EVGA Z370 FTW User Manual page 21

EVGA Z370 FTW (134-KS-E377)
This is the section referred to as the I/O Hub. This panel contains the
hardwired USB, Sound, and Ethernet connections. Please see Page 14 for a
component level breakdown.
* There are two numeric references for PCI-Express: one is mechanical (the actual slot-
length footprint across the motherboard), while the second is electrical (the number of
PCIe lanes available to the slot from the CPU, PCH, or both).
PCI Express was designed with a universal architecture; you can install x1 cards, such as
sound cards or USB controllers, into an x16 slot. Many types of cards can use various
numbers of PCIe lanes; similarly, some applications might only use certain parts of a
card (e.g. compute apps), requiring only a single PCIe lane to accomplish its task without
affecting performance. This is why there are x16 mechanical slots with an x1 electrical
PCIe lane. Using the entire length of a PCIe slot is unnecessary, nor does it cause an
adverse effect to use a shorter form-factor bus card in a slot that physically can hold a
larger form-factor bus card.
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