pci hub

fom_4_life · Post by **fom_4_life** » Tue May 16, 2006 12:21 pm

Hi I know that you can get things like usb hubs or usb/parrallel/whatever pci cards but since most motherboards only have about 4-5 pci slots. Is there any kind of hub or anything to increase the amount of pci slots on my computer?

rocketcitydude · Post by **rocketcitydude** » Tue May 16, 2006 3:32 pm

I've been active around PCs for quite some time. The closest i have seen a breakout boxes that are very expensive or 2 slot right angle adapters for mini sized motherboards to be used in low clearance cases. The main issues are space, power (the breakout boxes have dedicated PS), and interrupt handling. The PC only has a total of 22 interrupts (correct me if I'm wrong) the majority of which are used by motherboard components leaving something like 10 free for add in cards before you start being required to share IRQ lines ( the interrupts that I mentioned). I am aware that Windows operating systems since Windows 95 have force IRQ sharing even when not required due to device count with newer releases being both better and worse on sharing depending on configuration.