pci-e x1 card into pci-e x16 slot?

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DryOkole

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Ok this may be a really dumb question, so let me preface it with this: back in the day, you could install an ISA card into an EISA slot. Soooooo, I was wondering if I can install my TV tuner pci-e x1 card into my 2nd pci-e x16 slot because all of my pci-e x1 slots are blocked. I don't want to RMA my card because of my stupidity. Please Help
 

randomizer

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Well... have you actually looked at the difference between a pcie 1x and 16x slot? Its quite significant, so I guess no. Ive never thought about doing that myself, so I never bothered to see if the pins line up correctly with the slot. But you could always try it, just got to line up the pins correctly. Just if they dont line up DONT force it in, they make multiple types of pcie slots fo a reason.
 

MagicPants

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Check out this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express

A PCIe card will physically fit (and work correctly) in any slot that is at least as large as it is (e.g. an x1 card will work in a x4 or x16 slot), and a slot of a large physical size (e.g. x16) can be wired electrically with fewer lanes (e.g. x1 or x8; however, it must still provide the power and ground connections required by the larger physical slot size).

I've been wondering if there are any PCIe sound cards.
 

Slobogob

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Ok this may be a really dumb question, so let me preface it with this: back in the day, you could install an ISA card into an EISA slot. Soooooo, I was wondering if I can install my TV tuner pci-e x1 card into my 2nd pci-e x16 slot because all of my pci-e x1 slots are blocked. I don't want to RMA my card because of my stupidity. Please Help

Should work, at least to my knowledge. You are supposed to be able to stick x1 in x1, x4, x8 and x16. Yet, i don´t know what the Manboard will do regarding the switching from x16 to x8 since its an SLI board. I guess you´ll have to find out the hard way...
 

RyanMicah

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Check out this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express

A PCIe card will physically fit (and work correctly) in any slot that is at least as large as it is (e.g. an x1 card will work in a x4 or x16 slot), and a slot of a large physical size (e.g. x16) can be wired electrically with fewer lanes (e.g. x1 or x8; however, it must still provide the power and ground connections required by the larger physical slot size).

I've been wondering if there are any PCIe sound cards.

I believe there are maybe one or two, but obviously they're not going to be as good. Probably limited channels (5.1 as opposed to 7.1), and sound quality might take a hit. I was looking at that when I bought my Fatality (which I regret due to no noticeable change in sound quality really) I think more or less you pay for the media center drive bay and remote, the name, and the software. Spare yourself some cash and find something cheaper that provides you with what you really need. IMO, today's onboard sound is pretty darn good on most mobo's. You might be happier looking into a tv tuner card if you're interested. As far as this kid's problem...if no other solution, get a new motherboard. Just be aware you may not be able to simply swap it out without having to reinstall windows. But a new motherboard could provide you with new card options. I also seem to remember some type of PCI extenders...type it in and do a search on them. How many bays do you have and what are you filling them with? It's possible that you don't need all the cards you currently have installed.
 

DryOkole

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Thanks for all the replies. So here is my exact situation

System specs:
E6600
P5W DH Deluxe
Gigabyte Silent Pipe II 7600GT (blocks both PCIe x1 slots)
P180B
Seasonic S12-500

I want to add a PowerColor Theater 550 Pro PCIe. My only available slot left is the 2nd PCIe x16 slot. I installed it with the latest drivers. XP sees an unknown card and can't find the drivers. Any ideas?

Edit: After talking to tech support, apparently it is working properly. I still don't know why xp sees an unknown card though and neither did tech support.
 

angminas

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Why would a PCI-E x1 sound card not be as good? (I assume you meant as good as a PCI sound card.) Does this have to do with the hardware or is it just a lack of good products for the slot?
 

darkstar782

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I Second that for greater "proof".

you can not put a 16x card in a 1x slot, reguardless of how good your dremel is.

Um, yes you can. Some motherboards even leave the end of the slot 'open' for just that reason.

AS890_slots.jpg


An ASrock board that does this.

I believe Gigabyte has a board with all slots left open at the end.

A 1x PCIe device will work fine in a x16 slot.

As for PCIe sound cards, the reason they dont exist (good ones anyway) is that sound is very bursty data meaning that PCIe has far too much latency for them.

This is the real reasoning for PCIe 2.0 imho... Double the signalling rate with the same packet overhead, and if before (numbers plucked out of the air here, to give an idea) the overhead was 40 clocks, wasting 20ms of real time, now its 40 clocks wasting 10ms of real time.
 

twolfe18

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i am shocked and i still dont really believe that you can do that. no offense or anything, it just seems crazy to me, is there any web site you can site to show that it is possible?
 

jjw

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One thing that was not mentioned is that some motherboards DO NOT support anything but video cards in the 16x slots. I believe this was especially true on SLI boards.

You can put 16x PCI-E graphics cards in 8x slots. Likewise holds true for 1x cards in 2x+ slots. This is how is should work. BIOS and Hardware limitations may keep this from working.
 

seayhorse

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One thing that was not mentioned is that some motherboards
DO NOT support anything but video cards in the 16x slots. I believe this was especially true on SLI boards.
Operating under the assumption that x1 will work in any of the other pcie speed slots, I chose my current motherboard, whose chipset heatsink blocks the use of its PCIe x1 slot (long card).

