Explaining PCIe Slots 

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The people who were young when it was cool to wear your hat backwards are nearly old enough to retire. Youre ancient history at this point.

@@BlastinRope Never been cool to wear a hat backward...just makes you look lazy and ignorant.

Thanks. :)

Gold mine? Why not bitcoin mine?

Bitcoin mine? Why not bottle cap mine?

@@denniscuesta7009 I still have the wallet and there is no network to sync to and no one on it. How do we start up the bottle cap ecosystem again? Did the project get abandoned?

@@denniscuesta7009 Its been years since I downloaded the wallet for bottle caps. Never really any network to connect to. I thought it was one of the coins that were not genuine...

Those old mobos are a goldmine :P

Hans Campbell If we go by first computer it's the 128D, I was a bit late to the game

My first computer was an IBM 1401. 1964.

David Hite That reminds me, I started on a Z1. We did have an IBS AS/400 as a modern Server in Computer School..

My first computer was a notched stick! :)

Ever heard of a St-one at st-one .. lol that actually makes it sound like it's something.. but it was fun to see how far people go back.. I don't know if many people (let's not say from the younger generation but in general) can build a computer but don't really know why and how it works.

Thanks. :)

G Dunken I don’t know....I did let out a small internal scream of horror at the memories of trying to “cable manage” and triple checking cards and slots from the old days. It is nostalgic, but I’m glad things are much more efficient for building these days.

Same here. We also cannot forget MCA and EISA. They came out in the late 1980's.

Can i put pcie 2.0 x16 card in pcie x16 slot ?

@@unbroken5011 Just watch the video.

@@unbroken5011 uhm why not?

Indeed they did! :)

Dont mind that video, the guy didnt understand anything about pc's he was just making up things as he goes. Try Googling a proper guide or something that way you could probably build your pc.

@@user-ge4re8up6v I've spent nearly 30 years lecturing and publishing books and videos about computing, so respectfully suggest that you are wrong about my knowledge base. The vast majority of the comments here also suggest that this video contains good information and has been helpful to a lot of viewers. :)

@@ExplainingComputers yeh sorry for the misunderstanding but, am talking about the guy from the verge video he was making up things as he goes if you watched that video you'd understand. Ps i really enjoyed this video Much love @k

Lol

Same as for video formats. We say, that VHS, DVD, BD, these are changing so fast, that you should buy our movies again and again. But when the VHS started? 1976. DVD? 1995, 19 years later. Blu-Ray? 2006, 11 years later. UHD-BD? 2016, 10 years later. So, ok VHS were with us for a long time, but from current time it is like they introduced it around the DVD's date. Also, I am sure, that the UHD-BD is so bad format (thanks, studios), that BD will be with us for a while, as you also can buy lots of DVDs. And I didn't bother to look for the Video CD, LaserDisc, HD-DVD, etc, we had during these times (watch Techmoan's channel for strange formats)

Yes indeed, ddr3 already feels a little old now when ddr4 has been the successor during these four years only to be replaced by a new standard. Wonder if DDR6 will appear in half the time it will take DDR5 to become the new thing over DDR4?

@@stevebergman6431 Thats more an issue with modern software and games than it is CPU platue. Most modern games only use a few cores, or maybe 4 tops, but if a game was able to utilize all your cores in an effectives way, having 8, 10, 18 or more cores would be a night and day difference from a 4 core running at double the speed. That said, now that we are finally going beyond just the 4 core/8 thread thereshold in the consumer market, you can expect to see a lot more games and software utlilize most, if not all, of your cores, and to start running significantly better in high core count cpus.

Am I the only one who noticed that in the last example the video card was larger than the whole motherboard it was inserted into?

@@dowskivisionmagicaloracle8593 No, you're not. We are at least two who have noticed.

Same I'm up at 1 am studying for Comptia

Amir Ayromloo black magic

Bro its 1:35 for me lol

What a coincidence.. mine was 1.24am.

The early hours is geek time.

Excitement at tech knowledge is always good! :)

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-azlpu0zUPJs.htmlsi=ygiWa7Rwp0ZTeItc

Definitely, that is also a huge difference between a consumer board and a server board. More lanes! Equal when it comes to expensive server cpu's. They tend to offer support for more PCI-E lanes, required to run a lot of data hungry cards.

Thankfully the renewed competition between AMD and Intel has allowed consumers to gain access to a high number of PCIe lanes without the price premium of server grade hardware.

