Question Got an external 2-slot PCI adapter, but no 'house' for it. What do?

mrblotto

Golden Member
Jul 7, 2007
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Hello out there in AT-land!

I've been having lots of audio problems lately, and I miss my old trusty-dusty Auzentech Prelude.

Alas, it is a PCI card, and my latest board doesn't have one :(

So, I did like any *cough cough * sensible person would do, I went out and got one of these! A PCI-e to 2-slot PCI adapter:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B073G6HRY2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The plan is to install my Prelude in there so I can use it again.

However, there is no outer 'shell' or 'box' for it......and it's probably NOT a good idea just to have it sitting there leaning against the wall or desk

To that end, I'm wondering if there's some sort of enclosure that I can get. I've seen a few, but they seem to be geared more towards multi-PCI card use, are powered, and cost a couple hundred dollars :/

Maybe something like an external USB HD enclosure? I'm not sure how wide they are. The piece I have is roughly 2" wide. Maybe something like this?
https://smile.amazon.com/Enclosure-...12&keywords=external+USB+hard+drive+enclosure

Cardboard box? Make something out of wood? It pretty much just needs to house the PCI card and have some sort of 'mounting' system so it doesn't fly around in there all helter-skelter

Or, perhaps I should just try it first, to see if it works, then worry about an enclosure later *shrugs*

Hopefully someone has a good idea in their noggins out there :)
 

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
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As long as you don't have any kids or pets that could touch it, you could lay it on a piece of wood and be fine (or build a nifty little box for it to lay in if needed for protection. Sound cards don't get hot like GPUs and the like do, so it could be really simple.

That said, maybe someone knows of a pre-built enclosure you could simply buy.
 

mrblotto

Golden Member
Jul 7, 2007
1,639
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Thanx for the reply U&T. I think I may just go with 'piece of wood' route for now :)

Screw it on there, put the card in, and maybe use a rubber band (or 2) or zip-ties to 'snug' it into the slot so it doesn't come loose for some wacky reason

thx again :)
 
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mrblotto

Golden Member
Jul 7, 2007
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I got it to work!

I cut a piece of wood, about 5"x7", and attached the dual slot adapter to it. Toss in the card, secure it with a couple of zip ties, install the other piece into my computer onto a PCI-e slot (2X, 4X? I dunno...the smallest sized ones). Turn everything on, install the drivers and it works! I took a couple pics, and of course during 'the shoot' I moved it around a little. I guess it didn't like it and my machine froze lol. Prolly the attached cables made it move around ever so much.

CLnSID1.jpg



358aPYo.jpg
 

mrblotto

Golden Member
Jul 7, 2007
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Update: I got a thumbs up alert (Thank you Harry!). Turns out the 'freezing' isn't due to me moving the thing around. It appears to be a common problem.

Naturally I can't remember the error or file since I researched it on my home machine and now I'm at work. I'll do some more digging when I get home

Onward and upward!
 

PingSpike

Lifer
Feb 25, 2004
21,756
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I own this gadget as well, same one with the pericom switch. I remember it sort of didn't work the first time I tried it on an XP machine and then after rebooting it weirdly did, after which it seemed to work fine. I'd have to check my notes but I recall I was mostly interested in using it to passthrough a pci device to a virtual machine and it didn't work with esxi. I think I'll retest it with Ryzen and KVM at some point here.

One of the reviews I read said something about it not properly supporting 64 bit address space or something like that, only working with 32 bit operating systems. I wasn't to sure about what that would mean but I recall the reviewer seeming knowledgeable and he had something things to back up his position, it wasn't those misspelled 3 word reviews.

It did work much better than the asmedia pcie to pci bridge single slot device I have which I couldn't get to work at all, and the wiring on that made me nervous because it looked janky.

I also have the 1 to 3 pci-e splitter with a pericom bridge version and while I have a weird distrust for it I haven't had any issues with it while testing, it seems to work exactly like it is suppose too.
 
