Question Smaller PCI e on larger slot?

[philflo]

I bought a card to add to my Gigabyte Z390 MB, this card is the smaller slot PCI e1_1 can I put this in a longer slot, this would be the PCI EX8? Thanks

 

[Zephyl]

Yes. PCIE x1 cards fit in any standard PCIE slot, being x1, x4, x8 and x16. Larger cards, of course, cannot fit in smaller slots.

 

[Azzyasi]

I bought a card to add to my Gigabyte Z390 MB, this card is the smaller slot PCI e1_1 can I put this in a longer slot, this would be the PCI EX8? Thanks

As said, Yes, any x1 will work in x1 or x4 or x8 or x16 slot. And any other combination is possible if the card fits. (like x16 card in x4 or even x1)

Yes. PCIE x1 cards fit in any standard PCIE slot, being x1, x4, x8 and x16. Larger cards, of course, cannot fit in smaller slots.

The beauty is that x16 is actually compatible to x1 out of the box... so if the card fits it can run on x1 slot... (and if it doesn't fit, some cut up the end of the mb slot to allow bigger cards to be inserted), others cut up the excess card pins..
I belive i saw a guy on youtube bandsawings the pci pins to allow to be inserted into x1 slot and worked fine in the end. but seems extreme

 

[cryoburner]

I belive i saw a guy on youtube bandsawings the pci pins to allow to be inserted into x1 slot and worked fine in the end. but seems extreme

Well, unless you really don't value the card, I suspect cutting out the end of the PCIe slot on the motherboard would be the somewhat less-invasive way to go about that. : P

A better solution would probably be to use a PCIe riser cable for that though.

 

[Wolfshadw]

I belive i saw a guy on youtube bandsawings the pci pins to allow to be inserted into x1 slot and worked fine in the end. but seems extreme

I wouldn't believe anything you see on YouTube. Even if it were true, you'd be better off opening the end of the PCI-Ex1 slot on the motherboard rather than cutting the pins off of the card.

Also note that a PCI-Ex1 card installed into a PCI-Ex4/x8/x16 slot still only runs at x1 speeds.

-Wolf sends

 

[Azzyasi]

Well i know what to believe or not on youtube or any source.. this is a fact: Pci express works with a power lane (1st segment, common to all slots) and multiple data lanes that are the same in series, and any card will work with at least 1 power lane and data lane.. so mismatching x1 x4 x8 x16 is totally possible.
(sure it will work only at that minumum rated speed of the card or the slot)

Linus did a video a while back about cutting the end of the slot:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZed5r9tXHQ

an this is another guy cutting the card.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xgfLPBzL2w


Both methods have downsides.. of course cutting the slot is better as it adds compatibility (with the risk of mangling the end pins), while cutting the card will severly hinders that card performance that can't be gained back anymore in the proper slot. So it's forever castrated.

 

[cryoburner]

In that guy's system, cutting the card actually made some sense, since that was a super cheap $40 graphics card even when it was new, and he was installing it in a dual-socket server motherboard that undoubtedly cost far more. I doubt that low-end card would have even missed the bandwidth, and he was mainly just installing it to enable higher resolution display output anyway.

As far as Linus cutting out the end of the slot in the other video, a dremel might be an option, but it would probably be better to use something like a smaller cutting bit rather than a big cutting wheel that will likely to mess up the pins and fling plastic dust everywhere. : P