What are you doing with your 8x and 4x PCIe Slots? Any cool and actually useful ideas?

[486DX Win3.1]

 With SLI and Crossfire being effectively DEAD, I've been wondering.... Other than using the Lanes on the MB for the M.2 Storage Options.... 

 

 WHAT can we Actually DO????  With the other 2 or sometimes 3 16x and 8x PCIe Slots??? 

 

 Sound cards are dead now.... so... 

 

 I wanna be cool!!!  so what can we stick in there? 

[Alex Atkin UK]

2 minutes ago, 486DX Win3.1 said:

 With SLI and Crossfire being effectively DEAD, I've been wondering.... Other than using the Lanes on the MB for the M.2 Storage Options.... 

 

 WHAT can we Actually DO????  With the other 2 or sometimes 3 16x and 8x PCIe Slots??? 

 

 Sound cards are dead now.... so... 

 

 I wanna be cool!!!  so what can we stick in there? 

10Gbit networking and capture cards are still very useful.

Also bear in mind you don't have three 16x slots electrically, they're usually 1x16x, 1x8 and 1x4 - or 1x16, 2x4 if you're using all three.  Even then, the additional slots are usually all muxed via the chipset lanes alongside the M.2 storage.

[Senzelian]

SilverStone SST-ES02-PCIe

Unfortuanetely mine seems to have died... D:

 

 

[porina]

Non-storage uses include:

• Fast networking than built into mobo. I've got some 2.5G cards to bring up older systems that are still GBE
• Wifi/Bluetooth expansion for systems that don't already have it
• SATA cards. Ok, this is still storage but non-native PCIe. I had SAS in the past too.
• Game capture? I went with a USB-C one myself but internal are still a thing.
• Are sound cards still a thing?

[Alex Atkin UK]

Sound cards are still a thing, but its generally recommended to go USB as they are better isolated from noise.

 

Capture cards on the other hand internal is better as they're higher bandwidth and lower latency.

 

Not sure why I forgot WiFi cards considering I have one myself for Bluetooth as those too work better than USB ones (though mostly down to the better antennas as Bluetooth on WiFi cards is usually still USB).

[da na]

I use a Sound Blaster Z-series card in an extra PCIe x1 slot. 

NVME cards of course.

WiFi card if you're not using Ethernet could be nice

... or a FirePro 2270 x1. Add another GPU to your system (for some reason)! 

[486DX Win3.1]

22 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

10Gbit networking and capture cards are still very useful.

Also bear in mind you don't have three 16x slots electrically, they're usually 1x16x, 1x8 and 1x4 - or 1x16, 2x4 if you're using all three.  Even then, the additional slots are usually all muxed via the chipset lanes alongside the M.2 storage.

 True. I did not really think about the need to get 10Gbit s  And capture cards. 

Valid points, but I see so many of those sold as external devices with USB thunderbolt. I imagine the PCIe lanes are faster. And just cooler

[486DX Win3.1]

21 hours ago, porina said:

Non-storage uses include:

• Fast networking than built into mobo. I've got some 2.5G cards to bring up older systems that are still GBE
• Wifi/Bluetooth expansion for systems that don't already have it
• SATA cards. Ok, this is still storage but non-native PCIe. I had SAS in the past too.
• Game capture? I went with a USB-C one myself but internal are still a thing.
• Are sound cards still a thing?

 Sound cards only just recently became a thing for me when I got my hands on some Q chipset industrial MBs that actually have so many networking options and ports that they can make interesting rigs for certain types of people. They had sound but not "big caps" sound. 

[486DX Win3.1]

19 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Sound cards are still a thing, but its generally recommended to go USB as they are better isolated from noise.

 

Capture cards on the other hand internal is better as they're higher bandwidth and lower latency.

 

Not sure why I forgot WiFi cards considering I have one myself for Bluetooth as those too work better than USB ones (though mostly down to the better antennas as Bluetooth on WiFi cards is usually still USB).

