PCI Express is a bus for connecting peripherals to a motherboard internally. It is designed to provide higher performance / bandwidth than either PCI or AGP. Video cards, Ethernet cards, SCSI controllers, and sound cards are all available for this bus. PCI Express slots come in several different size, each designed to provide higher bandwidth. Cards designed for the smaller slots will work in the larger ones as well.
PCI express is a expansion slot on your motherboard used to accomidate expansion cards ( sound video modems and other things) it Has a fast buss speed to run newer faster video cards for gameing and advanced video editing. It is a second generation to a standard PCI developed to replace and be more versitile than the current AGP (accelerated graphics port) but many new motherboards come with both AGP and multiple combos of PCI and PCI express slots.
PCI-X is an extension of the PCI bus intended for servers and high-end workstations. It has a 64-bit data bus (most conventional PCI slots are 32-bit) and operates at up to 533 MHz (PCI slots operate at 33 or 66 MHz). PCI-X slots can be distinguished by having a longer edge connector than their PCI cousins. PCI cards and PCI-X cards are interchangeable and can be used in one another's slots, with some performance degradation.
An AGP slot is a post-PCI/pre-PCIx graphic card interface bus. It was a step up from the PCI video cards, but were phased out with the PCIx standard.
Hardware will be RAID PCIe / PCIx RAID hardware controller but The hardware RAID is often the motherboard RAID controller or a separate RAID card.
Yes. There are many different types of wireless cards, and your choice will vary based on your needs. There are USB wifi dongles to give you wifi access with a hotspot, there are PCI/PCIx wifi cards to do the same without having something sticking out of your laptop, and there are "Cellular Broadband" cards (both USB and PCI/PCIx) that will give you wireless internet access wherever there is a cell signal. I you explain why you need it at you local computer store, I'm sure they can help you out.
CPU > Motherboard > RAM > I/O (Graphics, Sound, Hard drive Controller, etc. ) Generally, one chooses a CPU, then based on the CPU requirements, amotherboard then RAM and so on. However if you are looking to use a specific graphics card, you would need to find the requirements for that model. The interface needs to match or be compatible, such as PCI express. If your video card uses a PCIx16 2.0 slot, your motherboard would need to be able to support a PCIx16 2.0 card. But if your board had a PCIx16 2.1 slot, it would still work because the 2.1 revision is backwards compatible. However, cards such as a PCIx1 slot is not compatible with a PCIx16 card. There are also motherboards that support SLI orCrossfire X This is a special link that allows to or more video card to work together. Some motherboards support SLI some supportCrossfire X some support both. AMD/ATI usesCrossfire Xto link their video cards, nVidia uses SLI. These are not cross compatible, i.e. SLI between an AMD card and nVidia card. All in all, graphics cards do not require a specific motherboard, nor do motherboards require specific video cards. Also, if the motherboard has the option for SLI, and only one graphics card is used, an AMD card will usually work just fine (Crossfire Xrequires 2 or more cards) and vice versa. One more exception is the new AMD APUs. These are processors with a GPU [Graphics Processing Unit] built in (notexactly but for simplicity we'll call it a GPU). These do have requirements for specific graphics cards if the added APUbenefitis to be utilized. Not required to function, just to utilize thebenefits.To sum it up, most of the time there are no specificdependenciesother that it fits in the slot provided (AGP had different voltage tabs that required them to match however PCI = PCI, PCIx1 will fit in a PCIx[1,2,4,6,8,16] slot. One more thing to consider, nowadays they have boards with PCIx8 - mechanically x16. this means the physical slot is a x16 slot, but it acts like an 8x slot (it only has the data throughput of an x8 slot) so a x16 would fit and work butwouldn'tgo as fast. You generally see this on moterboards with multi PCIx slots. So a board might has 4 PCIx slots, (x16, x8, x4, x4) so the first slot logically would have a 16x data bus, the second logical slot would have a 8x data bus, and the last 2 would run at x4. I hope this doesn't overwhelm you, its is a bit much for such a simple question. :) anyway hope it helps!
