What are PCI-E Extenders and PCI-E Risers?

Importance of PCI-E Extenders and PCI-E Risers

Creating the perfect rig for data mining, Bitcoin mining, Litecoin mining, or heavy computing projects such as engineering projects may at times seem like a daunting task. What with all the power consumption considerations, networking factors, Hash rate maximization, and motherboard protection details you have to think about. For the best performance of your rig, you may get expert advice to include PCIe Extenders and PCIe Risers. But what exactly are these?

PCIe Extenders

Your production environment may require you to connect multiple devices onto your motherboard so as to optimize the efficacy of your rig. But having all those devices directly on your motherboard can be confusing. Additionally, you might fry your motherboard if you overload it and piling everything up at one point is just too messy. A PCIe extender is a fully functional PCIe card that is connected via a cable to the computer’s motherboard. That mean you now can connect your PCIe devices to your rig as much as 10 feet (3 meters) or more away from your motherboard. This makes it easy to use your devices and you can neatly arrange them at your workstation instead of piling it all up on the motherboard. Furthermore, you can plug in and pull out your devices as necessary without having to reboot your computer each time or opening the CPU casing. The extender offers additional protection in terms of power usage and it is much harder to fry your motherboard or all the connected devices. This can be made even safer by using powered PCI-E extenders which do not draw power from the motherboard but instead have their own power source. The PCIe extender additionally allows the user to test multiple channels of add-on PCI Express boards and this significantly enhances your data transfer rates.

PCIe Risers

A PCI-E riser is a printed circuit board that allows you to connect peripheral PCI-E devices onto your motherboard. The PCIe risers also act as expansion cards when you want to increase the number of slots for connecting additional devices. They are especially popular for use with low-profile motherboards though they are finding increased usage with gamers, data miners, bitcoin miners, and litecoin miners. This is because they increase the functionality of a computer system while increasing its safety levels and provides a more efficient power consumption environment. The riser typically picks up a great many bused signal lines through a single connector on the computer’s motherboard and distributes these signals to other dedicated connecters that have been mounted on the PCIE Riser card.

If you have high performance requirements that involve the transfer of huge data at great speeds then connecting a PCIe riser or a PCIe extender may be the best thing to do. This protects your rig, makes your workplace neater and easier to maneuver through, and gives you the capability of mounting and unmounting devices as required. It protects your motherboard, your peripheral devices, and the integrity of your data and signals.