PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

http://pridopia.co.uk/8114etx.html

Would this work to hold a Pulsar 2 PCI card? Will it still recognise the card?

The PCI connector spacing looks like it’s for 3,3V cards, not Pulsar II’s 5V.
I have a similiar one with a 5V slot that does handle Scope cards fine - but there isn‘t much to recognize as the PGA chip more or less just switches slot signals between the 2 environments.
If in use the added height moves the upper Adat pair out of reach. You have to remove the slot frame, too.

astroman wrote: ↑Sun Feb 14, 2021 5:56 pm The PCI connector spacing looks like it’s for 3,3V cards, not Pulsar II’s 5V.
I have a similiar one with a 5V slot that does handle Scope cards fine - but there isn‘t much to recognize as the PGA chip more or less just switches slot signals between the 2 environments.
If in use the added height moves the upper Adat pair out of reach. You have to remove the slot frame, too.

Ah so you can use a pci scope card on a modern system? That would be ideal for me to use for the card’s audio converters.

Is thus the one I need: https://www.amazon.co.uk/StarTech-com- ... B0037ECAM2

that‘s the opposite
you need this type
https://www.amazon.co.uk/StarTech-com-P ... CV3SA?th=1
(they have several, didn‘t check them all)
but the rised card won‘t fit regular case backs (as mentioned)

astroman wrote: ↑Sun Feb 14, 2021 9:48 pm that‘s the opposite
you need this type
https://www.amazon.co.uk/StarTech-com-P ... CV3SA?th=1
(they have several, didn‘t check them all)
but the rised card won‘t fit regular case backs (as mentioned)

that’s what happens when I don’t sleep. Thanks for the help. My Pulsar II will live with AMD Ryzen soon

why?
an adaptor is not the same as an actual PCI slot, performance-wise, and you will have to really modify the case to use the card. if you must use obsolete gear, get a motherboard that supports it. jmho.

garyb wrote: ↑Mon Feb 15, 2021 7:04 am why?
an adaptor is not the same as an actual PCI slot, performance-wise, and you will have to really modify the case to use the card. if you must use obsolete gear, get a motherboard that supports it. jmho.

I would just like to use an old Pulsar I card’s DAC for the analogue outs on an updated mobo Gary. Would the ASIO drivers or PCI slow the system down considerably?

ASIO drivers?
doubtful if they have anything to do with it. PCI? maybe. there are plenty of modern motherboards with PCI slots(even though PCI is obsolete). don't buy according to stats. most of the stats only provide a general idea of real world performance. depending on software used, hardware showing less performance might actually offer better performance. chasing benchmarks is a waste of time. again, it's just my opinion, not some kind of law.

I‘m no expert in the mobo domain, but as an example (long story made very short):
My Win7 PC runs from a PCIe flash disk, data drive is an USB3 SSD, no SATA drives, Pulsar II running fine, though a fairly low performer in PCI bandwidth (the machine was never intended to run Scope).

For some reason I needed the DVD and old HD (both on SATA) and just activating them rendered Scope into a desaster.
Control panel revealed that Scope now shared IRQ with SATA (which didn‘t appear in the device tree when nothing was connected to the controller). Unplugged the SATA drives and the old state was restored...

This is only an example what may happen in a PC, it‘s not about bus clocking or transfer speed of interfaces.

astroman wrote: ↑Mon Feb 15, 2021 4:18 pm I‘m no expert in the mobo domain, but as an example (long story made very short):
My Win7 PC runs from a PCIe flash disk, data drive is an USB3 SSD, no SATA drives, Pulsar II running fine, though a fairly low performer in PCI bandwidth (the machine was never intended to run Scope).

For some reason I needed the DVD and old HD (both on SATA) and just activating them rendered Scope into a desaster.
Control panel revealed that Scope now shared IRQ with SATA (which didn‘t appear in the device tree when nothing was connected to the controller). Unplugged the SATA drives and the old state was restored...

This is only an example what may happen in a PC, it‘s not about bus clocking or transfer speed of interfaces.

It’s good to know it can be used and will probably be part of the weakest link, but as long as I know I can use a card just for its outputs it is fine.

Thanks for pointing that out.

The performance of these new boards is breathtaking btw.

garyb wrote: ↑Mon Feb 15, 2021 4:08 pm There are plenty of modern motherboards with PCI slots(even though PCI is obsolete).

I'm looking to buy a new motherboard now, the best I've found is the ASUS PRIME B460-PLUS (SOCKET LGA 1200) DDR4 ATX MOTHERBOARD.
It's Chipset B460 and supports 10th Gen Intel, doesn't support Rocket Lake though.

Anyone know one more modern than that?

PCI is obsolete.
what do you expect?

if you look at consumer gaming boards only, you will have fewer choices. commercial boards are more likely to have legacy connections.

Believe me, I'm grateful to be able to use my 20 year old soundcard!
I'm very pleased to have found the Asus PRIME B460-PLUS board to be honest, just wanted to know if anyone knew of a better choice before I pull the trigger.

There's a massive array of boards out there, the ones that our userbase has tried typically get posted here. So if you don't see the report...

GaryB is correct, boards meant for systems integration (used as a larger project's deployment) are the ones you want to find, they will typically be much uglier and lack some of the 'cutting edge' peripheral support of a gaming board but that's because they won't use the same 3rd party chipsets for those things. Instead you're liable to find things like SMC connections, VGA/Din-9 video, Parallel/serial supports and multiple PCI slots, as well as power & thermal hardening that are focused more on longevity than overclocking & volt-modding. That's not a bad thing imho...

Supermicro & MSI are favored by some in these parts for these very things, but there are other options. The biggest issue with PCI support is how it's implemented, and GaryB will point at the chipsets that were actually problematic.

anything other than socket 1155 is probably ok.

With the Windows 11 announcement saying we'll need TPM modules, the Asus PRIME B460-PLUS motherboard I had found (modern but with legacy PCI) is out of the window for me. It doesn't have TPM as far as I can tell. Luckily I hadn't made the purchase yet! Looks like I'm back to the PCI Express x1 to PCI/PCI-X Adapter Card route. I think I'm going to buy one, modify my case, and try it out.

TPM 1.2 can often be enabled via bios without the daughterboard chip that some motherboards had for it. TPM 2.0 is necessary for higher encryption functions to be considered secure by Win11, but for home users or audio users that's likely a nonissue. Some board makers may have updated bioses as well, but it's more often just a matter of figuring out what they called that particular setting.

Also, the preview release is much more restrictive in its hardware requirements and can't be used to judge final release imho. People have already gotten machines to work that had cpu's not listed as supported by MS and tpm via bios/efi only....including AMD (which isn't as relevant to your point, but worth noting).

Good info, thanks.
This user has checked their Asus PRIME B460 bios for TPM support and didn't see it:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ASUS/comments/ ... ?context=3

It would be good if this TPM stuff is overblown as you say.
I need to buy a new PC in the next month so might not have the luxury of waiting to find out, or waiting for Asus to release a firmware update for that mobo to enable it.

OK I'm going to try this out, I've ordered one of these PCI riser boards:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255022730528

I've also modelled an external case for my two Pulsar IIs from bits I found on thingiverse:

https://www.tinkercad.com/things/l8xkVt ... -pci-riser
Before I 3D print this, do you think two Pulsar IIs would need active cooling?

cooling? yes, it's a good idea.

oh, how many times has this been done?
fun project, though...