FPSLabs : Utterly Ignored - PCI-Express x1 & x4

Ever wondered what to use your PCI-e x1 and x4 slots for? We take a look at a number of different devices suitable for these oft-ignored slot

Have you ever wondered what those other slots on your desktop
motherboard are for? Sure, you’ve got the latest and greatest video
card in your PCI-E x8 or x16 slot. It’s probable you also have a
soundcard jammed into an old-school PCI slot. No doubt though, you’ve
asked yourself what those itty-bitty PCI-E x1 and x4 slots are for. Not
to worry! If you are interested in what kind of hardware is actually
used in those slots, read on!

PCI-Express has been around for more than a year now, and it is obvious
that graphics card manufacturers have prioritized PCI-Express as the
standard over AGP. As we all know, AGP and PCI are far from dead, but
it’s safe to say that they’re well on their way out the door. With that
said, if you aren’t sure what PCI-Express actually is, or how it works,
make sure to check out our article: “PCI-Express: What is it?” It’s a
great primer on PCI-Express for the uninformed.

Now, onto the bread and butter!

SATA I & II and RAID Controller Cards

There are many different SATA I & II cards available on the retail
market today. A quick search at your favorite technology store will
offer a glimpse of the myriad of different vendors supplying slightly
different cards for different tastes. The following two cards may seem
similar, but one offers functionality that may be missing from future
motherboards based on the upcoming Intel 965 chipset.

SYBA PCI-Express 2-Channel SATA II Controller Card
This PCI-Express card provides two internal SATA II connection ports.
An important note to make is that all SATA II cards are backwards
compatible with SATA I devices. This is why hardly any SATA I
controller cards exist in the first place. It costs less for
manufacturers to produce only one controller card that handles both
types of SATA connections. These of course can be used for your SATA I
& II hard drives, optical drives, and basically anything that
utilizes the connection. It’ll work with this card.

Koutech PCI-Express SATA II & ATA/133 Combo Card with RAID 0/1
In addition to having SATA II connection ports with RAID 0/1/0+1/JBOD
functionality, this card offers a legacy ATA/133 connection for your
IDE devices. This is especially useful now that upcoming chipsets from
Intel are beginning to phase out IDE connections on motherboards
completely. Some of us may see this as positive step towards the
future, but most optical drives are still being manufactured using the
legacy IDE/ATA connection. This card would help those of us who would
like to hold on to our IDE optical drive until SATA optical drives are
more common and inexpensive.

HighPoint RocketRAID 2300 PCI-Express to SATA II RAID Controller Card with RAID 0/1/5/10/JBOD
Usually RAID controller cards have more ports, offer better high
performance storage connectivity, and support advanced levels of RAID
not found in other cards. Not only does this card have four SATA II
connection ports, but it also offers Native Command Queuing (NCQ) and
offers support for multiple operating systems as well. Another little
bonus feature is that this card comes with both standard height and low
profile brackets so that this card will work fine in different chassis
form factors.

Network Cards

You may be asking yourself, why would I want another network card in my
computer if my motherboard already has a network adaptor? Well, it may
differ for some, but if you intend on setting up a home network, then
it may be reasonable to start thinking about investing in a network
adaptor capable of 1000Mbps. Nowadays, people are downloading files
that are extremely large, and if you wish to share these files with
other computers on your own network, it will save you lots of time if
you have a gigabit network up and running. If you wish to check what
speeds your motherboard’s network adaptor is capable of, then visit
your motherboard manufacturers website and search for your model name
and number. If you can’t find this information, feel free to post on
our message boards, and we’ll be glad to help in any way we can.

Television Tuner Cards

The computer is slowly heading towards acceptance in the living room.
More and more companies are realizing this untapped market potential
and are releasing devices that will have your computer at the center
stage of your entertainment system. One of the things more and more
people are taking advantage of is Windows XP Media Center Edition and
its second-to-none TV recording capabilities. It’s great to have a TV
tuner in your computer that will function as a TiVo-like device and
record scheduled programming whenever you like. However, if you are
like many gamers and are using your only available PCI slot for your
sound card or other essential system peripheral, than look no further
than PCI-Express TV tuner cards.

