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A while ago I found these adapters on ebay that convert standard 33/66MHz PCI slots into a PCI-Express slot with 1X speed. Has anyone here gotten any experience with them, and does anyone know if they work on modern GPU's?

These would be epic, as they would allow me to use just any regular old motherboard to run mining GPUs.

Here's the link if anyone wants to see. They are called "PCI to PCI-E PCI-Express 16x Bridge Riser Card Adapters"

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PCI-to-PCI-E-PCI-Express-16x-Bridge-Riser-Card-Adapter-/150736952226?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item23189f5ba2

Hey, good question :) I have some old motherboards lying around, I could use that.

Or maybe should I just order one and see :)

Let me know how it goes. I would do that too, but as a measly student I don't really have the spare funds to order one just to try. xD

Remember though. most modern GPU drivers require a CPU with at least SSE2, so I doubt it would work on pentium 3 era computers. But it's worth a try. :P

Well, I can still try it on a newer board with only two PCI-Express slots, but equipped also with two old PCI ones.

It will take a while though to get the order...

That's the first time I've seen one with a reasonable price, still though if you figure four of those on an old mobo you could afford a nice new one

Yeah. I'd only want to buy one, maybe.

It might work (depends on the motherboard, if it doesn't disable all the options/functions and hardware that is not necessary for mining) but you should connect the GPU through a powered riser on top of that (unless it's a low-end GPU not used for mining) because PCI can provide max. 25W, a GPU can pull (according to PCI-E) specs up to 75W = possibility of frying the motherboard. It's not such of a problem with BTC mining and underclocked memory (use of GPU memory is what is responsible for most of the power pulled through the PCI-E port and you don't make much use of VRAM while SHA hashing) but I still wouldn't risk it.

Good point.

They work fine. I own one and have mined a 5870 overclocked on it with no problem. 7970 in it works too. I even have a 5970 (dual gpu) card on it with a non-powered riser and without a riser at all. Have had zero problems with them.

Excellent!

Cool.

Thats great i just bought a gaming comp with 1-16 and 1-1 pci e with 2 pci.Way mo betta.

That is a PCI controlled, controller... your 1x speeds will be 1/16th of a 1x speed. (It is 1x speed, buffered, not directly controlled, like these cards require. For a modem/netcard/wifi/sound-withoutDMA this would be fine.)

There are 16 PCI connections in ONE 1x PCIe slot. (band-width wise.)

Also note.. That might be PCIe 1 or 2, thus, would not work with any 2.1 or 3.0 cards... (Those cards are not reverse compatable) Also, not enough power through the PCI slot, you would need to add 12v power for the card, if it did work on that slot.

Those are designed for "low power half-slot cards to be attached, with a virtual-driver."

I 2nd that. Additionally, I found those powered ones here: http://www.virtuavia.eu/shop/pci-express-to-pci-adapter-p29855.html
This should prevent your mobo from being fried by your (countless) high-end GPUs.

Did you even bother to read my post? I have successfully used Radeon 5870 and 5970 with them, which are PCI-E 2.1, and a radeon 7970 which is PCI-E 3.0. They negotiate to PCI-E 1.1 (since that is the highest spec this adapter can deliver), as is common practice with the PCI-E spec and working as intended.

You need to stop talking out your ass like you think you know something.

If you still don't believe me, I will take some pictures later of the physical setup as well as device manager and it actually mining.


Did you miss the part where it plugs into your motherboards PCI-E slot and outputs an older PCI slot? You can't plug in current tech graphics cards in there. Derrrrrp. The reason it is "powered" is the PCI-E slot doesn't natively have a 5 volt line coming in. The PCI spec requires 5 volt and the molex can supply it on the red wire.

Hey hey. I don't want you guys arguing up here in my thread.

Actually I believe what ssateneth said. He is an experienced miner and he doesn't talk crap.

I just ordered 4 :)

I Second what ssateneth said.

Ups ... my bad ... sorry.  ::) It had multiple tabs open in my browser in search of those adapters and picked the wrong one.

Anyhow, good to hear that it works for you!
Can I come back on your offer for pictures.
Just out of curiosity I want to see how your rig looks like, and how the riser/converter cards impact the case design.

Thx

I'd like to see the pictures just out of curiosity... You know.. record keeping...
Please provide :P

Great, you got it to work with ONE card, or two... You are running over POWER if you have more than 3 cards... So stop acting like you know what you are talking about. He said a "regular old motherboard", not a "Motherboard with PCIe controllers that also have an advanced PCI controller." You use these on a motherboard without a PCIe controller? How many at once?

You DID NOT use more than 3x 7970's... you may have gotten one or two to work, and run crappy.

I said "MIGHT"... I was not talking out my ass... I have dealt with those "types" of adapters before. They are real specific. You were not. Thus, my expressed concern.

Glad to see you cleared that up for them. But what I said still holds true.

In the end, it is still a PCI, at the lowest component. Great, if PCI is all you have left for connections. However, it would just be better and cheaper to buy a board with 6-8 PCIe slots.

Sorry, would you rather that I have just mislead everyone into thinking that ALL those kinds of PCI->PCIe risers are equal? Like you are doing.

That SPECIFIC card states... "PCI Express Specification Version 1.0 Compliant", Thus, not PCIe 1.1, 2.0, 2.1, or 3.0 Great you have ONE card/mobo that is compatible. Not all cards/mobos are. I can name many that are not... I have them all right here. Your graphics card states, "must use a 2.1 or greater", or "must use a 3.0" slot for a reason... You have no clue what damage you are going to do... Great, it works for a few hours, or a month... then what, smartass?

And THAT card, has NO POWER... (That is the other reason it is not greater than 1.0, which has higher power requirements. Doesn't matter if you added power... That card alone, does not PROVIDE it. So STFU, and stop acting like you know what the hell you are talking about. Did you even read the OP's post, or read about THAT riser? You do realize there are more than one of those types of risers, correct?)

I have the same, exact, identical "riser". PCB color, components, everything. Power without a video card is 46 watts in my testing computer. The card I'll be testing is the Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition with stock clocks of 1100MHz core and 1500MHz memory. Power is measured with a Kill-a-Watt.

Without the PCI to PCI-E adapter, the computer is 63 watts with the card and no monitor attached, 100 watts with monitor, and 362 watts while under mining load. I get 660 MHash.

With the adapter plugged in, the computer is 59 watts with the card and no monitor attached, 98 watts with the monitor, and 363 watts while under mining load. I get 647 MHash. Screenshot shows lower because having open programs like GPU-Z slows down the mhash, probably because of the little graphs.

Click images for larger version. For what it's worth, the video card is available for sale.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9768004/7970pcitopcie.png (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9768004/7970pcitopcie.png)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9768004/SAM_0147.JPG (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9768004/SAM_0147.JPG)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9768004/SAM_0148.JPG (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9768004/SAM_0148.JPG)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9768004/SAM_0149.JPG (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9768004/SAM_0149.JPG)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9768004/SAM_0150.JPG (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9768004/SAM_0150.JPG)

just so everyone knows, you can get these on Amazon, you don't have to go the eBay route.

Good grief. Nobody listens to me.

Welcome to the internet/bitcointalk/etc

I have one, it works fine. Someone on here said they have problems with 2 or more on the same board.

The only issue with these is cost... at $24, it's just cheaper to get a 4 or 5 slot mobo w/extenders. If it was $15, that would be perfect.

too bad i threw out my old pci computers :(

Thx for the pics ... I like the piece of wood holding your card  :D