1. AGP(accelerated graphics port) edit: now replaced with PCIx (PCI Express) ex 2010 2. Chip set 3. CPU (central processing unit) 4. bios edit: now replaced with the UEFI firmware ex 2014
Expansion card types * Graphics cards * Sound cards * Network cards * TV tuner cards * Video processing expansion cards * Modems * Host adapters such as SCSI and RAID controllers. * POST cards * BIOS Expansion ROM cards * Compatibility card (legacy) * Physics cards, only recently became commercially available. * Disk controller cards (for fixed- or removable-media drives) * Interface adapter cards, including parallel port cards, serial port cards, multi-I/O cards, USB port cards, and proprietary interface cards. * RAM disks, e.g. i-RAM * Memory expansion cards (legacy) * Hard disk cards (legacy) * Clock/calendar cards (legacy) * Security device cards * Radio tuner cards Expansion card types * Graphics cards * Sound cards * Network cards * TV tuner cards * Video processing expansion cards * Modems * Host adapters such as SCSI and RAID controllers. * POST cards * BIOS Expansion ROM cards * Compatibility card (legacy) * Physics cards, only recently became commercially available. * Disk controller cards (for fixed- or removable-media drives) * Interface adapter cards, including parallel port cards, serial port cards, multi-I/O cards, USB port cards, and proprietary interface cards. * RAM disks, e.g. i-RAM * Memory expansion cards (legacy) * Hard disk cards (legacy) * Clock/calendar cards (legacy) * Security device cards * Radio tuner cards
This: (Strait from the Sims official website: http://www.thesims3.com/game/systemreq)The Sims™ 3 Minimum Hardware RequirementsFOR WINDOWS XP2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent1 GB RAM128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0The latest version of DirectX 9.0cMicrosoft Windows XP Service Pack 2At least 6.1 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB of additional space for custom content and saved gamesFOR WINDOWS VISTA2.4 GHz P4 processor or equivalent1.5 GB RAM128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1At least 6.1 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB of additional space for custom content and saved gamesFor computers using built-in graphics chipsets under Windows, the game requires at least: Intel Integrated Chipset, GMA 3-Series or above2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent0.5 GB additional RAMFOR MAC OS XMac OS X 10.5.7 Leopard or higherIntel Core Duo Processor2 GB RAMATI X1600 or Nvidia 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM, or Intel Integrated GMA X3100.At least 6.1 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB of additional space for custom content and saved gamesThis game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems, or the GMA 950 class of integrated video cards.Windows Supported Video CardsNVIDIA GeForce seriesFX 5900, FX 5950 6200, 6500, 6600, 68007200, 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 79508400, 8500, 8600, 88009300, 9400, 9500, 9600, 9800G100, GT 120, GT 130, GTS 150GTS 250, GTX 260, GTX 280, GTX 285, GTX 295ATI Radeon™ series9500, 9600, 9800X300, X600, X700, X800, X850X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X19502400, 2600, 29003450, 3650, 3850, 38704850, 4870Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA)GMA 3-Series, GMA 4-SeriesLaptop versions of these chipsets may work, but may run comparatively slower. Standalone cards that are installed in vanilla PCI slots (not PCIe or PCIx or AGP), such as some GeForce FX variants, will perform poorly.Integrated chipsets such as the ATI Xpress and the NVIDIA TurboCache variants may default to settings that are higher than what would be optimal for them. Graphics settings can be lowered to improve performance.The NVIDIA GeForce FX series is unsupported under Vista.MAC OS X Supported Video CardsNVIDIA GeForce series7300, 76008600, 88009400M, 9600M GTGT 120, GT 130ATI Radeon™ seriesX1600, X19002400, 260038704850, 4870Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA)GMA 3-Series
