WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.210 --> 00:00:01.043 In this lesson, 2 00:00:01.043 --> 00:00:03.570 we're going to take a look at expansion cards. 3 00:00:03.570 --> 00:00:06.330 Now expansion cards come in five different types, 4 00:00:06.330 --> 00:00:09.360 but only two are really seen in modern computers. 5 00:00:09.360 --> 00:00:11.880 We're going to cover all five for the sake of completeness. 6 00:00:11.880 --> 00:00:14.610 But really, you want to focus on two main types, 7 00:00:14.610 --> 00:00:18.630 PCIe known as PCI Express, and Mini PCIe 8 00:00:18.630 --> 00:00:20.250 or Mini PCI Express, 9 00:00:20.250 --> 00:00:23.760 which is used in laptops and small form factor devices. 10 00:00:23.760 --> 00:00:27.690 First, we have PCI, and this is really where it all began. 11 00:00:27.690 --> 00:00:30.870 PCI was the first 32-bit expansion card. 12 00:00:30.870 --> 00:00:34.740 Now PCI was originally developed back in the early 1990s 13 00:00:34.740 --> 00:00:37.410 to provide expansion slots for things like network cards 14 00:00:37.410 --> 00:00:40.170 and video cards and audio cards and modems, 15 00:00:40.170 --> 00:00:42.630 and storage host controllers and things like that. 16 00:00:42.630 --> 00:00:44.970 Before PCI, there was an older technology 17 00:00:44.970 --> 00:00:48.270 that worked on 8-bit and 16-bit computers called ISA. 18 00:00:48.270 --> 00:00:49.830 But we really don't even need to get into that 19 00:00:49.830 --> 00:00:52.710 because you're not going to see any of those in the real world. 20 00:00:52.710 --> 00:00:55.860 You will still see some older PCI cards, 21 00:00:55.860 --> 00:00:57.690 which are these older 32-bit cards 22 00:00:57.690 --> 00:00:59.520 that we're talking about right now. 23 00:00:59.520 --> 00:01:01.650 Now, when you're dealing with PCI, 24 00:01:01.650 --> 00:01:03.390 it is actually going to be a faster 25 00:01:03.390 --> 00:01:06.960 and more robust expansion card slot than ISA was, 26 00:01:06.960 --> 00:01:08.970 but it's still an older technology 27 00:01:08.970 --> 00:01:11.610 and relatively slow in modern networks. 28 00:01:11.610 --> 00:01:14.880 For example, if you're looking at a standard PCI card, 29 00:01:14.880 --> 00:01:16.740 which is a 32-bit interface, 30 00:01:16.740 --> 00:01:20.880 it only supports a maximum bus speed of about 33 megahertz. 31 00:01:20.880 --> 00:01:23.490 This means we can get a maximum data transfer rate 32 00:01:23.490 --> 00:01:26.820 of only 133 megabytes per second. 33 00:01:26.820 --> 00:01:29.910 Now this is calculated by taking that 32-bit bus, 34 00:01:29.910 --> 00:01:32.040 which tells you how many bits can be pushed across 35 00:01:32.040 --> 00:01:33.420 the bus at a given time. 36 00:01:33.420 --> 00:01:36.780 If we divide 32 by eight, that takes 32-bits 37 00:01:36.780 --> 00:01:39.420 divided by eight to give us four bytes. 38 00:01:39.420 --> 00:01:41.880 Now four bytes is not a lot of data. 39 00:01:41.880 --> 00:01:44.970 And because we only have a 33 megahertz bus speed, 40 00:01:44.970 --> 00:01:49.970 this means we have 33,000,000 hertz or 33,000,000 cycles per second. 41 00:01:50.670 --> 00:01:54.420 So in each second, I can send 33,000,000 42 00:01:54.420 --> 00:01:57.540 times four bytes across the wire. 43 00:01:57.540 --> 00:01:59.130 That means when we calculate that 44 00:01:59.130 --> 00:02:03.090 we only get 133 bytes per second, 45 00:02:03.090 --> 00:02:06.900 which is how we get to 133 megabytes per second. 