Confused about 32 bit/64 bit PCI slots

I bought (perhaps too hurriedly) a motherboard: Newegg.com - ASRock A770DE+ AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard

and some NICs: Intel PRO/1000 MT Dual Port Server Adapter - Overview

The nics supposedly will work with 32 or 64 bit PCI slots, but looking at the shape of the PCI slots on the motherboard and the shape of the video cards, I'm worried they won't fit

Will they?

And as a minor gripe, it's hard to find motherboards with enough slots. I needed about 6 PCI slots and it seems like 3 is the best I could do. (It had to be a socket AM2 board)

One more minor side question: do 64 bit PCI cards fit PCI express 4x slots? Don't think they do, but doesn't hurt to ask

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Comments

tiersten

ehnde wrote: »

The nics supposedly will work with 32 or 64 bit PCI slots, but looking at the shape of the PCI slots on the motherboard and the shape of the video cards, I'm worried they won't fit Will they?

It depends as to whether it works or not.

If something interferes with where the extra card edge is dangling in the air then it won't work.
If your motherboard isn't PCI 2.1 compliant then it won't work.
If the NIC doesn't support 32 bit operation then it won't work.
If your motherboard chipset doesn't support 64 bit cards in 32 bit mode then it won't work.

ehnde wrote: »

And as a minor gripe, it's hard to find motherboards with enough slots. I needed about 6 PCI slots and it seems like 3 is the best I could do. (It had to be a socket AM2 board)

Stop buying PCI cards then :P You can get single, dual and quad port Intel NICs that use PCI Express.

ehnde wrote: »

One more minor side question: do 64 bit PCI cards fit PCI express 4x slots? Don't think they do, but doesn't hurt to ask

No.

ehnde

Wow that's alot of ifs! Thanks, very informative. I checked more carefully and there is a heatsink that will probably interfere with installation in 2 PCI slots, but the 3rd is open.

I've got 4 cards on the way in one shipment and will probably only be able to use one. Maybe I can sell them for a profit

Moral of the story: I need to do more research before buying parts.

tiersten

It will be hard to find a modern desktop motherboard that takes a recent CPU but also has that many PCI slots as most people have moved onto PCI Express. If you start looking into more exotic server and workstation motherboards then you might be able to find one that has multiple PCI buses and also has the required number of slots. The chances of it actually having PCI-X slots anyway is higher so you may not need to worry and it'll just work.

Somebody else recently asked the same question. The card says it should work according to the manufacturer. The motherboard in theory should work as its > PCI 2.1. But it doesn't appear to actually work for some unknown reason.