It depends on the system requirements. FOR WINDOWS XP 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent 1 GB RAM 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 The latest version of DirectX 9.0c Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 At least 6.1 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB of additional space for custom content and saved games FOR WINDOWS VISTA 2.4 GHz P4 processor or equivalent 1.5 GB RAM 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1 At least 6.1 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB of additional space for custom content and saved games For computers using built-in graphics chipsets under Windows, the game requires at least: Intel Integrated Chipset, GMA 3-Series or above 2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent 0.5 GB additional RAM FOR MAC OS X Mac OS X 10.5.7 Leopard or higher Intel Core Duo Processor 2 GB RAM ATI X1600 or Nvidia 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM, or Intel Integrated GMA X3100. At least 6.1 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB of additional space for custom content and saved games This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems, or the GMA 950 class of integrated video cards. Windows Supported Video Cards NVIDIA GeForce series FX 5900, FX 5950 6200, 6500, 6600, 6800 7200, 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950 8400, 8500, 8600, 8800 9300, 9400, 9500, 9600, 9800 G100, GT 120, GT 130, GTS 150 GTS 250, GTX 260, GTX 280, GTX 285, GTX 295 ATI Radeon™ series 9500, 9600, 9800 X300, X600, X700, X800, X850 X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950 2400, 2600, 2900 3450, 3650, 3850, 3870 4850, 4870 Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) GMA 3-Series, GMA 4-Series Laptop versions of these chipsets may work, but may run comparatively slower. Standalone cards that are installed in vanilla PCI slots (not PCIe or PCIx or AGP), such as some GeForce FX variants, will perform poorly. Integrated chipsets such as the ATI Xpress and the NVIDIA TurboCache variants may default to settings that are higher than what would be optimal for them. Graphics settings can be lowered to improve performance. The NVIDIA GeForce FX series is unsupported under Vista. MAC OS X Supported Video Cards NVIDIA GeForce series 7300, 7600 8600, 8800 9400M, 9600M GT GT 120, GT 130 ATI Radeon™ series X1600, X1900 2400, 2600 3870 4850, 4870 Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) GMA 3-Series
there are certain things you NEED for the sims 3 like: The Sims™ 3 Minimum Hardware RequirementsFOR WINDOWS XP * 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent * 1 GB RAM * 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 * The latest version of DirectX 9.0c * Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 * At least 6.1 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB of additional space for custom content and saved games FOR WINDOWS VISTA * 2.4 GHz P4 processor or equivalent * 1.5 GB RAM * 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 * Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1 * At least 6.1 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB of additional space for custom content and saved games For computers using built-in graphics chipsets under Windows, the game requires at least: * Intel Integrated Chipset, GMA 3-Series or above * 2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent * 0.5 GB additional RAM FOR MAC OS X * Mac OS X 10.5.7 Leopard or higher * Intel Core Duo Processor * 2 GB RAM * ATI X1600 or Nvidia 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM, or Intel Integrated GMA X3100. * At least 6.1 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB of additional space for custom content and saved games * This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems, or the GMA 950 class of integrated video cards. Windows Supported Video Cards NVIDIA GeForce series FX 5900, FX 59506200, 6500, 6600, 68007200, 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 79508400, 8500, 8600, 88009300, 9400, 9500, 9600, 9800G100, GT 120, GT 130, GTS 150GTS 250, GTX 260, GTX 280, GTX 285, GTX 295ATI Radeon™ series 9500, 9600, 9800X300, X600, X700, X800, X850X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X19502400, 2600, 29003450, 3650, 3850, 38704850, 4870Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) GMA 3-Series, GMA 4-SeriesLaptop versions of these chipsets may work, but may run comparatively slower. Standalone cards that are installed in vanilla PCI slots (not PCIe or PCIx or AGP), such as some GeForce FX variants, will perform poorly. Integrated chipsets such as the ATI Xpress and the NVIDIA TurboCache variants may default to settings that are higher than what would be optimal for them. Graphics settings can be lowered to improve performance. The NVIDIA GeForce FX series is unsupported under Vista. MAC OS X Supported Video Cards NVIDIA GeForce series 7300, 76008600, 88009400M, 9600M GTGT 120, GT 130ATI Radeon™ series X1600, X19002400, 260038704850, 4870Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) GMA 3-Seriesif you dont have any of the necessary equipment needed it probably wont work right and maybe that's what's wrong and you dont have some of the equipment needed you need to buy the equipment if you really want it to work but even after that its not garenteed to work.