That is not the right thinking though. Most of the PC users (who care anyway) are gamers, and for that a server grade HW is a waste of money. Paying for what they are not going to use. Even with SLI configuration all you need is 8 lanes per gfx card. Having 16 lanes per card won't boost the performance (PCIe 3.0) as current consumer grade HW won't even fully utilise the PCIe x8 (3.0). Mind you, we are a few months from PCIe 4.0 (5.0, some say we're going to skip 4.0), which will be even faster, than what we use today, which would mean less lanes will do the same job. We have seen this before. PCie x16 (2.0) = PCIe x8 (3.0) and it scales all down to the PCIe x1. So, we won't have more lanes in the future, we're going to have the same amount or even less, but way faster. It's the physical work to put the lanes on the board and the CPU, that costs the money, not the technology.

@@philipcooper8297 the thing is, it has more lanes and still has a better price to performance ratio than an equivalent Intel consumer CPU

Gamers care a lot about pcie lanes because NVME ssds need lots of it for the bandwdith. More pcie lanes = more nvme ssds = more games you can have installed. More pcie lanes = less sharing of speed between the nvme ssds = lower loading times = getting back into the match faster.

The lanes were crowded but CLEAR!

Thanks. :)

Thanks for this. I spent 25 years as a university lecturer, and have done some freelance teaching since leaving in late 2015. :)

Glad to hear that this has helped you. :)

Your issue sounds strange; since most motherboards nowadays come with an internal graphics card, so you don't need to add one, unless you want to free *all* the RAM or you need a dedicated graphics card for gaming, video editing, CAD, etc.

@@brujo_millonario Integrated graphics are provided by the processor, and not all processors have integrated graphics. The build I was making (now several years ago?) was for VR games, and my main concern was that the graphics card covered up what I had first assumed would be the only PCI-E slot that my intended WiFi adapter would be using.

Thanks.

Thank you, I will

Thanks for this. I have a PC hardware basics video here -- in my view, the best video I have ever made: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nTtdEYRh8WI.html You may also want to checkout the ExplainingComputers hardware page, which links into loads of hardware videos: www.explainingcomputers.com/hardware.html Good luck with your journey. :)

I love you PCI. qq

Also, PCIe got rid of physical IRQ lines. IRQs are packetised over PCIe

Oh those gloriuos days whey you have to move jumpers here and there to make an ISA card to work with no conflict... they are gone forever... luckly.

Did PCIe really introduce the automatic configuration? Amiga computers had their own Zorro slot standard that had autoconfig. And for all I know the Zorro slots may not have been the first. Or is it just more accurate to say that PCIe brought auto configuration to mass market computers?

@@siliconaudio OMG, I remember setting DMA, IRQ etc stuff just to make my Sound Blaster Pro work...

Why are you YELLING?

Wow, thank you!

I have a question since you said you've been working on computers for 30 years. I have a laptop with integrated graphics card nvidia 1060 6GB card. I am trying to run a triple monitor setup in extended mode (only have 2 monitors at the moment) but heres my question & what ive run into (question at the end). When I had 1 monitor hooked up with DisplayPort cable to DisplayPort MST hub > laptops mini-displayport, I was getting 144hz 1080p (monitor runs those specs). when I connected my 2nd monitor, I was able to get 1080p on both monitors BUT only 60hz on both monitors. im guessing my GPU isn't strong enough to power both at 144hz 1080p right? heres my Q. Can I hook up 2 external graphics cards to run separate monitors and have my laptop run 1 "main" monitor then span with Physx nvidia panel? im looking at the Msi Geforce gaming 1070ti for GPU's. heres my diagram. left-side monitor: [[GPU {DP cable} > monitor > ; GPU > Thunderbolt 3.0 MST dual hub adapter > Thunderbolt 3.0 port on laptop]] middle monitor: [[monitor DP > DisplayPort MST hub > mini-display port on laptop]] right-side monitor: same setup as left side monitor since I would have a 2 port Thunderbolt adapter connected to laptop. hope this isn't too confusing sorry im a little new to the PC world. I just want 1080p 144hz on all 3 monitors for gaming. thanks!!

