This question will show me up as a complete fool, but here goes anyway.

I have an ASUS P5V800-MX motherboard, which is PCI express compatible, that I bought with my PC because I was advised that it would allow me to upgrade more easily, specifically with a graphics card.

I bought a GeCube ATI Radeon x1300 pro card that is PCIe compatible but it won't fit onto my motherboard. The available slots on the board are AGP, 2 x PCI and a PCI express slot. However, the PCIe slot is not long enough for the 16 lane graphics card.

Please tell me there is a solution to this and I have not been misled! Otherwise, am I going to have to get a new graphics card and which one would you recommend?

Thanks,

Peter

That board

http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?m...3&l2=11&l3=229

only has a PCI_E X1 slot. You have a PCI_E X16 card.

What you really want is a motherboard that will support PCI_E X16.

Although there are a few PCI_E X1 graphics cards you would be better off with an AGP card on that motherboard.

http://www.matrox.com/mga/media_cent..._g550_pcie.cfm

Table 1 – Comparing PCI, AGP, and PCI-Express Throughput
Bus Type Specifications Throughput

PCI 33MHz, 32-bit 133MBps

PCI-Express x1 250MBps

AGP 2x 533MBps

PCI-Express x4 1,000MBps

AGP 4x 1,066MBps

AGP 8x 2,133MBps

PCI-Express x16 4,000MBps

Thanks Jephree.

I thought as much - I'm essentially a PC hardware novice so I am annoyed that the guy I bought the PC from led me to believe that I could use a PCIe card on that motherboard.

Are there any AGP cards you (or anyone else) could recommend? I don't want to break the bank - bear in mind I (mistakenly) bought a Radeon x1300 pro - that sort of thing.

Thanks
Pete