PCI Express x16 ???

can you have a PCI Express x16 slot without the little clip PCI Express x16 ???
what little clip? you mean the socket? PCI Express x16 ???
The slot lock was added because so many PCs were going into vertical cases instead of horizontal ones, and the video cards are heavy enough to work their way out with continuous vibration, as from an out of balance cooling fan on the card. It is there to prevent the card from falling out and being damaged. I had one with an odd ''sliding'' lock I couldn't see around the bulk of a big card's fan shroud, and rather than damage both card and mainboard, I used an offset cutting tool (similar to a diagonal cutter, with the bladed end angled) to remove the slider, since I could seem to get it to turn loose otherwise. The only other thing I can imagine you might mean is probably what wklZip had in mind, which is the PCI-e power receptacle needed for added 12 Volt current to high performance video cards. Right this moment the name is evading me, but's it's the ''female'' half of a pair, with the ''plug'' on the power supply being the male half. I'm almost certain it's not usually referred to in English as a ''socket'', but my vocabulary has this habit of shrinking at the end of the day when I get tired . . and I got up way too early today! Be that as it may, Low Performance PCI-e(16) video cards can draw all the current they need from the slot, and don't need the receptacle for the plug, so there will be some cutoff point near the bottom of Medium Power, with the standard 7600 GS not having one, but the 7600 GT does have it. It's still early enough in the eighth generation that I haven't started to look at a lot of the articles yet to have seen a lot of reviews, so I named two seventh generation cards there.There are too many PCs at my place to start buying hardware for them when it's still the ''current'' stuff, so I will only be looking at the 7th generation for any of those potential upgrades this coming fall, and after that next stage passes, I'll start getting more intimately familar with the 8th generation of Video Processors.
[QUOTE=''Kiwi_1'']The slot lock was added because so many PCs were going into vertical cases instead of horizontal ones, and the video cards are heavy enough to work their way out with continuous vibration, as from an out of balance cooling fan on the card. It is there to prevent the card from falling out and being damaged. I had one with an odd ''sliding'' lock I couldn't see around the bulk of a big card's fan shroud, and rather than damage both card and mainboard, I used an offset cutting tool (similar to a diagonal cutter, with the bladed end angled) to remove the slider, since I could seem to get it to turn loose otherwise. The only other thing I can imagine you might mean is probably what wklZip had in mind, which is the PCI-e power receptacle needed for added 12 Volt current to high performance video cards. Right this moment the name is evading me, but's it's the ''female'' half of a pair, with the ''plug'' on the power supply being the male half. I'm almost certain it's not usually referred to in English as a ''socket'', but my vocabulary has this habit of shrinking at the end of the day when I get tired . . and I got up way too early today! Be that as it may, Low Performance PCI-e(16) video cards can draw all the current they need from the slot, and don't need the receptacle for the plug, so there will be some cutoff point near the bottom of Medium Power, with the standard 7600 GS not having one, but the 7600 GT does have it. It's still early enough in the eighth generation that I haven't started to look at a lot of the articles yet to have seen a lot of reviews, so I named two seventh generation cards there.There are too many PCs at my place to start buying hardware for them when it's still the ''current'' stuff, so I will only be looking at the 7th generation for any of those potential upgrades this coming fall, and after that next stage passes, I'll start getting more intimately familar with the 8th generation of Video Processors. [/QUOTE]



your obviously not but you do know you have the same name as that crazy guy on system wars?
I am sure that I do not know what or where or how this ''System Wars'' place or thing might be. But at my age, the other one is the counterfeit. I've been called Kiwi, or The Kiwi, beginning on CB Radio, when that got started in the 1960's, and I was a grown adult long before that point -- 40 years ago, plus or minus a couple of years. It's the National Bird of the country I was born in, and the generic nickname of the locals who live there. AFAIK, there was no NZ participation on the Internet when I first went online, before there was any WWW (no graphics that long ago, all text). Just for comparison, the PC I'm using tonight for surfing the net is an older one, with an Asus A7N8X mainboard, an XP 3200 CPU, a GB of Kingston HyperX DDR500 RAM, that only has a Geforce 6800 GT for video, in a Centurion 531 case, with a Sparkle 530 watt PSU, and an Overclock of some 500 MHz on the CPU. It's one that might get something on the order of an X1950 Pro next September or so (and maybe not -- if I feel flush, it might get a new MB, but it is too soon for me to go C2D, so it would be AM2 -- it's getting old enough that even if I do upgrade the video, it will probably not stay in my computer room much longer).
thanks for all the info
[QUOTE=''Kiwi_1'']I am sure that I do not know what or where or how this ''System Wars'' place or thing might be. But at my age, the other one is the counterfeit. I've been called Kiwi, or The Kiwi, beginning on CB Radio, when that got started in the 1960's, and I was a grown adult long before that point -- 40 years ago, plus or minus a couple of years. It's the National Bird of the country I was born in, and the generic nickname of the locals who live there. AFAIK, there was no NZ participation on the Internet when I first went online, before there was any WWW (no graphics that long ago, all text). [/QUOTE]What are you, 60 years old?

Thank you, but I'm a bit older than that, actually -- not a lot, but some.
lol awesome.. can I call you gramps?
[QUOTE=''WhiteSnake5000'']lol awesome.. can I call you gramps?[/QUOTE]lol.
[QUOTE=''WhiteSnake5000'']lol awesome.. can I call you gramps?[/QUOTE]



can I as well?
awight gramps :D... I can't even remember what this post is about! :P
ya, if you click on forum then slide down to system wars its a place were every one yells at each other over what console is best. Fun times there. There was this crazy guy who was a cow I think (cow=sony fan, lemming=Microsoft fan, sheep=Nintendo fan, hermit=PC fan) and he just had a similar name to you.
[QUOTE=''Kiwi_1'']Thank you, but I'm a bit older than that, actually -- not a lot, but some. [/QUOTE]Holy !, now i know where all that wisdom comes from :o