XxBEFALLENxX Which laptop do you have? My main computer rig has 2 1920x1080 (aka, 1080p) monitors, and 2 1080x1024 monitors (spanning about 6 feet across my desk). The larger your "desktop," as denoted by the total pixel count, whether it be across one giant monitor or multiple smaller ones, the higher the performance cost to run it. A 1080p monitor, at 1920x1080 resolution, has 2,073,600 pixels. A 4K monitor is twice vertical, and twice horizontal of the 1080p monitor, at 3840x2160 resoultion, which amounts to.8,294,400 pixels. To run a 4K monitor at the same framerate you were used to on the 1080p monitor, you literally need 4 times the graphics power as you used for the 1080p monitor. Likewise, if you're gaming laptop has a built-in 1080p display (as does mine), and you are running two external monitors at 1080p, then your effective desktop space is 5760x1080, which means that with two external monitors, the GPU has to work 1/3 harder than if it was just running one external monitor. To cope with these limited resources, it has to give somewhere. The reasonable way to manage this is to reduce the refresh rate so that all 3 monitors can be run simultaneously. Laptops generally aren't well suited for gaming because even those that are specifically designed and marketed for it, despite the horrendous price tags, go obsolete quickly. If it had a 1070 or 1080 chipset, maybe it could do it, but I don't know off hand. Some of these gaming laptops have the GPU on a discrete card, allowing for SOME upgradability, but these will always be proprietary, and cost an arm and a leg. If you're looking for a gaming rig, a desktop is always the better way to go unless you NEED that portability. Now, if I understand correctly, you've turned off the laptop's built-in screen and are running 3 external monitors; one over the mini-DisplayPort, and the other two running off of a Thunderbolt hub? Thunderbolt 3.0 can transfer at up to 40Gbps, but running two monitors from a hub splits that bandwidth between both monitors, so they both only receive data at 20Gbps, which could also be the cause of your performance drop. 2,073,600 pixels at 32-bit color (32 bits/pixel) is 66,355,200 bits, and times 60Hz requires a bandwidth of 3.98 Gbps (3,981,312,000 bits per second) or at 144Hz, 9.55 Gbps. So it SHOULD be able to run both monitors at 144Hz. Perhaps the software detects that there are multiple devices on the bus and scales it down by a pre-set rate? I'm not sure. If the laptop has an HDMI port as well, you might also try running one monitor off of the HDMI, one on the mini-DisplayPort, and one off of Thunderbolt, that way your only bottleneck will be the GPU itself. Otherwise, you might have to get comfortable running your two secondary monitors at 60Hz, and your main monitor at 144Hz if it does that. Typically, the one you want at high speed will be your primary anyways, unless you're spanning the entire game across all three monitors.

BlackEpyon dang thanks so much for your In-depth response! So I have the Msi gs63vr 7RF I have 16GB CPU RAM and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 GPU with 6GB graphics card. That is my laptop. My monitors are the Msi MAG24C capable of 144hz refresh rate and 1080p. I have only 2 monitors hooked up and I don't have a 3rd monitor yet however I came across this issue(not issue just nuisance I guess lol) ill clarify again so we're on the same page and no misunderstanding occur haha at first I was running 1 monitor @144hz/1080p with PC screen disabled connected via DisplayPort cable to DP MST hub adapter to mini display port on laptop. Bought 2nd monitor and hooked up via DP cable to MST hub (it has 3 DP connections and other end is the mini-DP to PC). So then I encountered this issue. With 2 monitors ON (set to extend mode) and PC screen disabled, I was able to get 1080p but both run 60hz now. My plan is to run 3 monitors at full specs 144hz 5760x1080p extended mode, PC screen disabled for gaming bcuz if I spent the $$ for those monitors then I want to get the full use out of them. Originally I didn't know that it would cause it to drop refresh rate since I was told my laptop can support 3 monitors with the 1060. I'm a noob to the PC world so I thought it was simple plug and play and my GPU can support it. So I understand now that yes it can run 3 monitors however not at what I'm asking for it to do. I started researching and found that yes bandwidth drops because of what you're asking it to do and signal splits like u said. That's understandable to me now lol. I asked a frys electronics tech guy and he said to run 2 monitors off a thunderbolt 3 adapter because that'll get me the 144hz/1080p and 1 monitor off the miniDP because it's limited for its bandwidth BUT he said I'll most likely need a 1080ti desktop GPU for the 2 monitors ,which is what ive been looking into, to run the signal that I want. So now I'm thinking with the idea that I need an external GPU with PCI-E adapter for laptop, power supply for GPU, the enclosure, and then cables to connect. Am I on the right track on what I'm looking to do? I don't want to run 1 at full spec and the other 2 at 60hz and reason I don't want a desktop is cux at the moment I use this laptop for work too and I like the mobility anyways. I understand desktop is best for this but I just don't like to be stuck to one place all the time. I don't mind blowing lots of money on building this cuz it's honestly kinda funtrying to figure it out. I was an auto tech for 6 years so I know ppl who could make me a custom open air frame/enclosure for the GPU (or two 1070ti GPUs if needed; each 1070 runs 1 monitor and laptops 1060 runs last remaining monitor which would be 1; if that's even possible) again thanks for the in depth response. I hope we can figure this out together lol let me know what you think and suggest. There is no budget idc how much it costs.

