Examining the Motherboard

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Lets take a closer look at this motherboard. Figure 3-28 shows the expansion slots for this motherboard.

Figure 3-28: A Motherboard with PCI, PCI Express (x1) and PCI Express(x16)

This motherboard contains six expansion slots in all. The two white expansion slots are PCI slots, which is the oldest standard. Most expansion cards that you buy will likely be PCI, at least for awhile. The next three black slots are the PCI Express expansion slots. These are x1 type PCI express, which is the narrowest of the PCI Express bandwidth. These slots serve the same purpose as the PCI slots, except they are the newer standard. Finally is the PCI Express x16 slot. This is where the video card will be installed. It is a very high bandwidth PCI express slot.

Not every motherboard will be configured this way, lets examine a motherboard that has an AGP slot, instead of a PCI Express. Figure 3-29 shows such a motherboard.

Figure 3-29: A Motherboard with AGP, PCI and PCI 64

The above motherboard contains an AGP slot, which is where a video card would be placed. The AGP slot is the shorter black slot on the left. It also includes 4 PCI, which are the white slots. It also contains 2 PCI-64 slots, which are in the middle. PCI-64 will likely be replaced by PCI Express. PCI-64 was generally used for high-speed disk controllers on server platforms.