I have a $90 Asus DX soundcard pcie x1. It does NOT work in Asrock [ a780gxe/128 ] motherboard's 2nd PCIe x16 slot. The soundcard cost more than the motherboard. I really like the mobo . . .

from asrock support:
Hi,

The problem that you having is the compatible issue with PCIx bus. I know the sound card that you have is long and can’t fit into the PCix 1x slot properly. The only thing that you can do is either replace the sound card or change the different mainboard. You have the latest bios that we provide from the web. Bios will not fix the issue. The reason is the PCIx x1 and PCIx 16x have different data link layer and transaction layer.


the moral of the story:
don't take for granted the use of pcie x1 in any greater pcie slot. get an answer from hardware maker. or you'll be stuck with a spare motherboard or card.
 

arrling

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I know that some motherboards with 2 x SLI x16 slot can function as 2 x independent x8 slots. On my gigabyte motherboard, I just need to move the Jumper switches to activate SLI dual independent mode.

Otherwise one easy solution is to purchase a pci-e riser (such as http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/fanless/hfx-554). It's basically a socket extender for pci-e cards and lets you move the card into another slot.
 

oldensign

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This is EXACTLY my question, too. The front part of the PCI-e x 16 slot appears identical to the adjacent PCI-e x 1 slot. I am using internal on-board graphics, so I don't need a graphics card. I do, however, need another PCI-e x1 card. The BIOS setup in this motherboard has a setting to "FORCE PCI-E TO X1", so I don't see a problem. But I have failed to foresee problems before.

I'm not particularly interested in being the 11tht person to blow up an nice MATX motherboard and a PCI-e x1 tuner card just to test this theory. It is not an SLI board.

I would think that somebody more brave, foolhardy, and/or knowledgeable might have settled this by now. I did find a PCI-e x1 adapter cable that terminated in a long connector suitable for PCI-e video cards, so perhaps the PCI-e x 1 slot contains enough data capability to operate a graphics card, but undoubtedly not at full speed.

There are others in this forum who say that there should be no problem putting a x1 card in a x16 slot, so I'll give it a try. Any more words of encouragement?
 

umeshkumawatsa

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Yes my freind u can put x1 card into x4, x8, x16 video card slot easily with not a single problem. I am 100% sure for that. See pci express 2.0 slot can transfer 500 mb of data in one sec. and x16 slot means 500mb x 16= 8gb/s that's the only diff. So x16 slots were made to increase data in a sec. I hope this imformation is useful to u. :wahoo: :wahoo:

 

oldensign

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Thank you. I shall try it tomorrow (with an inexpensive e-SATA card). The Intel MATX motherboard already has DVI and HDMI video outputs, and I do need this PCI-e x16 slot to use with a PCI-e x 1 card. Tomorrow it is! .
 

umeshkumawatsa

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Well please reply me what after you plug pcie x1 into x16 slot and tell me what happened?
 

scope4live

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Don't worry I bought a 3500.00 XITE-1 1U DSP soundcard which is a PCI-e
1X. I had a DP35DP Intel as back-up, but I first tried the soundcard out on a souped up Mini-ITX and it works great.
I thought I would have to disable an IRQ or something, but it worked just fine.
 
G

Guest

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I have acutally done this myself...
I placed a pci express 1 x video card into a 4x slot and it worked just fine ( still does ) into a server none the less just so i would get better graphic support verses the onboard graphics card that was installed.

all of the power and ground pinouts are located in the first set of pinouts on the board ( and slot's ) there for all power and ground contact's are made first... ( 8 x and 16 x slots do have more power pinouts further down the slot for card's that need them IE. 16 x graphics cards) then data trasnfer pinouts go based on card layout 1 x 2 x 4 x 8 x and 16 x ...

the reason most boards have a limited number of 16 x slots is mostly due to space on the board to house the respective circuts to provide the data transfer and extra power needed by the larger cards... thereby they just cut that out by putting in the smaller slots.

This is true of SLI boards as well ... However ... as mentioned above some manafactures will lock the SLI abled slots to video only as they have dedicated power and board layout for one specific function from those ports ... ( this is why some SLI boards don't come with a onboard video card to start with unless the onboard video is AGP or PCI based )

just my 2c here
 

Langly

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Keep in mind, in addition to EISA taking normal ISA cards. PCIX 64 bit pci could take a normal PCI card except the ones that were higher speed and reversed the keyed bit. And many 64 bit PCI cards would still work in a normal PCI slot with part of it not in the connector. PCIe has done the same thing.
 

bullet5

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Hey all, I have 2 questions for you all.

I have a motherboard with 2 pci card slots and a agp. I need to plug a pci-e card into it.

1) Is there a adapter to change a pci slot into a pci-e x16 slot? (or a agp to pci-e x16 slot?)
2) Is a pci x8 card work in a pci card slot (they appear to be the same size (from what i have seen))
 
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