: 1/4/2013 3:23:39 PM EDT
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So I have this motherboard. And its got what appears to be a PCIeX16 slot on it. In fact, it looks exactly like every PCIeX16 slot I have on every other motherboard I have. But its marked (on the motherboard) "PCIEX1."
Some of the places on the web that offer this motherboard's specs list it as "PCIe-X1 slot" and some list it as "X16." I'm confused. I'm not sure if there is a difference or not. I know the speed/amount of bandwidth differs. I know I can run an X1 card in an X16 slot (generally speaking) but not vice-versa. The dang thing has a tiny ATX power supply connector (HP Slimline type) so I can't power it up to get into the BIOS and snoop around until I get more parts in... But what am I looking at here? Were there ever PCIeX1 slots that were physically similar/the same as X16 slots? I'd like to put a hardware RAID controller in the slot but now I'm not sure what I have to work with. 
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| With pci express slots you really have two different numbers. You have the slot size usually marked as 1x, 4x, 8x, and 16x. You then have what they are wired for. 1x, 4, 8, 16 are the normal way they are wired. Sometimes the smaller slots will have the rear without a stop so you can plug a 8x card into say a 4x slot. Many bigger boards with 2 16x slots will really only run each in 8x if you use both. Generally speaking you can run a higher speed card in a slower speed slot. In the case of a raid card chances are it is a 4x card or a 8x card depending on how good it is. It will prob work in the slot if it is wired for 1x although it will not give you the full performance. |
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I appreciate the reply. This is for a backup to my current server, a small system that will sit in an ammo box and only rsync the most critical data once a week or so, so performance is a total non-issue. In fact, I think its only got 100mbit eth, so I could care less about the RAID controller's performance... Its just going to be a big dumb SATA expander to give me eight extra ports.
Glad to hear it "should" work. Even if it doesn't, I need an M1015 for my main server anyway, so at least it won't go to waste. |
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Quoted:
Looks like a x8 or x16 port to me. The x1 pcie ports are usually very small. The physical size is a x16 slot. That doesn't always mean it is wired as that though. OP looking at the board on HP's site I think it is just marking it as the first pci express slot just like memory slots are marked. Chances are it is a x16 slot electrical(speed) wise so pretty much any pci express card should be fine. |