can regular PCI cards work in the 64Bit slots in SErver mobo?

[GenIV]

I helped my friend order the Dell 600SC server.


I notice inside there's only 1 pic slot and like four 64bit slots..

can I put pci cards in teh 64 bit slots?


(sorry if this sounds lame, but this is the first time I've actually deal with a server type hardware)

[Ashpool]

Pretty sure they can. You can think the same as with AGP Pro slots.

[Colossus]

I dont think it would work. Those 64-bit PCI slots have two notches that will only accept 64-bit PCI cards.

[kidsony]

arent the 64bit cards like a 32 bit card then a extra set of pins so they are longer? if that is the case a 32 bit card would fit in but not take up the whole slot.

[Colossus]

64-bit cards are longer but they have 2 notches in the card. If you look at the PCI slot for those 64-bit types. You will see there is a notch on the front and end of the PCI slot.

Standard PCI has the notch at the end. So I dont think it would fit.

[Colossus]

If you look at this image. It will show the notches and how a standard PCI will not fit into a 64-bit slot.

[kidsony]

ok, my bad

[Colossus]

I can be wrong since I never tried to place a 32-bit car into a 64-bit slot. Even if it did fit, I wonder if that would cause problems with motherboards with more then 1 64-bit PCI slots?

I always inserted 64-bit into 64-bit or 64-bit into 32-bit, but not 32-bit into 64-bit slot

[kidsony]

i think i was thinking of the 64bit cards fitting in to the 32 bit slots but i got the order confused. Oh well

[SkyDog]

Actually, I think you can fit some 32-bit PCI cards into 64-bit PCI slots. Take a look at some of your PCI cards, and you'll see that some have two notches:

  ---|
     |-------------------------------|
     |                               |
     |                               |
     |                               |
     |                               |
     |_______________________________|
     |   |________________| |___|     <----  One Notch
     |

  ---|
     |-------------------------------|
     |                               |
     |                               |
     |                               |
     |                               |
     |_______________________________|
     |   |___| |__________| |___|     <----  Two Notches
     |

HERE is a link to a picture of a card that shows what I mean.

If I remember correctly, that second notch near the back panel of the computer signifies a voltage difference -- 3.3 V vs. 5.0 V.

[ua549]

Make sure a check the frequency for each PCI slot. The 64 bit slots come in 33MHz, 66MHz, 100MHz and 133MHz varieties. The last two speeds are PCI-X slots.

[capstah]

Yes voltage is key. There are many cards that are "universal" and will work in either the 3.3V or 5V but you cannot force one type into the other.

[muzikjunkie]

Originally posted by Colossus
If you look at this image. It will show the notches and how a standard PCI will not fit into a 64-bit slot.

note that the NIC has a notch in front (like most 32-but PCI cards) so it look like the 64-bit are backward compatible (but probably not for ALL 32-bit PCI cards) and that makes sense since EISA is backward compatible with ISA cards (just using that as an example)