46 00:02:06.900 --> 00:02:09.360 As you can see, it's not a lot of data. 47 00:02:09.360 --> 00:02:11.160 Most modern networks, for instance, 48 00:02:11.160 --> 00:02:13.920 can do one gigabit per second or more. 49 00:02:13.920 --> 00:02:15.150 And most data connections 50 00:02:15.150 --> 00:02:17.640 can do six gigabytes per second or more. 51 00:02:17.640 --> 00:02:21.240 So these PCI cards just really can't push that much data, 52 00:02:21.240 --> 00:02:23.640 and therefore they had to be replaced. 53 00:02:23.640 --> 00:02:26.130 As we move to 64-bit operating systems, 54 00:02:26.130 --> 00:02:28.170 going from an x86 architecture 55 00:02:28.170 --> 00:02:30.450 to an x64-based architecture, 56 00:02:30.450 --> 00:02:34.200 there was a newer card that came out called PCI-X. 57 00:02:34.200 --> 00:02:39.200 Now PCI-X is written as PCI-X in all capital letters. 58 00:02:39.870 --> 00:02:41.430 And this again is an older card 59 00:02:41.430 --> 00:02:44.040 that you're not really going to find that much these days. 60 00:02:44.040 --> 00:02:46.590 Now, this newer card was a 64-bit card, 61 00:02:46.590 --> 00:02:48.300 so it had doubled the amount of information 62 00:02:48.300 --> 00:02:49.800 every second being sent. 63 00:02:49.800 --> 00:02:51.060 But in addition to that, 64 00:02:51.060 --> 00:02:53.640 it actually moved from a 33 megahertz bus 65 00:02:53.640 --> 00:02:55.920 to 133 megahertz bus 66 00:02:55.920 --> 00:02:59.160 giving us a really large incremental speed increase. 67 00:02:59.160 --> 00:03:00.590 Now there's also another version 68 00:03:00.590 --> 00:03:03.270 is called PCI-X version two. 69 00:03:03.270 --> 00:03:06.690 And that actually went up to a 266 megahertz bus 70 00:03:06.690 --> 00:03:09.960 or even up to a 533 megahertz bus. 71 00:03:09.960 --> 00:03:12.240 And this means we can actually push a lot of data 72 00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:14.250 and so it was relatively fast. 73 00:03:14.250 --> 00:03:17.340 Now the big problem was when they developed PCI-X, 74 00:03:17.340 --> 00:03:19.470 they made it fully backwards compatible. 75 00:03:19.470 --> 00:03:22.463 So if you had a motherboard that supported two PCI cards 76 00:03:22.463 --> 00:03:24.690 and two PCI-X cards, 77 00:03:24.690 --> 00:03:26.490 and you mixed and match them, 78 00:03:26.490 --> 00:03:28.560 what would end up happening is all of the bus 79 00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:30.660 had to slow down for the slower speeds. 80 00:03:30.660 --> 00:03:34.230 So taking 533 megahertz for that PCI-X bus, 81 00:03:34.230 --> 00:03:37.470 you now had to downgrade and go down to 33 megahertz 82 00:03:37.470 --> 00:03:40.350 to support the older PCI bus as well. 83 00:03:40.350 --> 00:03:44.040 Now, in addition to this, most PCI and PCI-X 84 00:03:44.040 --> 00:03:46.050 was used for things like networking cards 85 00:03:46.050 --> 00:03:48.060 and audio cards and things like that. 86 00:03:48.060 --> 00:03:49.530 But it wasn't great for graphics, 87 00:03:49.530 --> 00:03:51.750 because it really wasn't fast enough for that. 88 00:03:51.750 --> 00:03:56.010 So back in the day, they created something known as AGP. 89 00:03:56.010 --> 00:03:59.310 Now AGP stands for the advanced graphics port. 90 00:03:59.310 --> 00:04:01.680 Now this is because PCI was simply too slow 91 00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:03.450 for the newer 3D games that were coming out 92 00:04:03.450 --> 00:04:05.850 in the late '90s and early 2000s. 93 00:04:05.850 --> 00:04:08.580 So they created this thing called AGP, 94 00:04:08.580 --> 00:04:10.860 which was a dedicated port that could only be used 95 00:04:10.860 --> 00:04:12.780 for video graphics cards. 