What is PCIe or PCI Express?

PCIe is short for “peripheral component interconnect express” and it’s primarily used as a standardized 🍏 interface for motherboard components including graphics, memory, and storage. PCIe gets the “peripheral component interconnect” part of its name because 🍏 it’s designed to handle point-to-point connections for non-core components. Manufacturers added “express” to distinguish the new standard from older PCI 🍏 standards, emphasizing the substantial performance improvements over previous iterations. PCIE SLOTS AND CARDS A PCIe or PCI express slot is 🍏 the point of connection between your PC’s “peripheral components” and the motherboard. The term “PCIe card” and “expansion card” simply 🍏 refers to hardware, like graphics cards, CPUs, solid-state drives (SSDs), or HDDs, you may add to your device through PCIe 🍏 slots, making both catch-all terms for a variety of components.

What are the standard PCIe sizes?

While different sizes and configurations do 🍏 exist, most users will only encounter four primary size specifications. The size represents the number of direct connections provided by 🍏 either a PCIe slot or card.

• PCIe x1