I have 2x PCIe X16 and 1x PCIe 1x slots that are not being used. Given that Linux has extensive hardware support, there are probably users with interesting PCI card usages
Aside from traditional usages like network/wireless/bluetooth/sound that can easily be used as USB (or built in advanced sound support in the MOBO), what are your use cases with PCIe?
PCI is not the same as PCIe
For me I use a GPU and a Sata card (both passed though to different VMs)
my current usage:
on my desktop:
- RX 7900 XTX
- Wifi 6 adapter
- 10Gbit SFP+ NIC
on my proxmox server:
- RTX 3080 (passed through to Debian VM)
- 16 drive HBA (passed through to TrueNAS VM)
- GT 730
- 10Gbit SFP+ NIC
I’ve also used USB PCIe cards to get more USB controllers for picky USB devices like USB capture cards and audio interfaces.
Wifi card. Well, I don’t really use it but it is plugged in.
I have a Hauppage TV tuner card that I use to get OTA TV and record certain shows. I’m pretty sure there are USB solutions, but if I remember, at the time I got this it was one of the only cards that my system supported or whatever caveat I was operating around.
Does that work with Jellyfin?
I have a HDhomerun which Jellyfin connects to for live TV
You can use a SAS controller or 10G ethernet card in the 16X slots. If your motherboard support PCIe bifurcation, you can get an adapter card to use 4 NVMe drives in a 16X slot. You can get controller cards for older interfaces like firewire, serial, and parallel that will use a 1X slot.