PCI to PCIe adapter: Will it work?!

Hello fellas,

I want to upgrade my aging 7 year old custom modded x-fi to a new Z series. The problem is that I have used up my 4 available PCIe slots with SLi and various SCSI cards which I do not wish to replace.

I only have 1 PCI slot remaining, where my current x-fi resides. As we all know, the Z series requires a 1x PCIe slot.

For the past few days, I have been musing over the idea of using a PCI to PCIe adapter such as:



There are a lot of these cards out there at relatively cheap prices.

The bandwidth of a PCI slot is around half that of a PCIe x1 slot. (Bandwidth is 133MB/s vs 250MB/s). Also, there will be a slight problem of raised ports on the Z series.

Of course, the big question is, Will it work? Theory says "yes". My engineer's instinct says "probably not".

What do you guys think?

If it does work, will there be noticeable lag/system instability? Has anybody tried it?

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks,
-- Zasha

I doubt anyone has tried it. Worst that could happen is your pc doesn't boot? I think.

The xi-fi is a better sound card I don't know why you would want to change.,

i still keep the PCI xi-fi in my pentuim4 extreme edition PC and use the PCi express xi-fi of the same card in my core I7 lga2011 PC. in fact I go out of my way not to buy newer sound cards but what ever,.

Better Midi support better sound fonts.




I don't even think newer sound cards based on sound core 3d chipset do much since windows 7 audio changes anyway. And the battlefeild 3 sound huys wrote a blog somewhere on why they are using CPU for sound now anyway. But It would take to long to find it.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/05/01/sound_blaster_recon3d_fatal1ty_card_review/#.Ua_1J9JJMe4

Thanks for the responses guys.

I bought a ZxR with a PCI to PCIe converter. I am happy to say that it actually worked.

So far, I have yet to experience any negatives.

There is a head and shoulders difference in sound quality experienced with my Sennheiser HD-650 headphones, and also my modestly priced $3000 hifi speakers and amplifier.

There are too many improvements to list here, but I must say that I miss the CMSS "Stereo Surround" option. I have had to experiment a lot to try and get Winamp/AIMp3 to work with upmixing and my preferred plugins to emulate the old "Stereo Surround".

Admitedly, there is a huge difference between the Recon3D which the previous poster linked to, which is designed for gaming only; and the ZxR.

Recon3D

ZxR


I hope this post helps someone else who is in my shoes.

All the best,
-- Zash

Am I missing something? That looks like a PCI-E to PCI adapter. In other words, a PCI-E card plugs into the PCI-E female slot, which then plugs into a PCI slot on the motherboard.