PCI express question
 

Can you use a 1X card (with the small number of connectors) in a 4X or 16X slot?

I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think you can. Might still work, but why would you waste a 16x slot for a 1x card? doesn't your motherboard have 1 or 2 1x slots?

It does, but not enough of them :)

one 16X
one 4X
one 1X
three legacy PCI

ah ok.. my motherboard has 3 pice 1x and 1 pcie 16x

of course there are the 3 PCI slots, but I'm not counting those. I still don't think that a 1x card would work properly in a 16x slot.

I would have to assume that you only have the 4x one free since the 16x one is used up by a video card. I don't know much about 4x ones though.

Hmm looks like I may be able to after all...

Yes you can, PCIe is compatable as long as the co-efficent of the x is lower on the card then the co-efficent of x on the slot you wish to use. Thus a 1x card would fit in a 1x, 4x, 8x, or 16x slot.

A 1x slot will fit only 1x cards
A 4x slot will fit only 1x, and 4x cards
A 8x Slot will fit only 1x, 4x, and 8x cards
A 16x slot will fit only 1x, 4x, 8x, and 16x cards

The 16X slot will be used for a video card, the 4X slot will (hopefully) be used for a 1X ethernet card.

ah cool.. I didn't know that so it's nice to learn news things. :)

From my limited understanding of PCI/x it looks like it's just a bunch of repeated connections, so 16X has 16 of the 1X channel connections, and the card negotiates how many channels it needs/supports.

I found a site where someone taped up the connectors to turn their 16X GFX card into a 1X card and it still worked. :)