96 00:04:12.780 --> 00:04:14.670 Now AGP came in multiple flavors, 97 00:04:14.670 --> 00:04:18.630 including a 1x 2x 4x and 8x slot. 98 00:04:18.630 --> 00:04:20.220 Now depending on which slot you used, 99 00:04:20.220 --> 00:04:22.320 it had different amounts of power required 100 00:04:22.320 --> 00:04:25.290 and it was able to give you faster speeds. 101 00:04:25.290 --> 00:04:29.370 Now AGP was quite popular in the late '90s and early 2000s. 102 00:04:29.370 --> 00:04:31.920 But these days, it's very rare to find AGP 103 00:04:31.920 --> 00:04:33.510 in any modern computers, 104 00:04:33.510 --> 00:04:34.980 because they were replaced 105 00:04:34.980 --> 00:04:39.120 by what is known as PCIe or PCI Express. 106 00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:41.520 And that's really what we need to focus on here. 107 00:04:41.520 --> 00:04:43.650 Now PCI Express was really good 108 00:04:43.650 --> 00:04:48.650 because it allowed us to replace PCI, PCI-X and AGP. 109 00:04:48.870 --> 00:04:50.490 In fact, in most motherboards, 110 00:04:50.490 --> 00:04:52.950 you're only going to find PCIe slots 111 00:04:52.950 --> 00:04:54.660 in the modern motherboards. 112 00:04:54.660 --> 00:04:56.610 Now these PCIe slots come in 113 00:04:56.610 --> 00:04:58.800 a variety of different sizes though. 114 00:04:58.800 --> 00:05:03.690 These are known as x1, x4, x8, and x16. 115 00:05:03.690 --> 00:05:07.170 Normally, we will write this as PCI, all capital, 116 00:05:07.170 --> 00:05:09.780 and then a little e to signify Express 117 00:05:09.780 --> 00:05:12.330 and then a space, x and the number. 118 00:05:12.330 --> 00:05:14.430 So if you're using a shorter one, 119 00:05:14.430 --> 00:05:17.190 this is known as a PCIe x1. 120 00:05:17.190 --> 00:05:18.720 If you're using a graphics card, 121 00:05:18.720 --> 00:05:22.530 this tends to be put into a PCIe x16. 122 00:05:22.530 --> 00:05:24.870 Now the reason it's called x something 123 00:05:24.870 --> 00:05:27.030 is because this is how long the bus is. 124 00:05:27.030 --> 00:05:29.190 And this tells you how much data can be pushed 125 00:05:29.190 --> 00:05:30.540 at a given time. 126 00:05:30.540 --> 00:05:33.180 If you're using a PCI x1 card, 127 00:05:33.180 --> 00:05:36.210 this is a very small and short connector to the motherboard 128 00:05:36.210 --> 00:05:39.030 and it can only send a small amount of data relative 129 00:05:39.030 --> 00:05:40.950 to an x16 slot. 130 00:05:40.950 --> 00:05:44.010 Because of this, we tend to see x1 and x16 131 00:05:44.010 --> 00:05:46.140 being the most commonly used on motherboards 132 00:05:46.140 --> 00:05:48.720 with x1 being used for things like modems, 133 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:52.560 network cards, wireless cards, input output devices, 134 00:05:52.560 --> 00:05:54.810 audio cards, and things like that. 135 00:05:54.810 --> 00:05:57.270 On the other hand, usually what you're going to see used 136 00:05:57.270 --> 00:06:01.110 for a PCIe x16 card is going to be a graphics card. 137 00:06:01.110 --> 00:06:03.570 And this is because they support a large amount of data 138 00:06:03.570 --> 00:06:05.400 and very fast speeds. 