Question Dell Precision T3400 PCI express x16 slot - ONLY for video cards?

[libove]

Every spec sheet and web description that I can find of the Dell Precision T3400 workstation's expansion bus slots mentions "Two PCIe x16 GRAPHICS slots". (I have a venerable 14 year old one of these beasts. Workhorse, but with only SATA SSDs, slow. I've upgraded the CPU to a Core2Quad Q9550 and the RAM is effectively maxed at 8GB - it's just not worth the ~$200 to get the system up to 16GB).

Is there something about these "Two PCIe x16 GRAPHICS" slots that means that they can ONLY accept graphics cards?
Or could I plug in a PCIe x4 NVM adapter board into that second PCIe x16 "Graphics" slot to equip this system with an M.2 NVM SSD?
thanks,

 

[kanewolf]

Every spec sheet and web description that I can find of the Dell Precision T3400 workstation's expansion bus slots mentions "Two PCIe x16 GRAPHICS slots". (I have a venerable 14 year old one of these beasts. Workhorse, but with only SATA SSDs, slow. I've upgraded the CPU to a Core2Quad Q9550 and the RAM is effectively maxed at 8GB - it's just not worth the ~$200 to get the system up to 16GB).

Is there something about these "Two PCIe x16 GRAPHICS" slots that means that they can ONLY accept graphics cards?
Or could I plug in a PCIe x4 NVM adapter board into that second PCIe x16 "Graphics" slot to equip this system with an M.2 NVM SSD?
thanks,

Your SATA SSDs would be just about as fast and more easily used. SAVE YOUR MONEY. Buy a new computer when you can. Don't spend it on polishing this rock.

 

[USAFRet]

Or could I plug in a PCIe x4 NVM adapter board into that second PCIe x16 "Graphics" slot to equip this system with an M.2 NVM SSD?

Waste of money on that system.
Stay with the SATA III SSDs.

You'd see NO real difference.