WHat kind of cards go in the PCI Express x1 minicard socket?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Al Dykes
  • Start date Start date
Al said:
What is the PCI Express x1 minicard socket on the machine I'm about to
order for?
Click to expand...

All snippage below; page last modified 2009 Aug. The page lists some
specific wifi adapters.

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/MiniPCI_Express_slot A MiniPCI Express
slot is a version of the PCI-Express x1 slot for Notebooks - Though the
slot is MiniPCIe in form factor, it has been crippled to only accept
devices with PCI-ID's contained in a BIOS whitelist consisting of the
above list of devices (likely not exhaustive and varying depending on
the particular system) with the additional requirement that they must
carry the Lenovo brand name and consequently cost twice as much. If an
unauthorized card is plugged in it gives a 1802 error on initial boot up
before it even touches the operating system. (see Problem with
unauthorized MiniPCI network card, 1802 with MiniPCIe on t60,same). The
workarounds on the first link concerning MiniPCI devices may or may not
be directly applicable to the MiniPCIe slot. Anyone who has added
non-Lenovo components to this slot either successfully or unsuccessfully
is encouraged to provide any relevant details here.
 
Al said:
Thanks. Oddly, this is a desktop machine.
Click to expand...

Nowhere have you mentioned any identification of the machine in
question. Some desktops are like 'nettops' which have the
characteristics of a netbook with a hdd in a desktop.
 
Mike said:
Nowhere have you mentioned any identification of the machine in
question. Some desktops are like 'nettops' which have the
characteristics of a netbook with a hdd in a desktop.
Click to expand...

.... which, incidentally, illustrates the problem with people starting a
topic question by typing a question in the subject instead of doing it
the right way.


Subject: WHat kind of cards go in the PCI Express x1 minicard socket?
What is the PCI Express x1 minicard socket on the machine I'm about to
order for?
Click to expand...


The right way to start a new topic question is to start your message in
the body, not the subject. That body should be composed only of
complete sentences and it should provide sufficient background so that
the readers don't have to read your mind to figure out what you are
talking about.

In this case, you didn't say anything about 'the machine I'm about to
order', choosing instead to keep that a secret to yourself while asking
why the mfr built the mystery machine as they did.

Instead, you should name the brand and modelno of the machine you are
ordering, then ask your question in the body, then give your new message
a very very brief 'title' to reflect the content of the body.
 
Al said:
What is the PCI Express x1 minicard socket on the machine I'm about to
order for?
Click to expand...

A PCI Express x1 slot is used for expansion cards. In the same sense as
a regular PCI slot is used for expansion cards.

The old PCI slot is a 32 bit parallel bus, delivering data at speeds
up to 133MB/sec theoretical. That is the desktop version.

The PCI Express x1 is a serial, point to point bus. The chipset is a
"hub" for those interfaces. The bus is private and runs between
the expansion slot and the chipset. For a revision 1 lane, the interface
delivers 250MB/sec. For a revision 2 lane (less common on PCI Express x1
slots), you get 500MB/sec. So the PCI Express x1 slot is smaller than
PCI, and delivers more data. And because it is a private interface,
none of the other slots interfere with it. At least, not like
the PCI bus used to (as PCI is shared amongst all the cards on the
same bus segment).

What can you use it for ? All sorts of stuff. For example, you can
buy new sound cards with that interface on them. But if you have
an old PCI sound card you liked, and move that from machine to machine,
then a computer with nothing but PCI Express in it, means you won't be
able to reuse your old PCI sound card.

It has taken some time for other functions to show up with
that interface on them. One company rushed to market, in an
attempt to be first, and they did cards like this.

USB PCI chip
|
|
PCI <--> PCI EXpress
Bridge Chip
|
|
PCI Express x1 connector

If they do a card that way, the end user may end up paying about
$20 more for the card. So if a USB PCI card costs $10, a bridged
card might cost $30. You can see, that if you're competing head
to head with PCI, you lose by doing that. Eventually, some day,
PCI will be eliminated just as surely as ISA was, so the cheap
PCI cards will disappear to be replaced by PCI Express ones. If
there is enough of a market, companies will eventually make
chips with native PCI Express interfaces.

It took the longest time for sound cards to show up. I figured
they'd just slap a bridge on an existing design, and rush to market,
but that didn't happen. If you look at the PCI Express sound
cards on Newegg right now, people aren't very happy with them,
which makes me appreciate my $8 PCI sound card all the more.

There are pictures of the various flavors of PCI Express here.
The first article has desktop slots and mini card pictures.
(All instances of internal expansion solutions.) The second
article is for laptops.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pci_express
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExpressCard

Paul
 
Nowhere have you mentioned any identification of the machine in
question. Some desktops are like 'nettops' which have the
characteristics of a netbook with a hdd in a desktop.
Click to expand...


It's a MicroATX machine.
 
Al said:
Mike Easter
Click to expand...
It's a MicroATX machine.
Click to expand...
To me, microatx means a mobo form factor standard, not a brand and
modelno identification of a particular machine which is about to be
ordered. Microatx doesn't identify it any better than desktop did.
 
Al Dykes said:
What is the PCI Express x1 minicard socket on the machine I'm about to
order for?

--
Al Dykes
News is something someone wants to suppress, everything else is
advertising.
- Lord Northcliffe, publisher of the Daily Mail
Click to expand...

I've got this sound card in my PCI-E x1 slot
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129740

also I believe you can get network cards for PCI-E x1
 
Thanks. Oddly, this is a desktop machine.
Click to expand...

Apparently Mike was confused by the terminology "minicard" in your
subject line "PCI Express x1 minicard". He thought it was
something other than an ordinary PCI Express x1 slot found on
most modern desktop motherboards.
 
VanguardLH said:
Naw, you don't mean to say that John Doe, always so graciously
helpful in all his posts, decided to resurrect an ancient
10-month dead thread, do ya? >;->
Click to expand...

If MouthGuard were the ruler of UseNet he pretends to be, instead
of just a condescending pretentious prick, he would know that in
fact people find information from UseNet many years (even decades)
after it has been posted. I was simply clearing up confusion
because of a misunderstanding, in a thread branch of several
posts.
--
 
NOTE: JD still attempting the troll maneuver of trying to get replies
cross-posted into unrelated "dump" groups. The following newsgroup was
omitted in my reply:

free.UseNet


John said:
If MouthGuard were the ruler of UseNet he pretends to be, instead of
just a condescending pretentious prick,
Click to expand...

Yep, that childish retort sure lends credence to his professional
assistance to others.
he would know that in fact people find information from UseNet many
years (even decades) after it has been posted.
Click to expand...

Garnering information to resolve a problem through a Usenet search is
not the same as purporting to response to an ancient and dead thread.
Go start your own blog and let users find your diary entries there.
I was simply clearing up confusion because of a misunderstanding, in a
thread branch of several posts.
Click to expand...

Oh, instead of finding NEW posts in which you could provide current
help to those posters. Uh huh. Try catching up in reverse: address
the posts of today and then progress backwards. With all the folks
asking for help, you'll have a tough time getting to any of the really
old posts, like those A YEAR OLD.
 
VanguardLH said:
NOTE: JD still attempting the troll maneuver of trying to get
replies cross-posted
Click to expand...

Nobody gives a **** where your reply goes to, MouthGuard.
Yep, that childish retort sure lends credence to his
professional assistance to others.
Click to expand...

You are a bozo too, MouthGuard.
--
 
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