139 00:06:05.400 --> 00:06:07.560 When you're dealing with a PCIe card, 140 00:06:07.560 --> 00:06:09.390 which is known as a peripheral component 141 00:06:09.390 --> 00:06:11.460 interconnect express interface. 142 00:06:11.460 --> 00:06:12.570 This will connect to the bus 143 00:06:12.570 --> 00:06:14.280 and it is the fastest way to get data 144 00:06:14.280 --> 00:06:16.050 to and from the motherboard 145 00:06:16.050 --> 00:06:19.530 for any external devices or additional expansion cards. 146 00:06:19.530 --> 00:06:21.870 This uses a point-to-point serial connection. 147 00:06:21.870 --> 00:06:23.370 And this means that each component 148 00:06:23.370 --> 00:06:24.750 that's plugged into the slot 149 00:06:24.750 --> 00:06:26.970 is going to have direct access to the motherboard 150 00:06:26.970 --> 00:06:29.580 without having to share that bus with anybody else. 151 00:06:29.580 --> 00:06:31.620 Compare this is something like USB, 152 00:06:31.620 --> 00:06:32.940 where you have multiple devices 153 00:06:32.940 --> 00:06:35.370 that can be chained together to a single USB port 154 00:06:35.370 --> 00:06:37.980 and they have to share all that bandwidth. 155 00:06:37.980 --> 00:06:41.130 Now the reason this is called a PCIe x something 156 00:06:41.130 --> 00:06:41.970 is because we're talking about 157 00:06:41.970 --> 00:06:43.620 how many lanes of traffic 158 00:06:43.620 --> 00:06:46.140 are being dedicated to those devices. 159 00:06:46.140 --> 00:06:48.090 Now the total number of lanes that are supported 160 00:06:48.090 --> 00:06:50.070 by this PCI Express bus 161 00:06:50.070 --> 00:06:51.750 is going to be determined by your motherboard 162 00:06:51.750 --> 00:06:53.250 and its form factor. 163 00:06:53.250 --> 00:06:57.450 This might support something like 16 or 24 or 32. 164 00:06:57.450 --> 00:07:00.450 So if you have a motherboard that supports 24 lanes, 165 00:07:00.450 --> 00:07:02.790 even though you have two x16 slots, 166 00:07:02.790 --> 00:07:05.460 if you had 16 and 16, that's 32. 167 00:07:05.460 --> 00:07:07.860 If you use both of them, it's actually going to slow down, 168 00:07:07.860 --> 00:07:10.830 because you only have 24 available lanes. 169 00:07:10.830 --> 00:07:12.870 Think about it like the highway near your house. 170 00:07:12.870 --> 00:07:14.520 If there's five lanes on the highway, 171 00:07:14.520 --> 00:07:16.650 and there's five cars sitting side by side, 172 00:07:16.650 --> 00:07:18.030 they can all go as fast as they want 173 00:07:18.030 --> 00:07:19.530 because they have individual lanes. 174 00:07:19.530 --> 00:07:21.780 But if I put six cars in those five lanes, 175 00:07:21.780 --> 00:07:24.360 now somebody's going to have to slow down behind somebody else, 176 00:07:24.360 --> 00:07:27.480 because they all can't go side by side through that path. 177 00:07:27.480 --> 00:07:28.890 And that's the idea when you start dealing 178 00:07:28.890 --> 00:07:31.530 with PCIe or PCI Express. 179 00:07:31.530 --> 00:07:34.260 It's all about the number of lanes that are available. 180 00:07:34.260 --> 00:07:36.570 For this reason, it's really rare to see 181 00:07:36.570 --> 00:07:39.210 x4 or x8 connections anymore. 182 00:07:39.210 --> 00:07:42.600 Most of the time, you're going to see things like x16 and x1 183 00:07:42.600 --> 00:07:44.460 because it maximizes the amount of lanes 184 00:07:44.460 --> 00:07:46.770 that can be used on that particular motherboard. 