PowerColor Theater 550 PRO PCI-Express Multimedia TV Tuner Card
You no longer need to sacrifice your sound card with this truly
Multimedia TV Tuner Card. It not only offers TV viewing and recording
capability, but also offers ATI Avivo Video and Display Technology,
real-time hardware MPEG2 encoding with Noise-Reduction, Stereo FM
Radio, S-Video/Composite connections, and last but not least, a handy
remote control.

In theory, this card does it all, but hopefully additional companies
will step up to the plate and offer a more diverse playing field in the
area of PCI-Express TV cards. As of now, this seems to be the only
manufacturer with a PCI-Express TV Tuner on the market. Expect this to
change within the next six months as Windows Vista becomes more and
more imminent and hardware manufacturers will begin to sell more
PCI-Express variants of their TV tuners

{mospagebreak title= Additional Peripherals & Conclusion}

FireWire & USB Cards

Today, a vast array of external computer peripherals use either the
FireWire and or USB interface system for connecting a multitude of
devices. So many devices in fact that you may be running out of slots
to connect them to! Not to worry though, there are enough FireWire
(also known as i.Link or IEEE 1394) or USB 2.0 PCI-Express cards on the
market today to satisfy anyone. You may end up buying an external hub,
but for gamers on the go, this is an inconvenience and just adds to the
number of things you forgot to bring to your next LAN party.

Koutech 4-Port FireWire 1394a/1394b & 5-Port USB 2.0 PCI-Express Cards
These are simple FireWire and USB cards that have in one case, support
both 1394a and 1394b connections, and in the other, four external and
one internal USB connector. The inclusion of both these connections is
very useful for when connecting, say, your digital camcorder. Let’s say
you want to get your WSVG Intel Summer Championship footage off your
digital camcorder and instead of importing it to your internal hard
drive, capture it straight to your external hard drive - all at the
same time. Having both types of connections without having to find the
right cable can be extremely helpful at times.

Video Cards

At present time, at least one manufacturer has a PCI-Express x1 video
card at retail. We expect this to grow in the future as market demand
rises for increased monitor displays per computer and budget systems
begin to prepare for Windows Vista capability without breaking the
bank. Keep in mind you won’t be able to play your favorite
next-generation video game with full eye candy enabled, but it gives
you state-of-art graphics technology at an affordable price point for
simple tasks.

HIS X1300 512MB HyperMemory with 128MB (64bit) DDR2 PCI-Express x1 Video Card
This card certainly isn’t intended to break any 3DMark06 records, and
that’s precisely the point. This card is perfect for that second or
third monitor you’ve been thinking about and have put off because
you’re all out slots. No more with this low profile graphics card. The
card manages to squeeze ATI’s Avivo technology which promises superior
image color and sharpness along with HDTV-out and S-Video connections.
As more PCI-Express x1 video cards make it to retail, expect prices to
lower and more budget conscious consumers to pick these up as a primary
or secondary graphics card solution.

No longer are PCI-Express x1 & x4 slots utterly ignored. It’s been
a long time coming, but hardware manufacturers are beginning to finally
roll out different cards besides simple FireWire and USB cards. Sooner
rather than later you’ll be likely to find several different
manufacturers and companies competing for your business, so we all
stand to benefit as time rolls on. For now you’ll be hard pressed to
find all these cards in the PCI-Express x4 interface. If you aren’t
aware why, it is because when the PCI-Express protocol was created, the
ability to connect x1 devices into x4 slots was made possible,
alleviating headaches and additional manufacturing costs. The rule of
thumb is “a PCI-Express card will physically fit (and work correctly)
in any slot that is at least as large as it is.” Now that you know that
you aren’t chained to your soundcard or motherboard because you don’t
have any PCI slots, you can be sure whatever your situation is, there
will a next-generation PCI-Express variant for your computer.

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