Re: OT: PCI vs. PCI-X for added serial ports

Spehro Pefhany wrote:
Hi, I'm looking at getting a new workstation with an Asus P5K
motherboard. There appears to be a single COM port header on the
motherboard, but no rear bracket to connect to it. In the event I have
to add ports on a card (to support various embedded programming stuff,

I'd like at least two working serial ports, so the same computer can
talk to a target system as well as one tool) should I get a PCI card
or one of the newer (and generally quite expensive) PCI-X cards? Since
it won't get used that much on average, I'd be unhappy if it slowed
down the system. I'll be using WinXP Pro, if that matters.


Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

In a multidrop system, PCI-X (as opposed to PCI Express) doesn't get you very much, nor is it necessary for the trivial data rates on a serial port.

PCI-Express, on the other hand, has system level advantages (not loading the system is one of them), but if all you need is a couple of serial ports, stick with a simple PCI board would be my advice.

Cheers

PeteS
.

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