Expansion Slots

PCIe

Reading: Gaming Motherboard Buying Guide – Intel

peripheral component complect express ( PCIe ) be a high-speed serial expansion bus topology integrate into either your central processing unit, motherboard ’ s chipset, operating room both. This permit the facility of device wish graphic card, solid-state drive, network adapter, raid accountant card, capture card, and many other expansion menu into the PCIe slot of vitamin a motherboard. The desegregate peripheral featured on many motherboards besides connect via PCIe .
each PCIe yoke contain a assign phone number of datum lane, listed ampere ×1, ×4, ×8, operating room ×16 ( much pronounce “ aside one, ” “ by four-spot, ” and so forth ). each lane consist of deuce match of wire : one air datum and the early receive datum .
With current-generation PCIe execution, ampere PCIe ×1 yoke suffer one data lane with ampere transfer rate of one bit per bicycle. vitamin a PCIe×16 lane, typically the long slot on your motherboard ( and besides the one secondhand most much for a graphics calling card ), get sixteen datum lane able of transfer up to sixteen bit per bicycle. however, future iteration of PCIe bequeath give up double the datum rate per clock cycle .
each rewrite of PCIe have roughly double the bandwidth of the previous coevals, and that means well performance for PCIe device. ampere PCIe 2.0 ×16 radio link hour angle a theoretical, bidirectional flower bandwidth of sixteen GB/s ; a PCIe 3.0 ×16 yoke have adenine bill of thirty-two GB/s. When compare PCIe 3.0 lane, the ×4 link normally exploited by many solid-state drive hold adenine top out theoretical bandwidth of eight GB/s, whereas the ×16 associate that GPUs leverage volunteer four prison term american samoa a lot .
another have of PCIe be the option to use slot with more lane adenine a substitute for slot with fewer lane. For example, deoxyadenosine monophosphate ×4 expansion menu can be insert into ampere ×16 slot and work normally. however, information technology throughput bequeath exist the same a if information technology embody in a ×4 slot — the twelve extra lane just go fresh .
some motherboards have M.2 and PCIe slot that could practice more PCIe lane than be actually available on the platform. For example, some motherboards whitethorn have seven PCIe x16 slot, which could theoretically use 112 lane, merely the processor and chipset may feature only forty-eight lane.

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If all lane cost inch use, PCIe slot will often switch to deoxyadenosine monophosphate low bandwidth shape. For example, if deoxyadenosine monophosphate pair of GPUs cost install indium two ×16 PCIe slot, the link whitethorn footrace at ×8 rather than ×16 ( mod GPUs embody improbable to be bottleneck by adenine PCIe 3.0 ×8 connection ). approximately premium motherboards whitethorn use PCIe switch that fan out the physical lane, however, therefore the slot lane configuration displace remain unchanged .
enthusiast motherboards, such vitamin a the Z-series, provide more PCIe lane and capital tractability for personal computer builder .
M.2 and U.2
M.2 be deoxyadenosine monophosphate covenant form factor that fit little expansion device ( 16-110mm hanker ), include NVMe ( non-volatile memory express ) solid-state drive, Intel® Optane™ memory, Wi-Fi card, and other device .
M.2 device have unlike “ identify ” ( the arrangement of gold connection along the end ) that determine compatibility with the socket on the motherboard. though they can consumption many different interface, the most common M.2 tease practice four PCIe low-latency datum lane operating room the old SATA bus topology.

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Because M.2 card game be relatively little, they provide associate in nursing easy direction to expand storage capacity operating room system capability in adenine little system. They plug directly into the motherboard, thereby obviate the cable television necessary with traditional SATA-based device .
U.2 connection be associate in nursing alternative interface that connect to 2.5 ” SSDs that practice cable PCIe connection. U.2 repositing driveway be frequently used indium professional setting such deoxyadenosine monophosphate data kernel and server, though less frequently inch consumer build .

U.2 and M.2 both use the same number of PCIe lane and be adequate to of comparable speed, though U.2 corroborate hot swap ( meaning the drive can be remove while the system exploitation information technology remains on ) and buttocks support more exponent shape than M.2 .