Thanks for the original help

[Gwen Morse]

I posted a few weeks back with questions about video cards/sound cards,
to go with the gaming system I was going to build.

Things went reasonably smoothly.

1) I was able to install the assorted components in the case with
minimal issues. I put the risers for the motherboard in the wrong holes
(to start), and when I was connecting the cpu and then the heatsink,
they both took more 'force' than I was expecting (which made me worried
I was going to crush/bend something).

2) I ordered the "wrong" kind of DDR2 ram for my motherboard, and had
to swap it for the right ram.

3) I'm spent an hour yesterday with fiddling with getting WinXP
installed on my SATA 2-drive RAID mirror. Some judicious reading about
XP turned up the need to get special drivers to the install process.
I've been reading up on slipstreaming to include the drivers in a cd
since I don't have a working floppy drive.

I have to admit to being a little baffled by the PCI-e 1x and 4x slots.
I understand what the two 16x slots are for - up to 2 video cards. What
are the other 2 slots "for"? What can I possibly install there? Reading
up on PCI-e at wikipedia seemed to imply that these slots are more
useful for the future than "now". With only 2 standard PCI slots on my
board, I obviously need to be very careful how many cards I plan to
install for the future.

Gwen

 

[Paul]

I posted a few weeks back with questions about video cards/sound cards,
to go with the gaming system I was going to build.

Things went reasonably smoothly.

1) I was able to install the assorted components in the case with
minimal issues. I put the risers for the motherboard in the wrong holes
(to start), and when I was connecting the cpu and then the heatsink,
they both took more 'force' than I was expecting (which made me worried
I was going to crush/bend something).

2) I ordered the "wrong" kind of DDR2 ram for my motherboard, and had
to swap it for the right ram.

3) I'm spent an hour yesterday with fiddling with getting WinXP
installed on my SATA 2-drive RAID mirror. Some judicious reading about
XP turned up the need to get special drivers to the install process.
I've been reading up on slipstreaming to include the drivers in a cd
since I don't have a working floppy drive.

I have to admit to being a little baffled by the PCI-e 1x and 4x slots.
I understand what the two 16x slots are for - up to 2 video cards. What
are the other 2 slots "for"? What can I possibly install there? Reading
up on PCI-e at wikipedia seemed to imply that these slots are more
useful for the future than "now". With only 2 standard PCI slots on my
board, I obviously need to be very careful how many cards I plan to
install for the future.

Gwen

There are PCI Express x1 cards available. You can get USB
ports on an add-in card. I also saw a two port SATA II RAID
controller for PCI Express x1 just the other day. The
cards can be hard to find, but they are around. This
company was one of the first to offer a few cards.

http://www.koutech.com/search.asp?sSearch=PCI Express

The x4 slot would likely be for some kind of RAID card.
Areca makes RAID cards, some of which use x8 slots (and
a video card slot can be used for one of those).

http://www.areca.com.tw/products/html/pciE-sata.htm

The only significant thing that is missing, is a PCI
Express x1 sound card.

It is also possible for a hardware company, to take
an existing PCI card design, and by adding a PCI to
PCI Express bridge chip, make it operate in a
PCI Express x1 slot. But as the cards end up being
more expensive, the companies that have done this so
far, are likely not getting rich. If I have to choose
between a $10 PCI USB card and a $30 PCI Express
USB card, it is not hard to see which one will be
purchased.

When PCI slots disappear from motherboards, then
companies like Koutech will get rich.

If a PCI Express connector is open on the end, it is
sometimes possible to plug a larger card into a smaller
slot (subject to the bandwidth requirements of the
card being reasonably met). If the x4 slot is open on
the end of the slot furthest from the faceplate, maybe
an x8 card can be plugged in there. This page shows the
pinout of the popular slot types.

http://pinouts.ru/Slots/pci_express_pinout.shtml

In this thread, some people have fun testing PCI Express.
This is a good site for innovative slot usage:

http://forums.2cpu.com/printthread.php?t=67387&pp=100

In that thread, they are discussing a card from LSIlogic.
The card has a x8 connector on the edge of the
card, but it also is supposed to support x4 operation.
That means, if the x4 slot on the motherboard has an
open end on the plastic connector box, then the x8 card
would fit in there.

http://www.lsilogic.com/files/docs/marketing_docs/storage_stand_prod/raid/mr_3202E_ss.pdf

The yellow slot here is an open-ended PCI Express x4.

http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx?page=3&articleid=830
http://www.hothardware.com/articleimages/item830/big_12.jpg

Plenty of little experiments to do

Paul

 

[visions of effty]

I have to admit to being a little baffled by the PCI-e 1x and 4x slots.
I understand what the two 16x slots are for - up to 2 video cards. What
are the other 2 slots "for"?

This is a bit odd. Depending on how you look at it this motherboard is
either really nice, and ahead of its time ...OR destined to be a "beta" to
some future VHS.

I couldn't think of any available PCI-e cards besides graphics ones, but I
looked around, and found one!

http://www.sun.com/products/networking/infiniband/ibhcaPCI-E/details.xml

You can use one of *these* apparently!

Need 10Gb/s capability with some handy IB connectors? Yeah, I didn't think
so. Seems handy if you want to set up a server or a dedicated work cluster.
Otherwise I think you'll be waiting a little while to fill those slots.

What motherborad is this, exactly?

~e.

 

[Clint]

There's also a TV Tuner card available for the PCI-Express slot:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815117802

Clint

 

[Gwen Morse]

This is a bit odd. Depending on how you look at it this motherboard is
either really nice, and ahead of its time ...OR destined to be a "beta" to
some future VHS.

Well, the board itself supports AMD2 cpus and DDR2 ram, which is why I
bought it.

I couldn't think of any available PCI-e cards besides graphics ones, but I
looked around, and found one!

http://www.sun.com/products/networking/infiniband/ibhcaPCI-E/details.xml

You can use one of *these* apparently!

*laughs*. I was just thinking a few days ago that I wanted 10 Gb/s
speeds from my dekstop to the 10/100 ports on the other systems in my
house!

Need 10Gb/s capability with some handy IB connectors? Yeah, I didn't think
so. Seems handy if you want to set up a server or a dedicated work cluster.
Otherwise I think you'll be waiting a little while to fill those slots.

What motherborad is this, exactly?

MN232-SLI Wireless Deluxe.

Gwen
--
Gwen Morse mailto:[email protected]
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then
suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night,
the ice weasels come." -- Matt Groening

 

[visions of effty]

Well, the board itself supports AMD2 cpus and DDR2 ram, which is why I
bought it.

It looks nice. The only gripes people seem to have about it are the
placement of the 4xPCI-E slot too close to the 16x one, meaning that a
double width graphics card will block the 4x slot. Also, some have
complained that the wireless signal is too weak.

*laughs*. I was just thinking a few days ago that I wanted 10 Gb/s
speeds from my dekstop to the 10/100 ports on the other systems in my
house!

Hey, that'd be a helluva home network!

The temptation to game all the time would be too great. Methinks this
network would be destined to be destroyed by roaming Luddites. Best not to
tempt fate.

MN232-SLI Wireless Deluxe.

A wireless motherboard...

*sigh*

If only this were really true. Whether you like them or not, I have a
feeling there's always going to be wires running to the thing.

Cheers!

~e.