* FOR WINDOWS XP * * 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent ************mine works with 1.5 GHz * * 512 MB RAM * * A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 * * At least 4 GB of hard drive space, with at least 1 GB additional space for creations.* FOR WINDOWS VISTA * * 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent * * 768 MB RAM * * A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 * * At least 4 GB of hard drive space, with at least 1 GB additional space for creations.* When launching the game, some Microsoft Vista users may receive a warning about running out of address space along with a link to the Microsoft Knowledge Base. If you see this message, it is recommended that you follow the instructions and go to the website listed in the message to update your system.* For computers using built-in graphics chipsets, the game requires at least: * * Intel Integrated Chipset, 945GM or above. * * 2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent. * * 768 MB RAM* Supported Video Cards * NVIDIA GeForce series * FX 5900, FX 5950 * 6200, 6500, 6600, 6800, * 7200, 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950 * 8400, 8500, 8600, 8800 * 9600, 9800, GTX 260, GTX 280* Intel® Extreme Graphics * GMA 950, GMA X3000, GMA X3100* ATI Radeon™ series * 9500, 9600, 9800 * X300, X600, X700, X800, X850 * X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950 * 2400, 2600, 2900 * 3450, 3650, 3850, 3870, * 4850* Laptop versions of these chipsets may work, but may run comparatively slowly. Standalone cards that are installed in vanilla PCI slots (not PCIe or PCIx or AGP), such as some GeForce FX variants, will perform poorly. Intel integrated chipsets featuring underclocked parts, such as the 945GU, GML, and GMS, will not perform adequately.* Integrated chipsets such as the ATI Xpress and the NVIDIA TurboCache variants will have low settings selected, but should run satisfactorily.* Please note that attempting to play the game using video hardware that isn't listed above may result in reduced performance, graphical issues or cause the game to not run at all.* The NVIDIA GeForce FX series is unsupported under Vista.MAC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ---- * Spore requires at least the following: * * Mac OS X 10.5.3 Leopard or higher * * Intel Core Duo Processor * * 1024 MB RAM * * ATI X1600 or NVIDIA 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM, or Intel Integrated GMA X3100 * * At least 4 GB of hard drive space, with at least 1 GB additional space for creations.* This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems (PowerMac).* For computers using built-in graphics chipsets, the game requires at least: * * Intel Integrated Chipset GMA X3100 * * Dual 2.0GHz CPUs, or 1.7GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent* Supported Video Cards* NVIDIA GeForce series * 7300, 7600, 8600, 8800* ATI Radeon™ series * X1600, X1900, HD 2400, HD 2600* Intel® Extreme Graphics * GMA X3100 * This game will not run on the GMA 950 class of integrated video cards.CREEPY & CUTE PARTS PACK ---- * * 150 MB free space plus additional temporary space during installation
PC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ---- * FOR WINDOWS XP * * 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent * * 512 MB RAM * * A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 * * At least 4 GB of hard drive space, with at least 1 GB additional space for creations.* FOR WINDOWS VISTA * * 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent * * 768 MB RAM * * A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 * * At least 4 GB of hard drive space, with at least 1 GB additional space for creations.* When launching the game, some Microsoft Vista users may receive a warning about running out of address space along with a link to the Microsoft Knowledge Base. If you see this message, it is recommended that you follow the instructions and go to the website listed in the message to update your system.* For computers using built-in graphics chipsets, the game requires at least: * * Intel Integrated Chipset, 945GM or above. * * 2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent. * * 768 MB RAM* Supported Video Cards * NVIDIA GeForce series * FX 5900, FX 5950 * 6200, 6500, 6600, 6800, * 7200, 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950 * 8400, 8500, 8600, 8800 * 9600, 9800, GTX 260, GTX 280* Intel® Extreme Graphics * GMA 950, GMA X3000, GMA X3100* ATI Radeon™ series * 9500, 9600, 9800 * X300, X600, X700, X800, X850 * X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950 * 2400, 2600, 2900 * 3450, 3650, 3850, 3870, * 4850* Laptop versions of these chipsets may work, but may run comparatively slowly. Standalone cards that are installed in vanilla PCI slots (not PCIe or PCIx or AGP), such as some GeForce FX variants, will perform poorly. Intel integrated chipsets featuring underclocked parts, such as the 945GU, GML, and GMS, will not perform adequately.* Integrated chipsets such as the ATI Xpress and the NVIDIA TurboCache variants will have low settings selected, but should run satisfactorily.* Please note that attempting to play the game using video hardware that isn't listed above may result in reduced performance, graphical issues or cause the game to not run at all.* The NVIDIA GeForce FX series is unsupported under Vista.MAC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ---- * Spore requires at least the following: * * Mac OS X 10.5.3 Leopard or higher * * Intel Core Duo Processor * * 1024 MB RAM * * ATI X1600 or NVIDIA 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM, or Intel Integrated GMA X3100 * * At least 4 GB of hard drive space, with at least 1 GB additional space for creations.* This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems (PowerMac).* For computers using built-in graphics chipsets, the game requires at least: * * Intel Integrated Chipset GMA X3100 * * Dual 2.0GHz CPUs, or 1.7GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent* Supported Video Cards* NVIDIA GeForce series * 7300, 7600, 8600, 8800* ATI Radeon™ series * X1600, X1900, HD 2400, HD 2600* Intel® Extreme Graphics * GMA X3100 * This game will not run on the GMA 950 class of integrated video cards.CREEPY & CUTE PARTS PACK ---- * * 150 MB free space plus additional temporary space during installation