Sandy Bridge lacking PCI slots

I was about to buy one of those cheap Xonar sound cards, which I would then have put in a Sandy Bridge system which I plan to buy in spring. But my early investigations show that some (most?) of the 1155 motherboards won't support PCI cards.

There aren't many PCI express sound available - especially not cheap ones. Is this likely to stay this way, or will some canny motherbaord makers put PCI slots in anyway??

There is also the option of some kind of bridging system to PCIe I believe, but will this cause latency or other performance issues?

I am sure only the very top end board with lots of PCI-e slot do not have PCI slots

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_wAoJy6PBk6g/TN...UD7_resize.jpg

Yes, a bit more investigation confirms that the P67 and H67 chipsets will not natively support PCI. But mobo manufacturers will be including them via a PCI express bridging chip.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by banja

There is also the option of some kind of bridging system to PCIe I believe, but will this cause latency or other performance issues?

---

High end Xonar cards that are PCI-e actually use bridging chips as they're natively PCI chips anyway, so they don't seem to think there's a latency issue.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by banja

Yes, a bit more investigation confirms that the P67 and H67 chipsets will not natively support PCI. But mobo manufacturers will be including them via a PCI express bridging chip.

---

Wow, PCI about to become a "legacy" item.....I guess it is about time though!

Manufacturers are even wanting to ditch VGA from a lot of systems as the connector is too bulky. At least with HDMI you can go for a mini connector.

What about DVI? Surely that must be bulkier that VGA...

I must admit, the length of time the VGA connection has been common-place is quite staggering. I think the only connector to out-last it is probably the 3-pin power input :)

Although a lot of newer gfx cards do not have them, although they still seem to ship with DVI>VGA adapters, annoyingly as most still do not ship with DVI>HDMI adapters which would probably benefit more people these days.

so how am i suppose to connect my tv card and sound card that are both pci devices when most of these boards dont have pci connections?

Most of them do, it's only a few high end boards that have no PCI legacy slots.

You can buy pci-express to pci adapter cards for when they finally become legacy. I've never used one so no idea how well they work.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/184675

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by spoon_

What about DVI? Surely that must be bulkier that VGA...

---

But it is also electrically compatible with HDMI, so all you need is a passive cable adapter, or a cable with HDMI on one end and DVI on the other.

So replacing a bulk DVI connector with even a mini HDMI is no real issue, phasing out VGA is a different matter altogether.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sadbuttrue

You can buy pci-express to pci adapter cards for when they finally become legacy. I've never used one so no idea how well they work.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/184675

---

Will only work for low profile PCI cards with a low profile bracket though.

so all in all where screwed.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by j.o.s.h.1408

so all in all where screwed.

---

Nope. Just buy a motherboard that uses a bridging chip, like they've been doing for the last generation as well.

bridging chip? no idea what that is.

If you find a pic of a new (p67 / H67) board that does have PCI slots, you'll see a silver square chip near to them. This is the PCI express bridging chip.

I can only assume this causes no latency problems. For most uses (games etc) I certainly can't imagine any problem. I just wonder if latency critical audio work might be affected slightly though.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by j.o.s.h.1408

bridging chip? no idea what that is.

---

One that comes with PCI slots.

I'm using a VGA monitor ATM but I very much doubt my next one would be. I mean it's a great monitor but I had pretty bad problems with ghosting/blurring which turned out to be the cable. Also I use a KVM between 2 PCs and the picture ends up to one side and the clock is usually slightly out when I switch computers so if I want to use 1 PC for any length of time I need to re-adjust the monitor. It's usually just a case of going here, going full-screen and pressing auto on the monitor, which usually corrects the clock and centres the image but it's a pain having to do it all the time. I'm pretty sure I'd have none of those problems with a digital interface.