PCI Express replacing PCI-X. Rare option ! PCI-X Card Enablement on IBM x3200 M2
I dialed some of Indonesian IBM Distributor like DATAMATION, MITRAINFO, BHINEKA, GRIYASIS, MYONLYDISK, and of course IBM Indonesia After Sales Support. They give no solution for activating PCI-X slot on IBM X3200 M2 Server.
IBM guys named Joko who contacted me through the phone from Malaysia, told me the part number or FRU number for the card i’ve been looking for. But too bad he can’t give information where i could buy the card. I try to search Internet many time and even try to email and make international call to IBM USA. frustrated, i go to plan B. changed the RAID card to another interface. And that will be PCI Express.
So, don’t choose x3200 if you want to utilize PCI-X slot, even though x3200 M2 had a PCI-X slot. x3200 has 2 PCIe slot, 8x and 4x. and both working excellent with my new Adaptec 3405 PCIe SAS/SATA Raid Controller.
PCIe or PCI express was built by Intel team at 2004, used to replace old interface slot (PCI, PCI-X and even AGP). Yes, indeed PCIe is more better than PCI-X.
There are many type of PCIe, 1x, 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x, 32x, Each indicate number of lane to use for transferring data. 32x is much much faster than 1x, and since 1x equal to
250MB/s, 32x = 8GB/s in each direction.
A PCIe slot are backward compatible. Mean, 1x Card wil fit into 2x slot, 4x slot even 32x slot, but of course it’s not vice versa.
for more information about PCIe, you may take a look at wikipedia
