What are the PCIe-1 connectors?

[bb30994]

When inserting double-wide GPUs in the PCIe slots, 4 slots are hidden, leaving what looks like a PCIe_1 connector. What is it and how can I use it?

(With 1-slot GPUs, other connectors are visible, including one which is probably the old PCI connection.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

They are expansion slots. You'd only use it if you're installing more hardware to do something.

 

[Prime2515102]

PCI-X lol... Almost forgot about that one...

 

[bonehead123]

They are expansion slots. You'd only use it if you're installing more hardware to do something.

Just to add:

The top 4 in this pic are the more recent/modern slots, in decending order of size, number of pins, and the amount of bandwidth & power available....

The last 3 are very old, outdated and for all practical puposes, considered obsolete nowadays, unless of course you run a very old, outdated system hahahaha ...

 

[FreedomEclipse]

A lot of stuff can be used with the PCIe 1x slot - natively though some wifi/network cards, modems, USB expansion and soundcards can use the 1x slot. other cards can be modified to fit in to an 1x slot but would operate significantly slower than their quoted speeds because the amount of bandwidth available on 1x

 

[candle_86]

Pcie 1x - network/sound
Pcie 4x - 10gb nic/ssd/raid controller
Never seen an 8x slot in the wild, they tend to be 16x slots but 8x electrically.

Honestly pci is still perfect for low bandwidth devices like sound cards or legacy I/o expansion

Pci-x was a server standard

Agp is for video cards from before pcie

The chart is missing a few slots though

Acr/cnr - nic/modem/sound

Vesa - video/nic/I/o controller

Isa 16bit - sound/modem/10mb nice/I/o, and video

Isa 8 bit - sound/modem/10mb nice/I/o, and video

Mca - sound/modem/10mb nice/I/o, and video

 

[spectatorx]

PCI-X lol... Almost forgot about that one...

Honestly i've been interested in tech since my youngest years (born in 2nd last decade of previous millennium) and i've never heard about this variation of PCI. Indeed we learn new things every day until our last day.

 

[candle_86]

Honestly i've been interested in tech since my youngest years (born in 2nd last decade of previous millennium) and i've never heard about this variation of PCI. Indeed we learn new things every day until our last day.

Go check out these interesting slots

Eisa and vesa local bus, you can also read up on microchannel from ibm, it was an interesting time of fighting over standards.

So I'm going to expand the actual slots in x86 compatabiles

Pc slot 8bit
Isa 16bit
Eisa 32bit
Mca 16bit
Mca 32bit
Vesa local bus 16/20/33/40/50mhz 486 bus
Pci 5v
Pci 3.3v
Pci 66mhz
Agp 1x 3.3v 66 mb/s
Agp 2x 3.3v 133 mb/s
Agp universal 3.3/1.5v 533 mb/s
Agp 4x 1.5v 533 mb/s
Agp 8x 0.8v 1066 mb/s

There was also agp 12x but it was an Nvidia spec that never arrived in a slot, though the nv40 is internally agp 12x

The rest is more modern and better remembered except cnr and amr

 

[spectatorx]

My first pc had PCI and AGP, second pc purchased one year later (2004) had pci-express radeon x300se. Time flies soooo fast.

 

[Prime2515102]

Mca 16bit
Mca 32bit


The rest is more modern and better remembered except cnr and amr

I don't recall MCA at all, weird. It's proprietary though so it doesn't count. lol

Along with CNR and AMR there was also ACR.

My first pc had PCI and AGP, second pc purchased one year later (2004) had pci-express radeon x300se. Time flies soooo fast.

It sure does, PCI-E still seems new to me. My first computer was all ISA/PCI, second had an AGP 2x slot (that was '98 I believe).

Interesting to note how successful PCI-E has been. It was created just 12 years after PCI, and PCI was created just 11 years after ISA. A 17-year run (so far) for a bus is a long time without a supersession.

 

[R-T-B]

I don't recall MCA at all, weird. It's proprietary though so it doesn't count.

Kinda does given it was from IBM which literally invented the PC as a system architecture...

 

[Aquinus]

When inserting double-wide GPUs in the PCIe slots, 4 slots are hidden, leaving what looks like a PCIe_1 connector. What is it and how can I use it?

Any device that is 1x PCIe. There are some SATA controllers, audio devices, and network devices that will fit into a slot like this.

Never seen an 8x slot in the wild

A lot of 8+ drive RAID cards will be on 8x.
Example: https://www.newegg.com/lsi-megaraid-sas-9361-8i-sata-sas/p/N82E16816118230?Item=N82E16816118230

 

[candle_86]

I don't recall MCA at all, weird. It's proprietary though so it doesn't count. lol

Along with CNR and AMR there was also ACR.



It sure does, PCI-E still seems new to me. My first computer was all ISA/PCI, second had an AGP 2x slot (that was '98 I believe).

Interesting to note how successful PCI-E has been. It was created just 12 years after PCI, and PCI was created just 11 years after ISA. A 17-year run (so far) for a bus is a long time without a supersession.

It does a few companies licensed it from IBM but Compaq refused and formed the gang of nine which created industry standard architecture aka ISA which defined the PC and at slots should work at 8mhz they also defined eisa but it was about as common as mca was and was quickly replaced by vesa then pci.

