A working PCI Express adapter has been found!

[asktoby]

Good news to report!

I took a punt on this PCI Express to PCI adapter from Aliexpress:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004 ... 1802IfaJCj
(PCIE to PCI Adapter PCI Express X1 to PCI Expansion Card Riser ASM1083 Chipset PCI-E Converter Adapter with 4Pin Power Connector With Capacitance)

(note: I chose the variant "With Capacitance")

I've been able to fit this to my PC and fit my Pulsar II card into it and it seems to work great!

Lots of photos and proof here:

https://imgur.com/a/CtAuWwh

8 concurrent Masterverbs and when I added a ninth, it failed due to DSP capacity, not due to PCI capacity.
I've ordered a second adapter, and in due course I will install two cards in two of these and be able to report back a long-term test.

[valis]

Thanks for the report, certainly an affordable experiment and solution if it works out.

[darkrezin]

Good news to report!

I took a punt on this PCI Express to PCI adapter from Aliexpress:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004 ... 1802IfaJCj
(PCIE to PCI Adapter PCI Express X1 to PCI Expansion Card Riser ASM1083 Chipset PCI-E Converter Adapter with 4Pin Power Connector With Capacitance)

(note: I chose the variant "With Capacitance")

I've been able to fit this to my PC and fit my Pulsar II card into it and it seems to work great!

Lots of photos and proof here:

https://imgur.com/a/CtAuWwh

8 concurrent Masterverbs and when I added a ninth, it failed due to DSP capacity, not due to PCI capacity.
I've ordered a second adapter, and in due course I will install two cards in two of these and be able to report back a long-term test.

I couldn’t work this out from the video/photos you uploaded - isn’t the extra height of the adapter a major problem?

Won’t some ADAT ports become inaccessible because they don’t fit through the PCI bracket in a standard case?

How is the card secured to the case?

[asktoby]

The extra height is something to overcome, but not a major problem in my opinion.
If you look in the video at this frame:
https://i.imgur.com/F5Zh4Nw.png
You can see that it doesn't stick out beyond my normal ITX case's side wall. Yes, the ADAT ports are inaccessible, but only if you're unwilling to get busy with a dremel
For the test, I held the weight up with some lego towers. Honestly, they worked pretty well, as long as you're not moving the tower around at all.

[darkrezin]

Hey thanks for the reply. I wonder if it would work with a PCI riser cable, it would mean an easy solution with an EATX case, or maybe there are ATX cases out there with space for riser-extended cards.

It was so cheap that I ordered one. I have an RME HDSP PCI host card with a low-profile bracket which would be great to use with this adapter anyway - its performance doesn’t seem great on my Z87 board’s single PCI slot (dropouts at around 60% CPU) - presumably it’s not using a good chipset for the bridge function. It will be nice to test with Scope too, if it works for me I’ll get another adapter and look into riser cables. I wanted to actually buy 2 but it’s not possible at the sale price - limited to 1 per customer. Regular price is still very cheap though.

btw - did you put it in a 1x, 4x, 8x or 16x PCIe slot?

[valis]

Ooh good idea, I have an extra HammerFall PCI card, and two extra boxes. I could put one more into Service for very cheap.

[darkrezin]

This one seems to use the same bridging chipset:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005450389969.html

You could combine it with a DIY enclosure built around this:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009372724043.html

If it worked it would be a nice solution

[asktoby]

I've added some pictures to the gallery (https://imgur.com/a/CtAuWwh) showing a pulsar card fitting in a Thermaltake Black Suppressor F31 case, it's wide enough that the card doesn't stick out the side of the case. Just needs some support and some holes drilling for the connectors.

[valis]

This one seems to use the same bridging chipset:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005450389969.html

You could combine it with a DIY enclosure built around this:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009372724043.html

If it worked it would be a nice solution

Yes this seems to be a good solution, most of my newer cases have a slot for the vertical GPU placement already. For a single card the original linked inexpensive solution should be enough. But in the links above there are also dual PCI pcb cards, and that external box would fit two Scope cards from what I can see.

I'm also tempted to try this with my Xite box to get one of my extra RME Multiface II boxes up and running as O have a spare old PCI HDSP card, and an HDSP expresscard as well. The latter was my original thought as my Xite box has no PCI slots, but the adapters are much more costly than these solutions.

[darkrezin]

This one seems to use the same bridging chipset:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005450389969.html

You could combine it with a DIY enclosure built around this:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009372724043.html

If it worked it would be a nice solution

Yes this seems to be a good solution, most of my newer cases have a slot for the vertical GPU placement already. For a single card the original linked inexpensive solution should be enough. But in the links above there are also dual PCI pcb cards, and that external box would fit two Scope cards from what I can see.

I'm also tempted to try this with my Xite box to get one of my extra RME Multiface II boxes up and running as O have a spare old PCI HDSP card, and an HDSP expresscard as well. The latter was my original thought as my Xite box has no PCI slots, but the adapters are much more costly than these solutions.

Yep I noticed there’s a dual slot version as well, I guess in theory keeping it to 1 slot per bridge/adapter would be better for PCI bandwidth, hard to say really without trying it though. I’m very tempted to get at least the 1-slot version to try out when I have time, whether I try rigging up an external box or keeping it in the same machine, I have been thinking of getting a better case anyway. I had a brief look and found some with 3 or even 4 vertical slots I have a GPU with a huge heatsink (passive/no fans) so I think I’d need something like this to give enough clearance:

https://www.1stplayer.com/productdetails/id/160.html

[valis]

That’s more or less exactly what all of my cases have, double or triple height GPU slots for vertical placement. I even bought a PCIe extender cable but never took advantage of using it.

My primary concern would be getting enough airflow on the cards, especially if there was a big GPU next to them. My Xite box has a single slot height GTX150 (very low end but enough for audio) and the Scope PCI box has an old single slot height Quadro (cool and solid RPC latency drivers), and even with them a 14/15 DSP card or two would get really hold there.

There are internal fan brackets that you could also add to put some downward or upward air across the cards to help distribute the heat so that the case fans can pull it out quicker. Highly suggested, I think the errors that I’ve had with my cards that were not able to be fixed by recapping had to do with being in a case for years with poor airflow. I will not repeat that mistake, and now ensure that I have spares on hand, so my PCI system lasts as long as possible.

[darkrezin]

Definitely a good point about cooling, the one I linked probably doesn’t have great fan mount placements.. fans on the front would be much better. Would appreciate any pointers to good cases… it’s very difficult looking through pages and pages of cases trying to find something suitable, plus after a while I lose the will to continue because so many of them try to look like an alien spaceship with ridiculous amounts of RGB lights everywhere

[valis]

Searching Amazon, Newegg or whatever regional supplier for "internal case fan bracket" and then finding one that fits a given solution is what I recommend. I happen to have quite a few leftover from various cases (Lian Li, Supermicro, etc) over the years and so have options.

In terms of direction of airflow, as long as the air isn't being blown against the direction of air movement in the case, or into a dead corner, I think you're ok. The main thing is to not allow it to collect near the cards, air movement across them is enough as long as the case itself has enough outflow. I'm a fan of positive case pressure personally (with air intake filtering) as it keeps dust to a minimum, but that's personal preference based on the build you have.