PCIe, PCI and AGP

[ewx]

Not so long ago I discovered that (1) I had no ISA-capable motherboards any more (2) I had a large pile of ISA cards of various kinds (3) nobody else wanted ISA cards, even for free.

Currently I have computers with, variously, PCI, AGP and PCIe slots and a number of PCI and AGP cards, some in service and others not. What I'm wondering, in the light of experience, is when PCI and AGP cards will reach the same kind of useful-to-nobody stage that ISA has already entered; it might be better to get my spares into useful service somewhere or other than to keep them in a box for a decade and then bin them.

Any guesses?

(The same applies to PATA, actually.)

Comments

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

I think it's partly that PATA provides way more capability than an optical drive needs anyway, so why move onto something even more advanced.

If it aint' broke ...

[armb.livejournal.com]

> why move onto something even more advanced.

Because the SATA cable is neater. In particular eSATA is neater than PATA in an external enclosure.

While there are lots of existing USB enclosures and few eSATA ports about, this isn't a particularly compelling reason, but if a SATA connection can be built for around the same price as PATA, I'd expect the trend to be towards it even for optical drives.

If it aint' broke ...

[ewx.livejournal.com]

From the motherboard manufacturer's and system builder's points of view, I'd have thought supporting only one interface would be cheaper than both.

Re: If it aint' broke ...

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Oh, certainly.

But if we're talking about the optical drive maker, it's cheaper to support only one interface. To start with, that interface is PATA. So then, the system builders have to support PATA.

Eventually, you get the point where sufficient drive makers support only SATA that many of the mobo makers drop PATA, that those drive makers still only making PATA start making SATA because market is disappearing, that the remainder of the mobo makers drop PATA suport, that the drive makers finally stop supplying PATA.

Very much an 'After you, Claude' sort of dance.