What kind of PCI cards are out there? Wondering if I should go ITX or mATX

[tracerit]

I plan to downsize my build from ATX to an ITX case (Fractal Design Node 304) but the new Node 804 (mATX) has caught my attention. I'm wondering if I should go with the mATX case to leave room for expandability but I'm not sure what I would use for those extra PCI slots. I was thinking maybe just extra USB ports? I hear some SSDs will use the PCI interface. Is there anything else?

 

[Deders]

Soundcard if you want better than on board

 

[bunnyfubbles]

I currently use expansion for soundcard, and a video capture card

what I'm interested in doing soon is adding a NIC for LAN teaming (some motherboards already include two) to and from a NAS, although 10GbE would be incredibly awesome, I just don't see that coming down to consumer level pricing for a few more years

NVMe PCI-e SSD will be amazing as well, and I could see myself being an early adopter for that.

a hardware RAID card was something I wanted in the past, but SSDs and improvements in onboard controllers have kept me from making that plunge.

Intel has dropped the ball a bit with Thunderbolt, but there's always a possibility things change there and it becomes desirable, and a PCI-e card with Thunderbolt (assuming compatible motherboard) could be something I would be interested in. Thunderbolt 1 = 10gbps, 2 = 20gbps, amazing for DAS solutions or even displays or as an external interface with PCI-e devices

And in similar vein, there's also USB3.1 on the horizon, which very well might find its way onto some of the motherboards you might be considering, otherwise I imagine there will eventually be PCI-e options. 3.1 should double the speeds of 3.0, so 10gbps up from 5.

 

[tracerit]

i think i will go with an ITX case then. i'm not that big an audiophile so my 2.1 setup will do, NVMe PCIe SSD looks to be way too expensive and USB 3.1 looks enticing but not enough to justify a larger case.

Thanks for the input!

 

[Charlie98]

I really like the concept of the Node 304, unfortunately the Node 804 is huge for an mATX case. If I didn't already have an mATX board on the bench, I would have gone with the 304/mITX in my last build.

Good luck!

 

[Essence_of_War]

I still use firewire for things and you can't really find mobos with it onboard anymore, but you can find high quality TI chipset expansion cards for very reasonable prices.

But if you're not using it now, you're unlikely to want it in the future unless you're an audio engineer.

Some other options include: sata control cards, or full blown raid cards to get more sata ports or hardware raid, network cards for better NIC's, wifi cards if mobo lacks onboard wifi.

 

[piasabird]

Some of the Gigabyte motherboards have dual NIC on the MITX motherboards. Some of them also have a USB port with DAC for sound headphone or Microphone. They also tend to use separate power circuits for the USB jacks. This limits noise of a shared power circuit for all the USB ports.

Anytime you are using MITX. There is a battle for limited access to existing space.