What is the speed of the pci slot/bus?

[wingman411]

I was just wondering what the speed is the PCI slot/bus?

You can add many different type of cards in them such as a USB 2.0 multi port and ide controler cards, etc. My question is what speed is it capable of inputing and outputing? USB 2 is supposed to be 40 x faster than USB 1. IF your mainboard doesn't have onboard USB and you use an add on card, can the pci keep up?

Thanks in advance.

 

[jumpy]

The PCI bus in total can transfer around 133MB/s, but that is only theoretical. True speeds are probably in the order of 110-120MB/s. USB2.0 is 480Mbit/s (60MB/s) so there is nearly half of your bandwidth gone with a USB2.0 card. Then there's not much left for an IDE card or anything else that needs a high bandwidth. There are new technologies coming out that will boost the bandwidth of the PCI bus though.

 

[wingman411]

You guys are awesum! Thanks for the quick response to my question.

 

[jumpy]

No problemo, glad I could help

 

[LeeJend]

The PCI bus slot clock is 33 mHz. The AGP slot is either 1,2,4 or now 8 times that (aka 2x, 4x, 8x). The PCI slot is getting pretty lame speed wise adn is due to be replaced with a new high speed version. That's accademic though since video is on the AGP and everything else fast (IDE, LAN, USB, Firewire, etc) is built into the new chipsets now bypassing the PCI slot. About the only thing left that needs a stand alone card for good quality is sound. Dial up modems require very little speed.

Alas, lets all mourn the demise of the PCI slot and its grandfather the ISA slot...

:-(

PS Yes we know we're awesome, just ask any of us.