Max # of PCI slots available?

[TommyCLT]

Hi,
I've searched through the forum to find my answer, but have come up empty handed.
I'm wondering what is the maximum number of PCI slots available on a motherboard? I know 6 is typical these days.

And yeah, I need all I can get in my next PC. My Micron Millennia GS P3 866 is about maxed out! currently:
Adaptec 2940 SCSI Card
SB Live Platinum 5.1
Network Card
Modem (though I could go external to save a slot)
Promise Controller Card (ATA 100) -though I might not need this depending on the motherboard huh?
1 empty slot now
& I'd like to add a TV Card.

Any suggestions for a highly expandable motherboard PCI configuration (heck, and a case for that matter!)

Thanks, in advance, for your help

TommyCLT

 

[AndyHui]

6 PCI slots is the most that you will see on any regular consumer class board.

 

[Guilty]

Well you can get a lot of things integrated.

MSI has a board with integrated SCSI, but for the most part you're better off using a card.
Most boards have the option of integrated sound of course, but not all have the awful AC97 codec, the I-Will KK266 has a better integrated chip.
Asus has a wide variety of boards with integrated 3com NIC's.
A USB modem maybe?
Many boards come with an integrated ATA controller, usually it's capable of RAID but you can always disable RAID and use the connectors for stanard ATA33/66/100 operation.
The ATI All-In-Wonder (Radeon) has a TV input and controller on the video card.


But remember, getting all these devices, be it integrated or PCI, to share IRQ's happily is easier said than done. 6 slots may be typical but in most cases only 2 devices can get their own IRQ.

 

[Rand]

Most motherboard chipsets only support 5-6 PCI slots, though theoretically a manufacturer could integrate a PCI arbiter chip to have more PCI slots then that.

 

[Noriaki]

The ATX spec only allows for 7 rear brackets.
So 1 for AGP and at most 6 for PCI.

But you could get a board with integrated Promise ATA100 card.

So use 6 for the other things.

Chipset support is another story. I think 6 is the normal max for those as well, though back in the good ol' days MSi made a board with 6 on a chipset supporting only 5. So there's not reason a similar chip couldn't be used to get more than 6. But there is nowhere to attach them in the ATX spec.

 

[AndyHui]

The 440BX chipset supported 5 PCI slots. A PCI Arbiter/Bridge chip was needed on the ASUS P3B-F and the MSI boards in order to get the 6th PCI slot.

The i8xx series of chipsets supports 6 PCI slots.