Do i need a PCI card?

[pythonix]

I am quite unsure of what a PCI card actually is/does, and I cannot seem to find anything that helps.
What is it/what does it do?
Is it a part of something like a motherboard etc. or a totally separate part?
If it is a totally separate part, do i need it or is it optional?

thanks,
Pythonix

 

[rgd1101]

You don't need a PCI card if you don't know what it does.
Are you having issue with your pc? or you want to add some new functionality?

 

[pythonix]

nah sorry I forgot to complete the question. I am building gaming PC and was just looking at parts, and I went to check a power calculator and one of the options was PCI and I had no idea what it was for.

 

[InvalidError]

As rgd said, if you don't know what a PCI slot is, you don't need to worry about it.

PCI slots only matter to people who own PCI-based add-in boards. Most PCs quit having PCI slots many years ago - even my Core2Duo from seven years ago doesn't have any PCI slots. Modern PCs and add-in boards use PCI Express (PCIe) slots instead.

For many people, the only card they will bother putting in their PC is a discrete GPU in the x16 PCIe slot. A smaller number of people may also use a discrete audio board in a PCIe x1/x4 slot. People who don't do much gaming may have no add-in boards whatsoever, choosing to rely entirely on integrated graphics, sound, networking, etc. for the lowest cost and power possible.

 

[Dunlop0078]

You put your graphics card in a pcie x16 slot, its an interface like USB or SATA but this is used for pci devices instead of USB devices if that makes sense. Their are many other differences between pci and other interfaces, that's just a very generic description.

You should watch some videos and do some learning before you attempt to build a pc this video below might help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIF43-0mDk4