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Looking up Z97 motherboards on newegg for some friends of mine, I notice that OEMs are still putting PCI slots on their boards. WHY? I thought PCI died a long time ago.

my wifi is pci still.

How fast is it?

whm1974 wrote:

Looking up Z97 motherboards on newegg for some friends of mine, I notice that OEMs are still putting PCI slots on their boards. WHY? I thought PCI died a long time ago.

Party because Intel CPU's do have a ton of extra PCI-e lanes. Partly for backward compatibly for people like SSK who don't want to spend money on PCI-e expansion cards. Mostly for unknown, ridiculous reasoning I can't wrap my brain around.

Mostly for unknown, ridiculous reasoning I can't wrap my brain around.

While I could see a few boards having a few PCI slots, why does EVERY OEM put PCI slots on ALL their boards?

I am sorry, the last century called and they want their technology back.

Maybe because most people don't use up all their PCIe slots, so PCI just adds flexibility for those who need it.

DancinJack wrote:

whm1974 wrote:

Looking up Z97 motherboards on newegg for some friends of mine, I notice that OEMs are still putting PCI slots on their boards. WHY? I thought PCI died a long time ago.

Party because Intel CPU's do have a ton of extra PCI-e lanes. Partly for backward compatibly for people like SSK who don't want to spend money on PCI-e expansion cards. Mostly for unknown, ridiculous reasoning I can't wrap my brain around.

Eh, such as replacing a sound card I paid over $200 for, with another sound card I'll have to pay over $200 for? Yup, sounds ridiculous to me. Just let me know when you're mailing me the check.

Eh, such as replacing a sound card I paid over $200 for, with another sound card I'll have to pay over $200 for? Yup, sounds ridiculous to me. Just let me know when you're mailing me the check.

While I can agree with you on that, are such old devices still supported?

my xonar sound card uses pci and i dont want to replace it any time soon
unless someone else will pay for it

whm1974 wrote:

While I can agree with you on that, are such old devices still supported?

i dont know about kvndoom's soundcard but my xonar is only about 3 years old so it is definitely supported

i dont know about kvndoom's soundcard but my xonar is only about 3 years old so it is definitely supported

Granted I went awhile without keeping track of stuff, but I'm under the impression that AMD and Intel stopped supporting PCI longer then that.

Still got my Diamond Xtreme Sound 7.1 DDL kicking around in a media box. But for my modern regular use machine, I don't think I do use any PCI anymore. An interesting question would be if anyone still used AGP around here. PCI still has use for some decent peripherals. AGP....well...not so much.

I'm filling two slots with an old Audigy2 (that still sounds great) and a SCSI adapter for my scanner.

Why PCI? Why not? 1-2 GPUs and possibly a sound card are the only things the typical user is going to want, so why ditch legacy support for no benefit?

A better question is why we haven't all gone to USB DACs and mini-ITX, since nobody actually uses this stuff. I used an IDE card for a while because I had one and didn't want to replace my Lightscribe drive, but I haven't had a legitimate need for more than one slot since the late 90s.

edit: I'm still pissed that I had to give up my precious floppy drive with my last build, even though I don't use it ever, and one of these days I might hack a solution that involves a PCI controller card. That's definitely not a legitimate reason, though...

whm1974 wrote:

Granted I went awhile without keeping track of stuff, but I'm under the impression that AMD and Intel stopped supporting PCI longer then that.

PCI is just the interface. So long as a driver is available for the device, there's no reason it wouldn't work. You can still use Parallel and Serial Port devices which predate PCI by many years. As others have mentioned, soundcards would be the biggest reason a home user would want a PCI slot, especially if they spent lots of money on a professional-grade device. Very little has changed in soundcards.

On the commercial side of things, there's likely an untold number of PCI cards still in use for controlling machinery and interfacing with proprietary devices. I just don't see many of them wanting to migrate those cards to a completely new computer unless the old one died and couldn't be repaired.

Maybe it's because I don't deal with many OEM machines these days, but I don't see standard PCI slots being nearly as prevalient in new systems as you're suggesting. I think my last build with a PCI slot was a Socket 939.

MaxTheLimit wrote:

An interesting question would be if anyone still used AGP around here. PCI still has use for some decent peripherals. AGP....well...not so much.

AGP was graphics only. Any AGP card is going to be inferior to modern integrated GPUs. The interface is wholly defunct.

Maybe it's because I don't deal with many OEM machines these days, but I don't see standard PCI slots being nearly as prevalient in new systems as you're suggesting. I think my last build with a PCI slot was a Socket 939.

My Z87 board has TWO of them. I was looking up Z97 boards for a couple friends of mine on newegg and every one they sell has one or two PCI slots, some up to four.

AGP was graphics only. Any AGP card is going to be inferior to modern integrated GPUs. The interface is wholly defunct.

I would think so.

whm1974 wrote:

My Z87 board has TWO of them. I was looking up Z97 boards for a couple friends of mine on newegg and every one they sell has one or two PCI slots, some up to four.

can you link the one with four? i want to have a laugh
having one is a good idea but four is just crazy lol

A PCI slot's space can be used to mount brackets sporting serial/LPT and USB ports wired to headers on the board. Some mATX boards situate a PCI or PCIe x1 next to the slot meant for GPUs which are double-wifth anyway, so it's not as if the occluded slot is totally "wasted". Also, a PCI is good for V.9x POTS modems for those times when you're nostalgic for the Sound of Handshake.

