Can an external PCI-Express to PCI adapter work? Sort of...

UPDATES: I didn't mention but my Lab machine is running in Legacy BIOS mode (not UEFI) and had Option ROM support enabled. Also, it is impossible to plug a SATA power cable into the PCI adapter and plug a PCI card in at the same time -- they SATA connector keeps the card from being inserted.

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In this video I try out an interesting PCI Express to PCI adapter. (From China, of course) I want to use a PCI SCSI card on a modern machine so I can access Amiga and Mac SCSI drives.

PCI-e to PCI bridge Chipset: PI7C9X113SL

--- Tools I use:

Deoxit D5:

Jonard Tools EX-2 Chip Extractor:

Wiha Chip Lifter:

O-Ring Pick Set: (I use these to lift chips off boards)

Elenco Electronics LP-560 Logic Probe:

Hakko FR301 Desoldering Iron:

Rigol DS1054Z Four Channel Oscilloscope:

Head Worn Magnifying Goggles / Dual Lens Flip-In Head Magnifier:

TL866II Plus Chip Tester and EPROM programmer: (The MiniPro)

TS100 Soldering Iron:

EEVBlog 121GW Multimeter:

DSLogic Basic Logic Analyzer:

Magnetic Screw Holder:

Universal ZIP sockets: (clones, used on my ZIF-64 test machine)

RetroTink 2X Upconverter: (to hook up something like a C64 to HDMI)

Plato (Clone) Side Cutters: (order five)

Heat Sinks:

Little squeezy bottles: (available elsewhere too)

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Links:
PDX Commodore User Group

Datasheet:

[draggonhedd]

the sata power connector is exactly that, it provides power to the board for higher power cards.

[bryanpratt]

The x1 slot you used was probably on the PCH and not direct to the CPU. Plug it into one of the x16 slots near the top and it may work fine.

[BandanazX]

Check the block diagram for the motherboard. Sometimes the 1x slots are already behind a PCI hub logically. As others have mentioned, a different slot might work.

[magog]

take note: videos like this are a masterpiece of youtube history. The presentation and suspense is great. Thanks man.

[ceilingsoldier]

I bought one of these 2 years ago for my X99 system as it has no PCI slots and I had an older DVB tuner card I wanted to use. It worked fine for about 4-6 months and then it blew up taking out all the PCI-E slots on the motherboard. The way these things power the PCI cards is badly designed and it will still switch on and work even if the auxiliary SATA power connector isn't used. It has no overload protection so if the cards draw too much power over the PCI-E connection then you run the risk of damaging the motherboard as I did. The power connector on mine was also positioned badly where longer PCI cards would get in the way so I had to makeshift an angled connector that was shallow enough to fit. I wouldn't recommend using these on any motherboard you can't afford to damage and instead just buy the PCI-E equivalent of whatever expansion card you need or pay more for a better branded one such as Startech.

[hbkirb]

You’re right in thinking that kind of chip usually goes on a motherboard. If you check the block diagram in the manual of a recent motherboard with PCI slots, you’ll see “PCIe to PCI Bridge”. Later graphics cards also did this but in the reverse way, so they could design the card for PCIe and then port it to AGP by simply sticking this kind of bridge chip on the board.

[adamsteelproducer]

I know i'm late to this, but here's an explanation of the SATA power connector. A lot of external gear used to have Molex power connectors, those provide 12V and 5V. SATA connectors, when made properly, also have 3.3V on another lead - and traditional PCI needs 3.3 and 5V to support all equipment. Easier than having a step-down converter on the board

[brassj]

Did you try plugging it into another PCI express slot? I have had issues with slots and plugged into another spare slot and had success. Hope you get it working

[supremerulah]

Out of curiosity, does the BIOS on the bench computer have a setting related to "Allow option ROMS" or something to that effect?

[Irongrip]

I've used a very similar product as a GPU raiser. You need to connect the sata power cable. They work okish.

[xnonsuchx]

As others said, you may need to go through all BIOS settings and make sure anything 'legacy' is enabled. Personally, any PC I build, I always get a motherboard w/ 2-3 legacy PCI slots just in case I need them (and I didn't want to have to buy new PCIe cards for things I did have).

[seeindarkness]

First power the adatper with the SATA power cable, second you need to look in hte BIOS of the other computer to enable looking for Other Bioses, remember that you are trying to boot a BIOS on a UEFI system (which might not work)

[Skull_Gun]

Looks like a neat way of hooking up a GPU + Soundcard to a small Win98 computer with no decent expansion room

[holzwurm_hd]

5:10 ... You didnt connect the Sata power cable...

[SergiuszRoszczyk]

Double notch on Adaptec card is to mark the card as compatible with either 3.3V and 5V PCI standard. And yes, this card is officially 32/64 bit. Second notch on extended part marks it also as a 66 MHz capable. I have one on my Dell server. The only 64-bit PCI card I ever used ;-)

[wskinnyodden]

You should also add the sata connector for proper power on the PCI slots.

[phillstevenson]

I have used these to expand out an single 16x machine to have 4 different cards, scsi, fiber channel, esata, and SAS. For a customer of mine didnt use the same wine you did, but same concept I know all the extensions needed to have power to work but the worked flawless out a 16x slot.

[willyarma_uk]

Last year I bought a selection of PCI to PCIe adapters and vice versa and risers, I managed to get an NVidia Quadro NVS 295 working on a Pentium II ! Out of a big tub of cards that I have its the only one that would POST. I got H.264 hardware video decoding working in XP !!! Love your videos BTW.

[UpLateGeek]

It'd be interesting to see if you booted from a Linux live CD, if it picks up the bridge and the card in lspci.

[НикитаДёмочкин-йж]

I was thinking about buying same adapter for the very same reason (I needed SCSI interface on my home server to access the tape library). Ended up with LSI PCI-E SCSI card however, cause I didn't have any SCSI adapter at hand that time around, but for those who have conventional PCI cards these adapters seem like quite an option