VOGONS


First post, by 386SX

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Hi,

I've seen on ebay some quite expensive cards that'd allow to use a PCI-EX x1 card on a PCI old connector and even better with opened x1 socket to theorically allow even longer cards to be used.
As I would like to push my mini-itx dual Atom board having only one old PCI connector, could I use on that a PCI-EX x16 video card on the x1 connector beside the obvious limitations of the PCI bandwidth?
Any experiences with those adapters?

s-l1600.jpg

Thank

Reply 1 of 8, by PC Hoarder Patrol

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I've a StarTech branded one (PCI1PEX1) which looks identical to the one pictured - even has the same 9X110 V: 2.0 model number on the PCB top left, so I assume it uses the same Pericom chipset. Bought it a few years ago to work with a GeForce GT730 I had. Personally found it to be rather flaky - seems to pick and choose when and in which boards it works. Apart from GPUs, I've tried it with small SATA raid cards with the same unpredictable results.

Reply 2 of 8, by 386SX

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PC Hoarder Patrol wrote:

I've a StarTech branded one (PCI1PEX1) which looks identical to the one pictured - even has the same 9X110 V: 2.0 model number on the PCB top left, so I assume it uses the same Pericom chipset. Bought it a few years ago to work with a GeForce GT730 I had. Personally found it to be rather flaky - seems to pick and choose when and in which boards it works. Apart from GPUs, I've tried it with small SATA raid cards with the same unpredictable results.

Interesting, thanks. But when it works, it will every times with the same card or it has problems too?

😀

Reply 3 of 8, by PC Hoarder Patrol

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386SX wrote:

Interesting, thanks. But when it works, it will every times with the same card or it has problems too? 😀

TBH, I'd say not - check out the relevant reviews on Newegg, which are less than positive 😢

https://www.newegg.com/global/au-en/Product/P … N82E16815158190

Reply 4 of 8, by ph4nt0m

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Some of these cards use a PCIe-to-PCI bridge chip. They are more expensive and more reliable in general.

Some cards are passive like on your photo. They only do voltage conversion and signal resynchronisation. They are less expensive and don't work very well.

My Active Sales on CPU-World

Reply 6 of 8, by rasz_pl

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ph4nt0m wrote:

Some cards are passive like on your photo. They only do voltage conversion and signal resynchronisation. They are less expensive and don't work very well.

there re no passive cards, one bus is parallel, other serial

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https://github.com/raszpl/386RC-16 memory board
https://github.com/raszpl/440BX Reference Design adapted to Kicad
https://github.com/raszpl/Zenith_ZBIOS MFM-300 Monitor

Reply 7 of 8, by ph4nt0m

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rasz_pl wrote:
ph4nt0m wrote:

Some cards are passive like on your photo. They only do voltage conversion and signal resynchronisation. They are less expensive and don't work very well.

there re no passive cards, one bus is parallel, other serial

I mean the conventional PCI and PCI Express are nearly the same from software point of view, though completely different in hardware. It's possible to design an adaptor without a complete PCI bridge. It won't be completely passive to be honest, but anyway.

My Active Sales on CPU-World

Reply 8 of 8, by 386SX

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PC Hoarder Patrol wrote:
386SX wrote:

Interesting, thanks. But when it works, it will every times with the same card or it has problems too? 😀

TBH, I'd say not - check out the relevant reviews on Newegg, which are less than positive 😢

https://www.newegg.com/global/au-en/Product/P … N82E16815158190

Those users on the reviews seems to write a bit generic problems with the adapter but I imagine that it depends on which mobo the board are used on. Obviously for such price I'd expect perfect compatibility; good point of those reviews is that someone tried with the Atom 330 board and a x1 Zotac video card and it worked.