Can I use 3.3V PCI-X Card in a 5V PCI-X slot?

[Qianglong]

I am getting the 3Ware 9550SX Raid 5 card that neds a 3.3V PCI-X slot. My Tiger MP S2460 mobo only has 64bit 33Mhz 5-Volt slots.. do you think the Raid card will work on my mobo?

 

[InlineFive]

It sounds like your card is PCI-X 3.0 and your motherboard is PCI-X 1.0, which aren't compatible standards. Unless your motherboard is PCI-X 2.0 which (I'm pretty sure) is compatible with both voltages.

 

[SuperNaruto]

also they're key differently.. a 3.3v card would not fit in a 5v slot

http://www.orbitmicro.com/product_lines/riser_cards/32bit_pci_definition.html

see the notch on the 3.3v ?

 

[beemercer]

I think the slots may even be slightly different, like the differents AGPs, anyone know for sure.

 

[Qianglong]

on the mobo manual, it says the PCI-X slot is V2.2 compliant...

 

[Knavish]

Last year I had to deal with this same issue. I wanted to put a relatively new 3ware RAID card in an older Athlon MP motherboard. The old Tyan Athlon MP boards have 64 bit, 66Mhz PCI V2.2 slots. THESE ARE NOT PCI-X SLOTS. The long slots are regular PCI slots ... from Wikipedia on PCI-X:

PCI-X is a revision to the PCI standard that doubles the clock speed (from 66 MHz to 133 MHz) and hence the amount of data exchanged between the computer processor and peripherals. Standard PCI supports up to 64-bit at 66 MHz (though anything above 32-bit at 33 MHz is only seen in high end systems) and additional bus standards move 32 bits at 66 MHz or 64 bits at 33 MHz.

A PCI-X card will NOT FIT in a 64 bit / 66mhz PCI slot. They have a slightly different connector and run at different voltages / frequencies.

-Knavish