You all don't want to know about what ancient and useless bus protocols still exist in the morass of inter-chipset communications, yet are not expressed in a physical slot. ISA and its semi-less-defective cousin LPC are still there in the form of the Super I/O chip, which gives us temps, fan speeds, PCMCIA capability, floppy controllers and, dear to this particular user, PS/2 keyboard ports.

For the record, there are Socket 775 boards with ISA slots to drive old and massively expensive scientific/testing machinery that still works just fine but can't be bothered to update its comms protocols. Spend any time in university/gov't science labs and you'll find all sorts of old but still perfectly good and performing equipment bodged into modern PCs through extreme measures. JBI should know; he's done it.

Oh, and you can have my PCI Xonar when you rip it from my cold/dead hands.

can you link the one with four? i want to have a laugh
having one is a good idea but four is just crazy lol

Sorry it was three:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... 0600008723

Also, a PCI is good for V.9x POTS modems for those times when you're nostalgic for the Sound of Handshake.

People are still using POTS?

whm1974 wrote:

People are still using POTS?

http://qz.com/245585/aol-still-has-2-3- ... rofitable/

In June 2014 AOL still had 2.3 million dial-up customers.

kvndoom wrote:

Eh, such as replacing a sound card I paid over $200 for, with another sound card I'll have to pay over $200 for? Yup, sounds ridiculous to me. Just let me know when you're mailing me the check.

Meh, my USB DAC/headphone amp doesn't care about PCI slots. Maybe you should have got one instead of an obsolete PCI card?

whm1974 wrote:

People are still using POTS?

As recently as 2013 I had a retail shop relaying inventory data site-to-site at 24kbps over clean POTS using a pair of V.92 US Robotics modems. Their provided line was multiplexed as the mall hadn't yet rewired the section, which nixed a cheap copper plan, and coverage of available wireless APs or 3G/4G was still poor then.

Meh, my USB DAC/headphone amp doesn't care about PCI slots. Maybe you should have got one instead of an obsolete PCI card?

Or use onboard audio like most of us.

As recently as 2013 I had a retail shop relaying inventory data site-to-site at 24kbps over clean POTS using a pair of V.92 US Robotics modems. Their provided line was multiplexed as the mall hadn't yet rewired the section, which nixed a cheap copper plan, and coverage of available wireless APs or 3G/4G was still poor then.

Bummer...

Sound cards, TV tuners, disk controllers, USB expansion cards, etc. all switched to PCIe in mid-2008. There has been no reason for a new gaming PC to need a PCI slot since then.

You are not forced to buy a motherboard with obsolete PCI slots. There are better-designed alternatives available.

Some lunatic in multiple threads wrote:

Micro-ATX LGA1150 motherboard with Z97 (for overclocking) or H97 (no overclocking possible):
H97: $96¼ Asus H97M-E/CSM or $95 MSI H97M-G43
Z97: $122 -10MIR MSI Z97M-G43 or $130 -10MIR Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5 or $135 -20MIR ASRock F* Z97M K* or $142 -20MIR ASRock Z97M OC Formula or $160 -20MIR MSI Z97M Gaming or $162 Asus Gryphon Z97 or $215 Asus Maximus VII Gene

At least TR's favorite $145 Asus Z97-A ATX motherboard positions the two useless PCI slots so that they are the ones covered by the double-slot coolers on the PCIe X16 graphics cards.

DancinJack wrote:

kvndoom wrote:

Eh, such as replacing a sound card I paid over $200 for, with another sound card I'll have to pay over $200 for? Yup, sounds ridiculous to me. Just let me know when you're mailing me the check.

Meh, my USB DAC/headphone amp doesn't care about PCI slots. Maybe you should have got one instead of an obsolete PCI card?

It wasn't obsolete when I bought it, and since it works perfectly well (and undoubtedly sounds better than just about any onboard audio in existence) it isn't obsolete now.

Do you get rid of your cars just because the newer model has a different engine? Let's be consistent here...

Like I said, send me the check, and I'll buy whatever you want me to.

JustAnEngineer wrote:

Sound cards, TV tuners, disk controllers, USB expansion cards, etc. all switched to PCIe in mid-2008. There has been no reason for a new gaming PC to need a PCI slot since then.

the xonar dg which tech report reviewed and gave an editors choice rating in november 2010 is still being sold
http://techreport.com/review/19997/asus-xonar-dg-and-xense-sound-cards/11
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=15774

so while there was pcie options available in 2008 they did not ALL switch to pcie in 2008

either way i just dont see why there is a problem with having a pci slot on a motherboard as theres plenty of room to have pci and pcie on atx motherboards

whm1974 wrote:

Eh, such as replacing a sound card I paid over $200 for, with another sound card I'll have to pay over $200 for? Yup, sounds ridiculous to me. Just let me know when you're mailing me the check.

While I can agree with you on that, are such old devices still supported?

I still have a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz and an M-Audio Revolution. I use them when I need high-quality A/D (e.g. ripping vinyl). They're still supported under Linux, though I imagine Windows users may be SOL at this point...