Don't most MBs come with Bluetooth just "on there?" I know mine have always done that. 

 

I'm so sad by the loss of sound cards as a thing. 

 

Yeah but wifi and capture cards - that's a good point. 

[porina]

12 minutes ago, 486DX Win3.1 said:

Don't most MBs come with Bluetooth just "on there?" I know mine have always done that. 

It is less common on desktop boards than laptops or SFF for example. If it costs money then there will be an option to have it or not. And as the module is usually a combo with wifi you typically get both or neither.

[486DX Win3.1]

6 minutes ago, porina said:

It is less common on desktop boards than laptops or SFF for example. If it costs money then there will be an option to have it or not. And as the module is usually a combo with wifi you typically get both or neither.

 i suppose there can be some really basic boards out there

[porina]

Just now, 486DX Win3.1 said:

 i suppose there can be some really basic boards out there

Most boards wont have it. If you've always had it, you must have tended to go for more premium boards.

[486DX Win3.1]

3 minutes ago, porina said:

Most boards wont have it. If you've always had it, you must have tended to go for more premium boards.

hmmmm.... really? Dang. I guess for an office workstation kind of board then there would be no need to have it. 

 

I just made a rig out of a Q170 Board. It had built in bluetooth, but it also has like 8 Com ports, twin network plugs, and tons of connectors that I don't usually use. SO that may not be a great example. 

[Alex Atkin UK]

32 minutes ago, 486DX Win3.1 said:

Don't most MBs come with Bluetooth just "on there?" I know mine have always done that. 

 

I'm so sad by the loss of sound cards as a thing. 

 

Yeah but wifi and capture cards - that's a good point. 

I'm honestly surprised they kept on-board sound at this point, given monitors also effectively have sound cards in them (albeit a lot more basic).  If you really care about sound quality, I'd argue sending it over HDMI to a good sound bar or surround receiver is what you should be doing, you want to keep the analog circuits as far away from the digital as possible.

Its actually a bit of a PITA designing on-board or add-on cards that avoid picking up noise from the motherboard.  I got a cheap (but better than on-board quality) USB DAC a few years back when I had a stint with a noisy ASRock board.

 

Just now, 486DX Win3.1 said:

hmmmm.... really? Dang. I guess for an office workstation kind of board then there would be no need to have it. 

 

I just made a rig out of a Q170 Board. It had built in bluetooth, but it also has like 8 Com ports, twin network plugs, and tons of connectors that I don't usually use. SO that may not be a great example. 

As mentioned, Bluetooth typically comes with WiFi.  Never seen a none-WiFi model with Bluetooth personally.

[486DX Win3.1]

1 minute ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

I'm honestly surprised they kept on-board sound at this point, given monitors also effectively have sound cards in them (albeit a lot more basic).  If you really care about sound quality, I'd argue sending it over HDMI to a good sound bar or surround receiver is what you should be doing, you want to keep the analog circuits as far away from the digital as possible.

Its actually a bit of a PITA designing on-board or add-on cards that avoid picking up noise from the motherboard.  I got a cheap (but better than on-board quality) USB DAC a few years back when I had a stint with a noisy ASRock board.

I actually have no idea how to get sound out of the hdmi ports on my graphics cards. The "sound playback options" button always gives me the choice between, Realtek HD Audio Out, Speakers, or Nvidia High Definition Audio. I am guessing that the Nvidia is going to the monitor? I don't know how to even make sound come out of the monitor other than plugging the 3.1 Headphone jack into it. 

[Alex Atkin UK]

4 minutes ago, 486DX Win3.1 said:

I actually have no idea how to get sound out of the hdmi ports on my graphics cards. The "sound playback options" button always gives me the choice between, Realtek HD Audio Out, Speakers, or Nvidia High Definition Audio. I am guessing that the Nvidia is going to the monitor? I don't know how to even make sound come out of the monitor other than plugging the 3.1 Headphone jack into it. 

Confusingly, some monitor don't have speakers so its only for the headphone jack in that case.