 

[bb30994]

Interesting discussion ... much of which I already knew.

The last 3 are very old, outdated and for all practical puposes, considered obsolete nowadays, unless of course you run a very old, outdated system hahahaha ...

Yes, but I'm looking at an old, outdated M/B. It even has a PCI slot as well as this PCIe-1x (if that's what it is)

I've never seen an -8x slot either.

Anyway, I know the coin miners use 1x risers to get more out of their systems even when the 1x bandwidth limits the performance of and external GPU. I'd like to get (more or less) the video performance equivalent to an iGPU using the 1x connection and a low-performance dGPU. I tried it and Windoze didn't recognize the device. According to what I read, any device that works with (say) -4x should also be recognized at -1x but with limited bandwidth. Am I doing something wrong?

(The BIOS doesn't let me configure the iGpu when a dGPU is recognized.)

 

[Tatty_Two]

I have a Z170 board and it has a plain old PCI slot so not that old, in it sits my old SB Xifi Elite pro soundcard But I fear my next build in the spring will see me moving to onboard sound.

 

[spectatorx]

Interesting discussion ... much of which I already knew.


Yes, but I'm looking at an old, outdated M/B. It even has a PCI slot as well as this PCIe-1x (if that's what it is)

I've never seen an -8x slot either.

Anyway, I know the coin miners use 1x risers to get more out of their systems even when the 1x bandwidth limits the performance of and external GPU. I'd like to get (more or less) the video performance equivalent to an iGPU using the 1x connection and a low-performance dGPU. I tried it and Windoze didn't recognize the device. According to what I read, any device that works with (say) -4x should also be recognized at -1x but with limited bandwidth. Am I doing something wrong?

(The BIOS doesn't let me configure the iGpu when a dGPU is recognized.)

I've seen a bunch of boards having x8 slot. Basically it is regular x16's physical length but electrically only half of it is an actual port, similar with x4.

 

[Fourstaff]

I've seen a bunch of boards having x8 slot. Basically it is regular x16's physical length but electrically only half of it is an actual port, similar with x4.

Its easier to have a physical x16 slot but wired with something else, allows for a more flexibility. There are people in this website who has cut an x1 slot because they have a x16 card lol. It works.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Just to add:

The top 4 in this pic are the more recent/modern slots, in decending order of size, number of pins, and the amount of bandwidth & power available....

The last 3 are very old, outdated and for all practical puposes, considered obsolete nowadays, unless of course you run a very old, outdated system hahahaha ...

x1 is not obsolete. They are included for a reason current motherboards. Add-in NIC cards, USB cards, add-in SATA or eSATA cards, and even soundcards all run perfectly on x1. There is more than enough bandwidth for them.

 

[eidairaman1]

I don't recall MCA at all, weird. It's proprietary though so it doesn't count. lol

Along with CNR and AMR there was also ACR.



It sure does, PCI-E still seems new to me. My first computer was all ISA/PCI, second had an AGP 2x slot (that was '98 I believe).

Interesting to note how successful PCI-E has been. It was created just 12 years after PCI, and PCI was created just 11 years after ISA. A 17-year run (so far) for a bus is a long time without a supersession.

Micro channel architecture

x1 is not obsolete. They are included for a reason current motherboards. Add-in NIC cards, USB cards, add-in SATA or eSATA cards, and even soundcards all run perfectly on x1. There is more than enough bandwidth for them.

Sb zxr is x1, wifi nics tend to be too.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Some cripto miners use x1's too

 

[xvi]

There are people in this website who has cut an x1 slot because they have a x16 card lol. It works.

I did this for my dad a while back. Had a Dell that only had a 1x slot and he needed something with DVI or HDMI out or something. I think I had clearance issues for hacking away the back of the slot so I ended up finding an inexpensive 1x to 16x riser to use instead.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Interesting discussion ... much of which I already knew.


Yes, but I'm looking at an old, outdated M/B. It even has a PCI slot as well as this PCIe-1x (if that's what it is)

I've never seen an -8x slot either.

Anyway, I know the coin miners use 1x risers to get more out of their systems even when the 1x bandwidth limits the performance of and external GPU. I'd like to get (more or less) the video performance equivalent to an iGPU using the 1x connection and a low-performance dGPU. I tried it and Windoze didn't recognize the device. According to what I read, any device that works with (say) -4x should also be recognized at -1x but with limited bandwidth. Am I doing something wrong?

(The BIOS doesn't let me configure the iGpu when a dGPU is recognized.)

Because mining doesn't require much bandwidth. It sends the inputs, most of the work happens in the GPU/VRAM, then it returns the outputs. A GPU doing graphics workloads has to transfer many GBs worth of mesh and vertex data which easily saturates x1.

On top of that, PCIe lanes are a limited resource. Taking one x16 and breaking it out into 16 will cost a lot less platform wise than buying a board with 256 PCIe lanes (I think only the latest Epycs have that many).

 

[MrGRiMv25]

I've seen a bunch of boards having x8 slot. Basically it is regular x16's physical length but electrically only half of it is an actual port, similar with x4.

The HP board I have has got two 8x slots that are open ended so you can fit a 16x card in if you wanted to, quite handy for running M.2 and USB3 expansion cards as my board doesn't have those options natively.