Is it okay to have a PCI-e back panel missing from the case

casecomputer-buildinggraphics card

This is the first computer I've ever built, and coming from a mentality of "never read the manuals ever", I obviously made a few mistakes along the way. One of these mistakes was installing the graphics card into the wrong slot, limiting it to x8 instead of x16. This also means I broke off the metal strip in the back of the case for the graphics card, but now I want to move it to the correct slot, which means I'll have to break off another metal strip.

My question is, is it okay to leave a hole in the case where the graphics card used to be? I no longer have the original metal strip, so I can't simply leave it in place. Even if I could though, it's physically broken off, so I doubt it would be very secure.

Best Answer

Yes, it ought to be safe. Those plates are sometimes referred to as "dust covers" (or "slot covers"). If you don't have the plate covered, there is a larger opening that dust can enter the system. (Fans usually aren't pointed at the slots to blow dust out in that direction.) It's also big enough that some bugs might be able to crawl in. Admittedly, that seems rather unlikely. However, it is more likely than if the dust cover was still blocking access.

Another option is to just buy any expansion card... maybe more USB ports, or a network card, and simply cover the hole that you made. However, if you don't wish to do that, I wouldn't worry a whole lot about it. Many systems have a slot cover missing.

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As Vilx- noted, dual display support is pretty much de rigeur these days and you can assume any video card supports that.

Triple and quad output is still more exotic, although all newer models of ATI video cards do support triple output as a new standard (under the marketing weasel name eyefinity), which is encouraging! Triple display support might become somewhat more common if NVIDIA copies ATI in the endless race for video card one-upmanship.

Note that current "eyefinity" models are a weird mixture of

DVI
DVI
DisplayPort

So you must have at least one DisplayPort capable monitor.

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If I have 2 Video cards in the same computer without SLI or Crossfire will it boost performance at all

Some games can use a dedicated card for PhysX simulation.

Other than that, I can't come up with anything that the second card could be used for (in terms of enhancing performance).

The difference between x1, x2, x4, x8 and x16 PCIe is the maximum throughput of the bus (how much data can pass between the card and the rest of the system in a given time).

Directron lists the following speeds:

PCI Express 1x   250 [500]* MB/s
PCI Express 2x   500 [1000]* MB/s
PCI Express 4x  1000 [2000]* MB/s
PCI Express 8x  2000 [4000]* MB/s
PCI Express 16x 4000 [8000]* MB/s
PCI Express 32x 8000 [16000]* MB/s

* Note 1 - Since PCI Express is a serial based technology, data can be sent over the bus in two directions at once. Normal PCI is Parallel, and as such all data goes in one direction around the loop. Each 1x lane in PCI Express can transmit in both directions at once. In the table the first number is the bandwidth in one direction and the second number is the combined bandwidth in both directions. Also please note that in PCI Express bandwidth is not shared the same way as in PCI, so there is less congestion on the bus.

Update: Table above contains speeds for PCI Express 1.0 bus. For version 2.0, multiply all bandwidths by 2. For example a PCI Express 2.0 16x slot has a max bandwidth of 8000 MB/s one way or 16000 MB/s both ways.

Best Answer

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