[porina]

14 minutes ago, 486DX Win3.1 said:

hmmmm.... really? Dang. I guess for an office workstation kind of board then there would be no need to have it. 

Most mobos that people like those on this forum buy wont have it as standard. Go to your shopping site of choice and look down the list of mobos. Wifi/bluetooth is a feature still worth listing in the title description and while it will be present on some, it is not the majority.

 

14 minutes ago, 486DX Win3.1 said:

I just made a rig out of a Q170 Board. It had built in bluetooth, but it also has like 8 Com ports, twin network plugs, and tons of connectors that I don't usually use. SO that may not be a great example. 

That sounds like a really niche industrial control board where serial ports never entirely died.

 

14 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

I'm honestly surprised they kept on-board sound at this point, given monitors also effectively have sound cards in them (albeit a lot more basic).

Most speakers in monitors I've owned are pretty awful, even the cheap 3.5mm signal USB powered speakers you get on Amazon/ebay sound way better. On that note I think on most of my systems through the years I actually use 3.5mm connected sound to the mobo, either headphones or powered speakers. Even now I use it on my laptop and my streaming system. Only my TV system doesn't, since the TV sound is actually good.

 

4 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Confusingly, some monitor don't have speakers so its only for the headphone jack in that case.

It depends on the monitor but the headphone socket on them can be in some hard to access locations. Much easier for me to use the case connections going to front panel connector on mobo.

[Arika]

Second GPU for AI training and additional VRAM for generation.

[Erioch]

I used to have a USB expansion card in my PC back when I needed a ton of USB ports.

[486DX Win3.1]

On 7/31/2022 at 3:10 AM, porina said:

Most mobos that people like those on this forum buy wont have it as standard. Go to your shopping site of choice and look down the list of mobos. Wifi/bluetooth is a feature still worth listing in the title description and while it will be present on some, it is not the majority.

 

That sounds like a really niche industrial control board where serial ports never entirely died.

 

Most speakers in monitors I've owned are pretty awful, even the cheap 3.5mm signal USB powered speakers you get on Amazon/ebay sound way better. On that note I think on most of my systems through the years I actually use 3.5mm connected sound to the mobo, either headphones or powered speakers. Even now I use it on my laptop and my streaming system. Only my TV system doesn't, since the TV sound is actually good.

 

It depends on the monitor but the headphone socket on them can be in some hard to access locations. Much easier for me to use the case connections going to front panel connector on mobo.

 

 It is a control board, however, it just happens to support sooooo many features for the apparent use that it was intended for. 

 

 The chipset is Q170 

 

 It has "networking everything" multiple ethernet ports, on board wifi, 5 Com ports out. That intel "security chip" that is like a hardware firewall. (I forgot what it is called) 

 

 I found it on ebay. It had tons of features on it, only lacking overclocking - which I don't need for that setup 

 

 It's mATX   socket 1151.  Got it for like $18 

 

 

[486DX Win3.1]

 I put a soundblaster in there

[TunTuri]

I have:
- 1.2TB IOdrive2 SSD (nice IOPS)

- 10Gbps card with MM and SM SFP+ modules (2 SFP+ port version of Intel X520)

- WLAN card (Some TP-link AC card.. I'm not in rush to upgrade yet)

[486DX Win3.1]

7 hours ago, TunTuri said:

I have:
- 1.2TB IOdrive2 SSD (nice IOPS)

- 10Gbps card with MM and SM SFP+ modules (2 SFP+ port version of Intel X520)

- WLAN card (Some TP-link AC card.. I'm not in rush to upgrade yet)

 Nice. Well..... I don't have anywhere that I can get 10Gbps connections, I don't think. This is a strange house. Built in 1952. Would not be able to run any wires without tearing the house apart. 

 

 Now... What is MM and SM SFP modules?? 

[WhitetailAni]

More GPUs!

[486DX Win3.1]

2 minutes ago, FakeKGB said:

More GPUs!

But it does not do anything