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XPS 8300 PCIe question
I've been trying to find an answer to the following question and hope someone here may provide some help.
I've got an XPS 8300 with an I5-2300, 2.8 processor. The tag indicates it was manufactured August 2011. The PCIe slots on the mobo are (1) PCIe x16 which is occupied by a graphics card and (3) PCIe x1 slots that are empty. My question is focused on the three empty slots and what generation those slots are - PCIe 1.0, PCIe 2.0, or PCIe 3.0?
I cannot seem to find the answer to that question. The reason for the concern is the computer does not have any USB 3.0 ports, and I'm interested in installing a USB 3.0 PCIe card. I have read that you should match the PCI generation card with the same generation slot for best performance. Put another way, if those slots are only PCIe 1.0 it doesn't seem to make sense to shell out the $$ for a PCIe 2.0 card ( or PCIe 3.0) if they'll only opearte at the 1.0 bandwidth?
Thnx in advance for any help.
DELL-Chinmay S
1.8K Posts
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February 26th, 2013 13:00
Hi Scewter54,
PCI-E 2.0 and PCI-E Gen2 are the exact same thing. XPS 8300 is shipped with Intel H67 Chipset.
Please reply for further clarifications.
excalibur648
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July 21st, 2015 07:00
Thanks, it does help. StarTech.com has a number of 2,3, 4 port cards today and even one 7 port card. They also carry a 4 port hub for the front of the machine (35BAYUSB3S4) which needs to connect to a 3.0 port somewhere. I plan to use the StarTech (PEXUSB3S4) 4 port card which has an internal port on the back of the card so I should have seven usable 3.0 ports if all goes well; 3 on the back and 4 on the front of the case. The 35BAYUSB3S4 will fit the 3 1/2" bay on this box.
Thanks very much for your help.
DELL-Chinmay S
1.8K Posts
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February 26th, 2013 08:00
Hi Scewter54,
You may find the system board diagram with specifications in an image below:
XPS 8300 is shipped with Intel H67 Chipset and system has PCIe Gen2 slots.
Please reply for further clarifications.
DELL-Chinmay S
1.8K Posts
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February 26th, 2013 13:00
Hi Scewter54,
You are most welcome.
Please feel free to get in touch in case you have any further questions. I'll be glad to assist.
Scewter54
4 Posts
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February 26th, 2013 13:00
Chinmay, appreciate your quick response.
thnx
Scewter54
4 Posts
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February 26th, 2013 13:00
Thnx for the response. I looked through the system configuration info available on the Dell website after inputting my service tag #, but couldn't find any reference to the chipset. From your post it appears to be either an H67 or an H57 chipset? Is that what you meant? Is there any way to figure out which one?
Am I correct in assuming that Gen2 is the same as PCIe 2.0?
Thanx again for your time.
excalibur648
2 Posts
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July 17th, 2015 12:00
I have an XPS 8300, circa 2010-11, with 6 or so USB 2.0 ports. I read your previous discussion on this subject and I would like to add a PCI-E card with 4 or 8 USB 3.0 ports for faster data exchange. Will I get the faster transfers advertised by these USB 3.0 card manufacturers or is the 2.0 speed my max? Thanks.
Scewter54
4 Posts
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July 20th, 2015 17:00
Excalibur648, it's been a while since this post so I had to spend a little bit of time getting back up to speed on the issue again. I installed a two-port USB 3.0 card in one of the available slots (PCI Express x1 card slot). I haven't bench marked it to find out the exact speed, but I'm pretty sure I'm getting the faster transfer speeds as advertised.
One more thing - my memory is a little hazy on this but I think I ran into an issue at the time finding a card that will fit into the small PCI Express x1 card slot that has more than two USB 3.0 ports. I could find the 4 or 8 port cards as you mentioned but they were all USB 2.0. I don't know if that has changed or if it's a power issue limitation for the smaller PCI Express x1 card slots.
Hope that helps.