185 00:07:46.770 --> 00:07:48.330 Because most motherboards support 186 00:07:48.330 --> 00:07:50.070 this type of a configuration better 187 00:07:50.070 --> 00:07:52.260 and most cards are either built as an x1 188 00:07:52.260 --> 00:07:55.500 for low speed devices like input/output devices, 189 00:07:55.500 --> 00:07:57.810 and then having a high speed reserve for video 190 00:07:57.810 --> 00:08:00.360 when you're using those x16 slots. 191 00:08:00.360 --> 00:08:01.980 Now when you look at PCIe, 192 00:08:01.980 --> 00:08:03.960 there's also multiple versions of it. 193 00:08:03.960 --> 00:08:06.930 Going from one, two, three, four, and five. 194 00:08:06.930 --> 00:08:08.340 As you increase in the version, 195 00:08:08.340 --> 00:08:11.100 you also increase in the speed of transfer. 196 00:08:11.100 --> 00:08:13.290 Now for the exam, you don't need to memorize 197 00:08:13.290 --> 00:08:16.230 the different transfer rates for PCIe. 198 00:08:16.230 --> 00:08:19.410 What you should remember is that PCIe x1 199 00:08:19.410 --> 00:08:22.150 is going to be slower than PCIe x16. 200 00:08:22.150 --> 00:08:24.660 PCI e x16 is going to be used 201 00:08:24.660 --> 00:08:26.610 for things like video graphics cards, 202 00:08:26.610 --> 00:08:28.500 especially in gaming computers. 203 00:08:28.500 --> 00:08:30.150 Whereas when you're using an x1 slot, 204 00:08:30.150 --> 00:08:32.580 it's usually going to be used for things like networking cards, 205 00:08:32.580 --> 00:08:36.390 storage cards, or other input/output type of devices. 206 00:08:36.390 --> 00:08:38.700 When you're looking at different versions of PCIe, 207 00:08:38.700 --> 00:08:41.550 remember, the higher the number, the faster the speed. 208 00:08:41.550 --> 00:08:43.680 And this makes sense, because in most technology, 209 00:08:43.680 --> 00:08:45.870 newer versions are going to be faster 210 00:08:45.870 --> 00:08:49.380 and better than the older technology or older versions. 211 00:08:49.380 --> 00:08:52.770 When you connect an expansion card to the PCIe slot, 212 00:08:52.770 --> 00:08:55.680 it's going to be able to draw its power through that slot. 213 00:08:55.680 --> 00:08:58.260 By default, all the PCIe Express slots 214 00:08:58.260 --> 00:09:00.840 will provide 25 watts of power. 215 00:09:00.840 --> 00:09:02.130 Now on some motherboards, 216 00:09:02.130 --> 00:09:04.590 there'll be a dedicated graphics adapter slot 217 00:09:04.590 --> 00:09:06.900 for a PCIe x16. 218 00:09:06.900 --> 00:09:09.270 And it may be colored differently or looked differently 219 00:09:09.270 --> 00:09:11.280 or notated differently on the motherboard. 220 00:09:11.280 --> 00:09:13.380 This specialized graphics card slot 221 00:09:13.380 --> 00:09:15.960 actually can provide up to 75 watts of power 222 00:09:15.960 --> 00:09:17.850 instead of 25 watts of power, 223 00:09:17.850 --> 00:09:20.160 because it is that dedicated graphics card slot. 224 00:09:20.160 --> 00:09:22.170 So keep that in mind as well. 225 00:09:22.170 --> 00:09:23.220 The final thing to realize 226 00:09:23.220 --> 00:09:25.763 when it comes to PCIe or PCI Express 227 00:09:25.763 --> 00:09:28.620 is that because the slots are different sizes, 228 00:09:28.620 --> 00:09:31.200 you can visually look at them and know what it is. 229 00:09:31.200 --> 00:09:36.200 An x1 slot is smaller than an x4, or an x8, or an x16 slot. 230 00:09:36.330 --> 00:09:38.070 And each one is going to be basically 231 00:09:38.070 --> 00:09:40.140 double the size of the one before it. 232 00:09:40.140 --> 00:09:42.960 So if you take an x1 slot and you double the size, 233 00:09:42.960 --> 00:09:44.280 you get to an x4. 