It's out in about a month and I'm holding off getting system board stuff until I see what's what. I might not even want to go PCIe though I think so. In the meantime I have started ordering some components that should mostly fit either way:
CASE : PCIe motherboards will be built for both ATX and the upcoming BTX, so I just ordered an ATX case. No problem there I assume.
POWER SUPPLY : I ordered a new Enermax 420 with SATA from NewEgg but then got to wondering if PCIe motherboards might not have an entirely different power connector than PCI motherboards. What's the story there, and along those lines, will those power supply MB connectors change between ATX and BTX like they did between AT and ATX?
SLOTS : Will there be PCI slots on PCIe boards, like when they used to put 4 PCI slots + 2 PCAT slots on boards for the first year or two of that switchover? I've also heard mention here that VIA might provide an AGP video slot in addition to a PCIe-16 video slot. Is that a possibility?
HARD DRIVES : ordered two SATA drives and a Promise SATA RAID card to run them on my current IDE-only Soyo board until PCIe - probably not RAIDed at first. Any new mobo will have SATA so no problem there in terms of individual hard drives. RAID compatibility though will probably be unique to the MB and not match the Promise card's RAID, so the PCI slot question has more to do with the hard drives in this case than the hard drives themselves. I'm wondering if I should send the PCI-SATA card back and wait for PCIe-SATA, or if I should get both so that I can move drives between PCI-IDE-only MB and PCIe-SATA MB.
IDE : I ordered a DVD-R/W drive assuming that IDE connectors will still exist even on PCIe boards for things like CD and DVD. It seems like SATA DVD's aren't coming any time soon.
GENERAL PCIe SYSTEM : This is actually the main thing I'm interested in. Will the new PCIe standard enhance overall system configurability in terms of IRQs and COM channels? I hate that stuff with a passion. Plug and play my azz. Does anyone know if PCIe brings with it a whole new useability in terms of plug-and-play without trying to shift stuff around and free up IRQ's just because you want to add a modem or a tablet or whatever? There's been like 3 IRQ's free for ten years now and I am so sick of it. Does PCIe upgrade us to a whole new level of system integration?
Sorry for the long post. I'm mostly concerned with PCIe system advantages, PCI/AGP slots, and PCIe/ATX-powersupply compatibility right now. Any help or insight is appreciated.
Ooh, my NewEgg box just arrived as I was about to hit enter!
CASE : PCIe motherboards will be built for both ATX and the upcoming BTX, so I just ordered an ATX case. No problem there I assume.
POWER SUPPLY : I ordered a new Enermax 420 with SATA from NewEgg but then got to wondering if PCIe motherboards might not have an entirely different power connector than PCI motherboards. What's the story there, and along those lines, will those power supply MB connectors change between ATX and BTX like they did between AT and ATX?
SLOTS : Will there be PCI slots on PCIe boards, like when they used to put 4 PCI slots + 2 PCAT slots on boards for the first year or two of that switchover? I've also heard mention here that VIA might provide an AGP video slot in addition to a PCIe-16 video slot. Is that a possibility?
HARD DRIVES : ordered two SATA drives and a Promise SATA RAID card to run them on my current IDE-only Soyo board until PCIe - probably not RAIDed at first. Any new mobo will have SATA so no problem there in terms of individual hard drives. RAID compatibility though will probably be unique to the MB and not match the Promise card's RAID, so the PCI slot question has more to do with the hard drives in this case than the hard drives themselves. I'm wondering if I should send the PCI-SATA card back and wait for PCIe-SATA, or if I should get both so that I can move drives between PCI-IDE-only MB and PCIe-SATA MB.
IDE : I ordered a DVD-R/W drive assuming that IDE connectors will still exist even on PCIe boards for things like CD and DVD. It seems like SATA DVD's aren't coming any time soon.
GENERAL PCIe SYSTEM : This is actually the main thing I'm interested in. Will the new PCIe standard enhance overall system configurability in terms of IRQs and COM channels? I hate that stuff with a passion. Plug and play my azz. Does anyone know if PCIe brings with it a whole new useability in terms of plug-and-play without trying to shift stuff around and free up IRQ's just because you want to add a modem or a tablet or whatever? There's been like 3 IRQ's free for ten years now and I am so sick of it. Does PCIe upgrade us to a whole new level of system integration?
Sorry for the long post. I'm mostly concerned with PCIe system advantages, PCI/AGP slots, and PCIe/ATX-powersupply compatibility right now. Any help or insight is appreciated.
Ooh, my NewEgg box just arrived as I was about to hit enter!
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