PCI-E Motherboards

[Sanada]

I've been out of the loop with new hardware for a while and I want to do some research before building a new computer. With these PCI-E motherboards I have only a vague idea what the new slots are. For example, this board here.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/pimg/MB-259-AS_400.jpg

I think the white ones are standard PCI while the blue and black are PCI-E but is there a difference between them? This is a Crossfire board but I'm guessing the same applys to SLi boards. I've also seem ones that look like them old riser ports (that look like short PCI slots), normally used for dial-up modems but I'm sure there something different. I've seen there are x1, x4, x8 and x16 slots available but I've only ever seen x16 used (for GFX cards I assume). What are the others used for and which ones do you really need?

 

[Eejit]

On my board blues are PCI-E 2.0 x16 and white are old PCI-E I think.

 

[Asus]

The manual would tell you the difference between the different colored PCI-Express 16x slots. Probably does have to do with crossfire being that there are 4 on the board.

Some sound cards and tv tuners come on PCI-express 1x slots. They work in 1x through 16x slots.

 

[Sanada]

So does that mean a x1 card would work in x1, x4, x8 and x16 slots while a x8 card would only work in x8 and x16 slots? I've looked around and have seen a few PCI-E TV Tuner cards and Sound cards available so they're useful for something.

Would it be better to get a board that has more of the higher bandwidth slots (say more x8 and x16 slots than x1 and x4)?

 

[Asus]

Would it be better to get a board that has more of the higher bandwidth slots (say more x8 and x16 slots than x1 and x4)?

Not really. The boards cost more in general. Just plan the slots for the GPU. Most would use just PCI or PCI-Express 1x for other add-in cards.

 

[[Matt]]

x16 slots are exclusively used for vid cards.