234 00:09:44.280 --> 00:09:46.530 If you double an x4, you get to an x8. 235 00:09:46.530 --> 00:09:49.500 If you double an x8, you get to an x16. 236 00:09:49.500 --> 00:09:51.750 Now if you have a device that is smaller, 237 00:09:51.750 --> 00:09:53.940 you can still go into a larger card. 238 00:09:53.940 --> 00:09:57.210 For example, on my motherboard I have four slots, 239 00:09:57.210 --> 00:10:00.090 two x1s and two x16s. 240 00:10:00.090 --> 00:10:03.540 But if I have one graphics card in my x16 slot, 241 00:10:03.540 --> 00:10:06.390 and I need to put in three different cards that are x1s, 242 00:10:06.390 --> 00:10:08.580 I can still do that by putting two of them 243 00:10:08.580 --> 00:10:13.110 into the x1 slot and the other x1 into the x16 slot. 244 00:10:13.110 --> 00:10:16.020 Yes, the x1 will fit into an x16 slot, 245 00:10:16.020 --> 00:10:17.070 and it will work. 246 00:10:17.070 --> 00:10:20.250 Because that x16 slot will detect that it's only an x1, 247 00:10:20.250 --> 00:10:23.190 it'll downgraded speed and only transmit information 248 00:10:23.190 --> 00:10:26.820 to that x1 device using that part of the slot. 249 00:10:26.820 --> 00:10:29.280 When you do this, we call this up-plugging, 250 00:10:29.280 --> 00:10:30.870 because you're taking an x1 card 251 00:10:30.870 --> 00:10:34.410 and putting it into an x4, x8 or x16 slot. 252 00:10:34.410 --> 00:10:36.120 Now similarly, you can also do 253 00:10:36.120 --> 00:10:37.740 what's known as down-plugging, 254 00:10:37.740 --> 00:10:39.450 and this is kind of a weird concept. 255 00:10:39.450 --> 00:10:42.840 But you can take an x16 card and put it into an x8, 256 00:10:42.840 --> 00:10:45.120 an x4 or x1 slot. 257 00:10:45.120 --> 00:10:46.380 Now when you do this, 258 00:10:46.380 --> 00:10:49.290 that card must support that capability. 259 00:10:49.290 --> 00:10:51.870 And it has to be able to actually fit into the slot. 260 00:10:51.870 --> 00:10:53.430 If you can fit it into the slot, 261 00:10:53.430 --> 00:10:55.440 the slot will still communicate with it, 262 00:10:55.440 --> 00:10:58.440 but it will only work at x1 speeds. 263 00:10:58.440 --> 00:11:01.230 So it'll be much slower than if you put it in the right slot 264 00:11:01.230 --> 00:11:02.640 that it was designed for. 265 00:11:02.640 --> 00:11:05.790 That said, I really don't recommend doing down-plugging 266 00:11:05.790 --> 00:11:08.280 where you put that larger card in a smaller slot, 267 00:11:08.280 --> 00:11:09.870 because it will have performance issues 268 00:11:09.870 --> 00:11:11.790 for you because that card is expecting 269 00:11:11.790 --> 00:11:14.670 the full bandwidth of it's designed slot type. 270 00:11:14.670 --> 00:11:16.080 But there is really no issue 271 00:11:16.080 --> 00:11:17.400 when you're doing up-plugging 272 00:11:17.400 --> 00:11:19.530 and taking an x1 card and putting it in something 273 00:11:19.530 --> 00:11:21.870 like an x16 because it will still operate 274 00:11:21.870 --> 00:11:25.980 at the full x1 speeds because x16 can support x1. 