XxBEFALLENxX Fabricating an enclosure for an external video card isn't the issue, as is connecting the thing. Laptops don't have PCIe 16x slots, so the only way to connect one electrically is to use something line this: www.aliexpress.com/item/Mini-PCIe-to-PCI-express-16X-Riser-for-Laptop-External-Graphics-Card-EXP-GDC-BTC-Antminer/32861648447.html?spm=2114.search0104.3.1.4a842006VKhknt&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_4_10065_10068_10130_10547_10059_10884_10548_10887_10696_100031_10084_10083_10103_10618_10139_10307,searchweb201603_60,ppcSwitch_0&algo_expid=958c50c3-6792-4c5e-a9f9-ab7af45b1ae5-0&algo_pvid=958c50c3-6792-4c5e-a9f9-ab7af45b1ae5&priceBeautifyAB=0 You'd still need to purchase an external PC power supply, and this would only work IF your laptop had a free mini PCIe or NGFF slot (depending on the type of adapter you get), for which you might need to remove the Wi-Fi module. I can't tell what your laptop has for internal slots, the specs don't say. Here's the problem though: That slot only has a single lane (PCIe 1x, for running a Wi-Fi card, etc), and the video card needs the full 16 lanes to run at it's full capabilities. You might be able to get the card itself to output at 144Hz, but the signal from the laptop over PCIe 1x will limit the gaming framerate on that card to 1/16th of what it would be in a desktop PC, regardless of what the refresh rate is. These gadgets are designed for bitcoin miners, who use GPUs for their high number of floating point calculations . They're not not designed whatsoever for gaming, so while the adapter is cheap, purchasing a video card would be a colossal waste of money. You won't make much money off crypto-currency mining anyways unless you've got a server farm (the whole "make money at home doing nothing" thing is a marketing wank scam). Try using the HDMI port on your laptop. It's supposed to do 4K at 60Hz, so it should have no trouble doing 1080p at higher refresh rates. You'd have HDMI, mini-DP and Thunderbolt, each going to it's own monitor. That's your best bet at getting this to work as you intend. Otherwise, you're going to have to accept that there ARE limits to what you can do with a laptop, no matter how much you spend on it. "I spent the $$ for those monitors then I want to get the full use out of them." Waste of money unless you're planning on stretching the game over all three monitors, but hey, it's your dime. I only game on my MAIN monitor (at higher refresh rate) and use the others for FIrefox, windows media player, windows explorer, etc which DON'T need such a high refresh rate.

Thanks. :)

I agree. These explanations regarding how PCs have evolved are fascinating. Thanks Chris.

Damn Tom, you stole my thunder.

Thanks.

Thank you very much!

Great suggestion!

For a long time I have been planning a video from RAM, from magnetic core storage on onwards! I really must get to making it.

Good idea, my first pc was 4MB ram (386 dx 40MHz). I will be wait for this topic.

My first computer had 512 KB RAM, which I upgraded to a whopping 4MB which is as much as The Operating System (TOS 1.4) can handle. I don't use it much now, but it still works fine for certain things.

I started with Atari 65XE with 64 kB of RAM. Then moved into PC world with Hyundai Super 16V PC/XT with whooping 640 kB of RAM, 10 MHz 8088 CPU, EGA graphics and single DSDD 360 kB 5,25” floppy drive. No hard drive of course.

Great idea! My first PC in 1994 was. a 486 DX2 with 4MB ram. It was back in the day when you went to a shop and talked to a salesman about what components you wanted in the machine and they ordered them and built the computer for you.

They're not so far apart these days; when you think about learning medicine in general (anatomy, physiology, etc.), communicating with the patient and the computers used in radiology to obtain and see the data of different studies; tomography, MRI, etc.

How things have changed!

Gotta be careful with those brand name desktops. Some of them, such as the HP dc5700 (I've worked with a number of these units) have what looks for all intents and purposes like a 16x slot, but is designed ONLY for a proprietary expansion card. If you try to put a video card in one of these, it'll just give you an error code.

The two white slots are PCI. He talks about them at 1:50 and shows them at 2:02. The 4 he's pointing out are white just like yours; Yes they're bit older interfaces but some cards run fine with them.

That's what it looks like, yes. The colour of the slots is completely arbitrary. They come in any colour the manufacturer wants. I've seen black, red, neon green, etc. Sometimes they will be colour coded, sometimes not. Usually, at least the primary slot is a different colour, but not always.