- Jun 19, 2005
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I'm seeing a whole buch of PCIexpress x1 slots, but in some cases there's only ONE pci slot. As far as I've seen, there isn't ANYTHING that uses a x1 slot!!!! What are mobo manufacturers thinking???
There aren't any PCIE IDE controller chips, and probably there won't ever be any. SATA-to-IDE converter boards do exist however.
Remember that 99.99 percent of the total PC market do not move old components into new machines, ever. The few DIY users are expected to help themselves.
Specifically, new PCs are supposed to be built with SATA harddisks, but will keep IDE opticals for a while.
Even more specifically, when buying those two 300 gig drives, you did have the choice of buying SATA models but didn't - and now that backwards oriented decision backfires on you.
Why are the optical drives staying with the IDE interface Peter? If the number of IDE ports is going to go to 1 per mobo (ala Intel chipsets), then it seems that the optical devices ought to be migrating to SATA also.Originally posted by: Peter
Specifically, new PCs are supposed to be built with SATA harddisks, but will keep IDE opticals for a while.
Originally posted by: Peter
They're thinking that consumers should educate themselves ... and they're moving from the 13 year old PCI slot to the modern standard.
There are PCIE TV cards, network cards, SATA controllers - and yes, they're PCIE 1x. More to come.
Your rant is very very similar to what we've heard when ISA slots were on their way out.
Originally posted by: Peter
Your $40 soundcard won't do any better than the onboard HD-Audio you already got on a modern board. Next.
Your software-based SATA RAID also is coming directly from the chipset's south bridge - four to six SATA connectors integrated. Next. (Besides, doing four-drive soft-RAID off PCIE 1x would be bandwidth limited - that's why SATA RAID cards are PCIE 4x.)
No more? Ah well then.
WiFi is best done off USB - because the antenna should be freely positionable for best signal quality (e.g. mine is up on the back of the monitor). So if you got to have an external thing anyway, why not put the logic into it as well?
SATA optical drives are not picking up speed mostly because SATA controller drivers aren't ready to support the ATAPI command set - and the driver writers don't bother because there are no drives yet. We'll be getting there come Vista.
Bullsdust it won't!!! I've just installed an elcheapo CMI8738 based soundcard (same as what I put into lowend/midrange client builds) into my system to rid myself of the horrendous Realtek 850 integrated garbage. Talk about a huge difference! The system goes much faster now. Integrated audio (with the exception of nforce1/2) is cpu-sapping junk!Your $40 soundcard won't do any better than the onboard HD-Audio you already got on a modern board. Next.