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guardiangod

Yup I ran out of PCIe slots in my last computer-

1x Bluetooth+Wifi adapter (offload the USB bus)

1x Highpoint USB 3 controller (the only USB3 controller that is reliable for work)

1x Quad network ports adapter

1x Video card

Things I wanted to install but couldn't-

1x M.2 nvme adapter card

1x Video card

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Consider yourself lucky. During the GPU apocalypse I managed a Newegg Shuffle for a GPU that included this motherboard: https://www.newegg.com/gigabyte-b550m-ds3h/p/N82E16813145210

Fast-forward a bit and I used it to build my kid a new machine, except my old RTX 2060 was a "2.5 slot" card which means it's literally the one and only PCIe card I can install. I had to get him a USB wifi adapter...

> ...During the GPU apocalypse...

@duffyjp : Maybe i'm mis-reading your comment here...but are we out of the GPU apocalypse yet? Genuinely curious, because I've been holding out getting a small desktop PC for homelab use. (Yes, yes, i know for server homelab stuff i don't really need a GPU, but GPU pricing i think tends to portend overall computing cost nowadays.)

Expect GPU prices to go down in a little over a week from now

The shortage is basically over, and nvidia severely over-purchased fab capacity from TSMC for the 4000 series. Prices have tanked and will likely keep going down unless nvidia can sell off the 5nm fab time.

USB has a non-trivial CPU overhead compared to PCIe.

The argument there is that you should probably have looked at a workstation CPU and board, e.g. ThreadRipper.

Threadripper has worse single-core performance than Ryzen, lacks 3D V-Cache, only came in a Pro option last generation (which was vendor-locked to Lenovo for months), and has been removed from next generation's roadmap.

As I mentioned in the "Slots vs. Lanes" section in the article, most home users don't actually need more lanes -- just more slots.

> most home users don't actually need more lanes -- just more slots

Indeed. I really don't understand why they can't have x16 slots instead of those useless x1 slots.

My current motherboard has two PCIe x1 slots, running either 3.0 or 4.0. Plenty of bandwidth for lots of stuff. But they're useless because every expansion board has a x4 or larger connector. Previous motherboards have been full of useless x1 connectors as well.

I know there are exceptions, but x1 is certainly the norm.

Open back 1x connectors do exist, then you can put whatever in them. Would be nice if motherboard makes would use those.

You can also use a dremel if you feel adventurous

Do you have enough lanes overall? I wonder if a splitter might work for your needs.

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