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mrblotto

Golden Member
Jul 7, 2007
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Thx for the reply PS. But I was referring to the sound card itself. Evidently there's a somewhat common problem on Win10. Some BSOD pops up quite a bit, or the machine will freeze. I dont think it's CTaudio.sys (or whatever its called), its some other file. I'll just have to look it up on my home machine.

I did try the PCI-e adapter with another card (ethernet PCI) and it worked perfectly.

But, good to know anyhow PS. Thanx again for the fo-one-one :)
 

mrblotto

Golden Member
Jul 7, 2007
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Last edited:

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
40,431
9,941
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Link in OP doesn't work for me. Is this the product you're talking about at Amazon?

Sintech PCI-E Express X1 to Dual PCI Riser Extender Card

Question: Will basically any PCI device work in this? I have a need... my HDTV card is PCI and it's mobo has problems. It's a MyHD 130, and its daughterboard attaches to it.

I do figure to use a 32 bit OS, likely Win7, possibly XP.

I also have a PCI sound card, well, two of them, decent cards. Could try onboard audio, but I've never done that with my midtower case rigs.

I see some selling on Ebay for ~$10 cheaper, they aren't Sintech branded but they look to be similar or the same near as I can tell, also from Asia, of course.
 
Last edited:

PingSpike

Lifer
Feb 25, 2004
21,756
600
126
Link in OP doesn't work for me. Is this the product you're talking about at Amazon?

Sintech PCI-E Express X1 to Dual PCI Riser Extender Card

Question: Will basically any PCI device work in this? I have a need... my HDTV card is PCI and it's mobo has problems. It's a MyHD 130, and its daughterboard attaches to it.

I do figure to use a 32 bit OS, likely Win7, possibly XP.

I also have a PCI sound card, well, two of them, decent cards. Could try onboard audio, but I've never done that with my midtower case rigs.

I see some selling on Ebay for ~$10 cheaper, they aren't Sintech branded but they look to be similar or the same near as I can tell, also from Asia, of course.

Its really hard to tell what the branding means at all on these. I think they're all the same but there's also the risk they're factory rejects or something weird like that. Mine came straight from China as well. The box is very generic and has no brands on it.

If you read the reviews people do seem to have issues with them with compatibility some times, but high end sound cards seem to be a common use case. I think you might have compatibility concerns on both the motherboard and device sides but I haven't tried it enough times to say.
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
40,431
9,941
136
Its really hard to tell what the branding means at all on these. I think they're all the same but there's also the risk they're factory rejects or something weird like that. Mine came straight from China as well. The box is very generic and has no brands on it.

If you read the reviews people do seem to have issues with them with compatibility some times, but high end sound cards seem to be a common use case. I think you might have compatibility concerns on both the motherboard and device sides but I haven't tried it enough times to say.
I'm seriously thinking about ordering one. No hurries, I've waited for a number of things from China. $18 ... well, I also have a firewire card I figure I might want to use one day. I only have one working rig with PCI slots right now! This could come in handy.

You have yours outside your case on a block of wood? No way to mount inside a largish tower case? I'm pretty handy with tools, myself, this doesn't intimidate me. However, you do need to run a cable from this thing to the mobo, right?
 

PingSpike

Lifer
Feb 25, 2004
21,756
600
126
You have yours outside your case on a block of wood? No way to mount inside a largish tower case? I'm pretty handy with tools, myself, this doesn't intimidate me. However, you do need to run a cable from this thing to the mobo, right?

mrblotto has the block of wood, mine was just loose on the table for testing. I think I propped it up on a old cd case on top of a hard drive since you need clearance for the pci card brackets.

If very well may fit inside a regular tower case, like if you had a MATX board inside a ATX case you'd probably have enough space and the cards I think will line up. I'm sure the standoffs would not line up though so you'd have to come up with something there.