275 00:11:25.980 --> 00:11:30.150 But x1 can't go as fast as an x16 to support an x16 card 276 00:11:30.150 --> 00:11:31.830 in an excellent slot. 277 00:11:31.830 --> 00:11:33.420 Now the final type of expansion card 278 00:11:33.420 --> 00:11:36.570 we need to talk about is what's known as a Mini PCIe. 279 00:11:36.570 --> 00:11:39.810 And yes, this works just like a standard PCIe card 280 00:11:39.810 --> 00:11:41.910 but it's a smaller form factor. 281 00:11:41.910 --> 00:11:43.770 Instead of being a large expansion card 282 00:11:43.770 --> 00:11:45.900 that you're going to use in a desktop or server, 283 00:11:45.900 --> 00:11:48.150 instead with a Mini PCIe, 284 00:11:48.150 --> 00:11:50.670 you can plug this into things like laptops. 285 00:11:50.670 --> 00:11:53.430 Generally, you're going to find that Mini PCIe cards 286 00:11:53.430 --> 00:11:55.050 are used inside of laptops, 287 00:11:55.050 --> 00:11:57.330 specifically for things like wireless networking, 288 00:11:57.330 --> 00:12:00.750 or providing a cellular modem capability for that device. 289 00:12:00.750 --> 00:12:03.300 So with that said, what do you need to remember 290 00:12:03.300 --> 00:12:05.040 about expansion cards? 291 00:12:05.040 --> 00:12:06.510 Well, the first thing to remember 292 00:12:06.510 --> 00:12:08.700 is that really in modern desktops, 293 00:12:08.700 --> 00:12:10.140 the only type of expansion cards 294 00:12:10.140 --> 00:12:13.823 you're really going to run across are going to be PCIe x1s 295 00:12:13.823 --> 00:12:14.990 and PCIe x16s. 296 00:12:15.870 --> 00:12:19.290 Most of the time, it's really hard to find an x4 or x8 port 297 00:12:19.290 --> 00:12:20.850 on most modern motherboards, 298 00:12:20.850 --> 00:12:22.650 and therefore there's not a lot of devices 299 00:12:22.650 --> 00:12:25.500 or cards that are available for those form factors. 300 00:12:25.500 --> 00:12:27.990 When you're looking at a PCIe x1 card, 301 00:12:27.990 --> 00:12:29.370 it's very easy to identify 302 00:12:29.370 --> 00:12:31.890 because the connector part of it is very small, 303 00:12:31.890 --> 00:12:34.140 about the size of your thumbnail. 304 00:12:34.140 --> 00:12:37.350 When you're looking at a PCIe x16 card on the other hand, 305 00:12:37.350 --> 00:12:39.060 it has a very long connector 306 00:12:39.060 --> 00:12:41.250 that's about six or eight inches. 307 00:12:41.250 --> 00:12:43.050 When you go and plug one of these cards in, 308 00:12:43.050 --> 00:12:45.540 you're simply going to line up the connector to the port, 309 00:12:45.540 --> 00:12:47.610 push down and it will insert into place 310 00:12:47.610 --> 00:12:50.250 and you'll feel click and that's going to hold it into place 311 00:12:50.250 --> 00:12:52.590 and then you'll screw that card into the case 312 00:12:52.590 --> 00:12:54.420 to make sure it doesn't move or wiggle 313 00:12:54.420 --> 00:12:55.980 or move out of the socket. 314 00:12:55.980 --> 00:12:57.660 When you're dealing with x1s cards, 315 00:12:57.660 --> 00:13:00.720 they are much slower than x16 cards and x1 cards 316 00:13:00.720 --> 00:13:02.520 are going to be used for things like modems, 317 00:13:02.520 --> 00:13:04.920 networking cards, wireless cards, 318 00:13:04.920 --> 00:13:06.810 audio cards and things like that. 319 00:13:06.810 --> 00:13:09.600 Whereas an x16 card is generally going to be used 320 00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:13.173 for graphics and video cards in 3D and gaming systems.