Educate Me On Pci Cards

i swore i posted this earlier tonight. seems as if this post disappeared.

what do i need to know about PCI cards when looking at purchasing a new machine for audio editing?

how many come with a standard machine? does more PCI cards = faster performance between the CPU and audio programs? (i thought RAM did that)

any info would be great.

PCI is just an interface on the motherboard i.e. inside the machine.

Much in the same way that USB and firewire are external interfaces.

PCI cards just give you the option of adding extra finctionality to a machine, an addin soundcard, a video capture card etc.

The number of PCI slots and what they are filled with has nothing to do with improving a machines performance.