Bitcoin Forum

Other => CPU/GPU Bitcoin mining hardware => Topic started by: WiseOldOwl on June 16, 2011, 03:31:22 AM



Title: How important is pci bandwith?
Post by: WiseOldOwl on June 16, 2011, 03:31:22 AM
Would a 32 bit pci (original) connection deliver enough info back and forward?
Also, has anyone tried to run a card through a series of adapters onto a pci slot? Thanx.


Title: Re: How important is pci bandwith?
Post by: grue on June 16, 2011, 09:29:03 PM
probably, but you'll probably spend a ton of money getting a pci -> pcie adapter.


Title: Re: How important is pci bandwith?
Post by: stapler117 on June 17, 2011, 03:21:31 AM
agreed,
the old pci has a shared bandwidth of 1 gbit/s while pcie 1x is 4 gbit/s per slot. The idea with the old pci was wide bandwidth but slow clock and pcie is narrow bandwidth but very fast clock. same idea as PATA vs SATA. They do make adaptors, but not only would mounting be an issue, who knows how many cards you could put on a motherboard. Say for 3 cards, you only have 1 gbit/s for all of them. The same set up with pcie and all cards running at 1x, you have 12 gbit/s total and 4 gbit/s for each. If you run into trouble with them, there isn't much support for that kind of thing other than the company you bought it from. Really, you are better off buying a new motherboard with the money you would spend on adapters.


Title: Re: How important is pci bandwith?
Post by: Cablesaurus on June 17, 2011, 08:31:49 AM
A mining card can run through a PCI -> PCIe adapter, even via Extender cable, without issue.


Title: Re: How important is pci bandwith?
Post by: kokojie on June 17, 2011, 03:39:54 PM
bandwidth is a non issue, as long as you can plug in the card to the mobo, even via adapter, you are good to go. Very tiny amount of data travel from the card to the mobo, most of the heavy lifting is done directly on the card.


Title: Re: How important is pci bandwith?
Post by: Zagitta on June 17, 2011, 08:51:08 PM
A mining card can run through a PCI -> PCIe adapter, even via Extender cable, without issue.

Yup i can confirm this :) Hell it even works with PCI-X (yes X not E) because it's backwardscompatible with PCI...

As for the price: I found some on ebay for 25$ which isn't too bad of a price if you already have some old hardware lying around like me, for example i converted a old fujitsu siemens rack server to a mining rig with one of these adaptors, an extender cable and a 5850 :)

If you're having problems getting the board to detect the card you'll probably have to do this: http://blog.zorinaq.com/images/pcie-short-photo.jpg just on the adaptor itself, at least that worked for me