Bitcoin Forum

Hi,
I'd like to know if it is possible to mine with an adapter from pcie-x16 to pcie-x1; here is one of them: http://www.startech.com/PCI-Express-x1-to-Low-Profile-x16-Slot-Extension-Adapter~PEX1TO16. Also, how bad will my mining be affected by bottleneck?
Still wondering whether buy it or not.

Cheers.

Yes, such adapters are widely used.
You should experience no bottleneck due to minimal bandwidth utilization while mining.
Yes, go for it.

You might also consider externally powered adapters like this one (http://cablesaurus.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=1&product_id=28) for energy hungry multi GPU configurations.

That adapter will work, but I think you will find a flexible extender more flexible.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41YNRaSG9bL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

You can also use a 1x extender, but that would require some dremeling (on the extender, not on the card!) to make it fit.

It is my understand it has no negative impact on bit mining operations. You don't use that much bandwidth, the only concern is powering it.
Also It is common practise amongst those wanting to squeeze lots of GPU's onto a single motherboard.
Personally I think a large bit mining operation is bested done with FPGA's unless you got one hell of cheap electricity and very cheap parts (GPU's).

Just cut the damn mobo up man !

That's what I did and it works  :)

I used a bread knife, it wasn't pretty but works great (I'm moving and was the only sharp thing lying around).

Point being don't necessarily be turned off if you don't have a bunch of tools, it's just cutting a bit of plastic and can be done easily with a ton of stuff lying around in a standard kitchen.

Can you pull video through one of these x1 adapters ?

Eg can you access bios and stuff through x1 or you need x16 for any type of video stuff ?

Why couldn't you?
It's still a legitimate PCIe connection, all protocols will work as expected. The only difference is you get far less bandwidth (fewer receiver/transmitter lanes) this way.

I've heard even some gaming can be done but with some slowdown on graphic intensive parts.

gaming? does anyone play any game here?! :P
(yeah for sure there is a slowdown, you got less bandwidth)

I can't cut it, I was looking for an adapter because I don't have enough space inside my computer case, I already have one GPU there.

I heard that you cannot use PCIe x1 for anything related to video.

Not even mentioning gaming. I just need to be able to enter BIOS, that's all.

I have one of my mining cards, an HD5850, connected to a PCIe x1 slot on my motherboard right now. I also have it connected to my monitor, and I'm looking at the output from it as I'm writing this message. It works fine.

Wrong. You DO know they make GPU's that run natively on 1x PCI-E bus right? Also display adapters were displaying on an ISA bus long before PCI-E ever came about.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709+600007854&QksAutoSuggestion=&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&Configurator=&IsNodeId=1&Subcategory=48&description=&hisInDesc=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&AdvancedSearch=1&srchInDesc=
Yes you can display on these, and YES you can game on them. You can even game a 7970 on a 1x wide bus. You'll just have some "chugging" because you will be limited by the bandwidth alloted for a 1x slot

I have a 5870 using a pci-e 16x to 1x (from Dealextreme) along with a 5570 in a 16x slot (currently the 5870 won't fit in the case anyway, so it is just hanging out the side of the case). The video works fine on both of these regardless of the video config (changing primary card etc.). Now if I could just get OpenCL to see both cards that would be great....

Thank you for correcting my view.

I read somewhere on this forum that x1 cannot output any type of video output.

Turns out it was totally wrong. Good to know !

You gotta be careful, I fried one of my older mobo's not using a power injected extender cable and a more power hungry video card(5970).
So, either buy one of those x1 -> x16 cables for cheap and modify it for power injection(there is a guide somewhere on forum here) or buy more expensive already made power injected cables.

Also, depending on ur board you may need to short the sense pins on the PCIE x1 slot for the video card to even be recognized. You can easily tell if u have to do this by whether the video card is 'detected' in the OS(or if this is the only card on video output on system, if monitor shows picture or not when u turn on PC)
There is also a guide for this on forum but not sure where .. lol
(I also had to do this on my older mobo), many new board this is not needed.

Also, FYI, it is true that pretty much anything can still be done on a x1 width slot / video card, except high bandwidth applications such as gaming and other 3d intensive stuff. Mining itself uses very little bus bandwidth.
Heck some people even use PCI -> pcie adapters and still mine on those cards. PCI is a shared bandwidth of up to 133MB/s! (much less than pcie x1)

I have used 16x to 1x adapters for multiple cards on multiple motherboards.

-Yes, you can get video through the cards. I have not tried gaming, I'm sure they would run, but probably not well.

-Power can be a bottleneck on some higher-power cards, e.g. 7970 runs at about 93% capacity compared to when it is connected using PCI-e X16; 6950s run fine, even when the extra sharers are unlocked and overclocked.