Question : Problem: Need help identtifying I/O Slots PCI-Express  and PCIe

I am kind of confused.

I have a poweredge sc1430.

The poweredge has a PCIe Slot which I assume stands for PCI express.

So I recently bought a RAID Card, the Adaptec 3405 RAID controller which supports PCI - Express.

When I received this card in the mail, and went to install it in the PCI - Express Slot in the server. I notice that the slot was slightly bigger then the card.

So to be more specific there was a lil  slot which fit snug, and a larger slot which fit but was longer then the card.

This is hard to explain, but I am wondering if I can use this card in this slot?  Are there different size PCI Slots?


Thanks.

Answer : Problem: Need help identtifying I/O Slots PCI-Express  and PCIe

Yes PCIe slots come in 4 different sizes - x1, x4, x8 and x16 - the larger slot the more bandwidth.  There is normally no problem using a card as long as it fits into the slot.

It is probably better to use the slot that fits in case you need the higher bandwidth slot for something else later.  A larger slot will not improve performance as it still only uses what the card can deliver.