PSA: PCIE x1/x4 cards work in PCIE x16 slots!!

[LOUISSSSS]

WTF i feel like a total noob. I've been building PCs and messing with them since the PCIE slot came out. They were mainly used by video cards, with most everything else using the regular PCI. But year later, sound cards and Wifi cards started using PCIE x1.

I've had a PCIEx1 sound card for 8 years now and since my only x1 slot was directly under my video card (dual slot card), it'd block a lot of the airflow to the card causing unnecessary heat to the GPU. Now i never stressed the GPU to 85+ degrees, and i understand that most modern chips can handle 85+C for a while (1+ Hour).


I've since pulled my X1 sound card and plugged it into another x16 slot as far down as i possibly can and feel so much better about my dual fan GPU.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Would it blow your mind to find out that PCI-E x16 cards, work in open-ended PCI-E x1 or x4 slots too? (Some boards have open-ended slots, look at the ASRock Fatal1ty X470 Gaming K4 board.)

 

[LOUISSSSS]

^^ yes! but i hope i never need to do that as i'm sure some performance would be missed. I've also only ever had video cards use a full x16 slot.

 

[Ichinisan]

You can literally trim the connector on a video card with a cutting tool and put it into a smaller slot. It will work. There's just less bandwidth to transfer data into the GPU's memory.

 

[PingSpike]

I wouldn't trim the GPU or mod the slot these days though. There's piles of surplus mining adapters for that sort of thing and while they aren't all great quality they're probably still less of a risk than dremeling working parts.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

Can i use an Intel 660 MV SSD as my Boot drive since i now have more options w/ my PCI E Slots?
Any benefit over my old ass Samsung Evo 840 120gb SATA drive?

 

[deustroop]

You could start a new thread for that topic . List mboard, cpu, peripherals and dram specs .