need more PCI

[Nick_Black]

i though this was a topic allready.. but I couldn't find it... I could be wrong..

anyways.

I'm an Audio guy, and with my multiple line recording I need multiple soundcards (10 channels pr soundcard)

the thing is, I have yet to see a PCIe X16 soundcard. but I'm hard pressed to fin a motherboard (i7) with more then one PCI slot (I need 3!!) but they have like.. an insane amount of PCI x16 slots.. were not all graphix whores... are we?
(becouse I havent really seen any other use for the PCIe x16 other then Video)

any suggestions on how to get more PCI slots.. or how to use a PCI card in a PCIe slot ( PCIe X1 to PCI is around, but the new motherboards only have one of those too..)

[slaveofconvention]

As far as I know - the vast majority (if not all) x16 slots can take an x1 card natively. You just plug it in - at least, that's the way it used to be - I don't know if anything has changed in that respect.... I'd imagine, if that's correct, you could use x1-PCI cards en-masse and end up with a load of PCI slots - course, you'd have to do some major modding to get them to fit - a scratch build would probably be your best bet....

[farlo]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157155

ASRock X58 Deluxe LGA 1366 has 3 pci slots.

[Nick_Black]

slaveofconvention: I love modding so that's no problem :)

farlo: Holy crud you found one! thank you!! XD (saves a lot of effort)

cheers! and thanks again :)

Nick_B

[slaveofconvention]

I still say go with the mod option lol - otherwise you'll end up at capacity from day one - and besides, we can always use another project on the go - I'd love to see someone create a case with like, 20 PCI slots :p

[Airbozo]

I am looking for it now, but there is such a thing as a PCI expansion box, that only requires one PCI slot in the original system and breaks it out into several PCI slots. Not sure about the timing end of things and if it would mess with the audio signals.

Here are some examples (keep in mind one or more may require a PCIe slot);

http://www.cooldrives.com/1popcto4xpci.html

http://www.startech.com/item/PEX2PCI4-PCI-Express-to-Four-Slot-PCI-Expansion-Bay.aspx

http://www.virtuavia.eu/shop/pci-express-to-pci-expansion-box-p29809.html

http://www.magma.com/products/pci/4PCI/index.html

[x88x]

There's also this guy (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186146): LGA775 with 5 PCI slots.

Personally though, I really like the idea of the PCI expansion boxes. So much more interesting :P

[Mark_Hardware]

you for sure can use an x1 card in an x16 slot.

[Airbozo]

....
(becouse I havent really seen any other use for the PCIe x16 other then Video)
...


PCIe x16 slots can be used for several things but really only graphics cards will utilize a x16 slot to the full bandwidth. We use the x8 slots (and in one case the x16 slot) for Raid cards, Serial cards, 10GB network cards and a few specialized robot controller cards. The raid cards are supposed to work in the x4 slots, but we have experienced data corruption until we moved it to the x8 slot.

[Nick_Black]

ok. I was looking at the PCIe to PCI adapter:

http://prostores1.carrierzone.com/stores/b/beaglesoft.com/catalog/pcie2pci.jpg

and it really doesn't look that hard to make... I might go one step further and build the circuit myself, and un-soder the PCIe X1 slot (that almost no-one uses anyways) and soder in the PCI slot(s) ... XD though unfourtunatly you might have to wait before I make anything becouse I have a few projects on the go, and still trying to find another job.

[x88x]

Sounds interesting; make sure and document it if you do.