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Pastimes : Dream Machine ( Build your own PC ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dirk Hente who wrote (212)	2/14/1998 12:07:00 PM
From: Zeuspaul	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14778

[PCI slots...system resources..9 PCI slot mobo..PCguide link] 9 PCI slots...what do they mean by five primary and four secondary PCI slots? It must be some form of sharing the PCI slots. I have had trouble identifying the amount of system resources a component will consume. It doesn't seem to be identified on the box. I am concerned about the sound card. It is a low priority yet it is a resource hog. Can someone recommend a good sound card that is not a resource hog? There is a limit to the amount of sharing without causing problems. I highly recommend the following site. The link is to System Resources but the site is very comprehensive. pcguide.com To Share, Or Not To Share There are some circumstances where you can share resources between multiple devices, but it is never a really good idea. Why? Because sharing generally relies on either the user or the software "not doing" something that would create a conflict, and it is sometimes hard to maintain the discipline to do this consistently. It also creates a confusing situation to anyone else using the PC, and makes upgrading the machine more difficult as well. Furthermore, sharing resources can sometimes cause strange problems because the system is doing things with the devices when you may not realize it. For example, many multitasking operating systems like Windows 95 can access hardware even when you aren't directly requesting its use.

To: Dirk Hente who wrote (212)	4/9/1998 9:02:00 PM
From: Zeuspaul	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14778

PCI limitations...number of slots..loads An excerpt, read the entire article at esc.nu >>The hierarchical bus structure does more than free the faster buses from the waits and limitations of the slow ones, it shortens the physical reach of the faster buses and reduces the number of connected devices. Take a look at a PCI motherboard - it's no accident that the PCI chip set is physically near the processor or that the memory sockets are near them both. The speed of light is the fastest signals propagate along wires, and is no better than (!!!) one nanosecond per foot. Long wires on the motherboard require longer cycles for round trip signaling. Worse, every device on a wire adds capacitance slowing the rise time of the signals and effectively slowing the signal propagation rate. These physical problems, in practical terms, are the source of the limits on the number of devices you can hang on a PCI bus - the reason motherboards commonly only support three or four PCI cards. The inherent PCI wire length and signal loading limits mean that, without special measures, you can't have lots of PCI slots on a motherboard, and can't have multiple PCI devices on an adapter card. That's not a realistic restriction though - a server can easily need lots of PCI slots; a dual channel SCSI host adapter needs to present multiple devices on the bus for a single card slot.<< bold added