Is PCI-Express x16 different from other PCI-Express slots?

[AluminumStudios]

Hi,

I'm a little confused over PCI-Express slots. Video cards are listed as "PCI Express x16" If a motherboard such as this one (http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/...sp?ProductCode=241893) has PCI-Express slots, will a video card that says PCI Express x16 work in any of the slots, or is there something special about one of the slots?

Any enlightenment would be appreciated.

 

[Matthias99]

Your link doesn't work (it just bounces me to ZZF's homepage). To answer your question, though:

PCIe slots come in various speed grades, from x1 to (currently) x16. You can use lower-speed cards in higher-speed slots, but you cannot use higher-speed cards in lower-speed slots; the connectors are physically longer. Speedwise, PCIe x1 is roughly equal to 1X AGP, and so would not be fast enough for a modern video card (though you could probably run one in a PCIe x4 slot, if anyone made such a video card).

 

[Yomicron]

working link

The board you linked to has PCI-X, which is not the same as PCI Express (PCI-E). A PCI-E video card will not work with that board.

 

[Markfw]

And I believe that I read that all of todays Intel PCI-express motherboards come with one x16 for the video, and the rest are 1x.

Also, 64bit PCI-X 133mhz slots are about equal to 8x PCI-Express, so for other than the video, they are much better.

 

[AluminumStudios]

Thanks for the info.

This machine is going to be for number crunching and productivity apps, video card performance is irrelovent, I just want to add a video card with a DVI port so the user can have a nice sharp display on the 19" LCD that I"m buying with the system.