PCI Cards: Do you remember? Do you use any now?

WantoN

WantoN

WantoN

Soldato
Joined
11 Jun 2003
Posts
10,795
Location
Hampshire
In the days of yore we had all sorts of PCI cards; from soundcards to serial ports we took pride in posting pictures of our full to the brim desktops, basking in the glory of all that extra flexibility and functionality.

Modern times however, have mostly seen the demise of these once glorious devices, along with floppies, FireWire and the once ubiquitous CD-ROM. With highly specced motherboards and remarkably decent onboard audio, the standardisation of the USB port and the true powerhouses that PCs have become, it’s rare to see a build with anything but a (ridiculously powerful, comparably) discrete GPU.

However, I sense a resurgence on the horizon. NVME drives mounted on PCI-E adapters, the desperate need for MOAR PORTS from VR, desktop DACs, external drives and wonderous peripherals. Could this be the age of the PCI-E card once again?

So chaps, what wonderous devices did you rock back in the day? And do you use any PCI-E cards now? Am I mad for hoping that we might again see towers stacked to the gills with all that glorious fibreglass and copper?
 
Currently a WiFi blootooth combo card although technically I think it's pci-e x1.

Previously sound card before on board audio got decent.
Also at one point a TV capture card. God they were junk
 
Years ago I had a dial up pci card to get internet but thankfully the need for those was soon replaced with dedicated routers. I have a brand new pci capture card that I couldn't even give away!!

I used to use a pci soundcard before changing to a pci-e version. Currently using onboard but Gigabyte has included no software at all for the onboard sound chip even though they big it up in their marketing gumph. That means no equaliser, no sound modes or anything like that. It's a shame really because it's decent onboard sound, just let down with no features at all. I will probably be dropping my Soundblaster Z back in soon.
 
I remember when I replaced my 28k modem with a 56k, the speeds blew my mind.

I actually have quite a few cards in at the moment, an m.2 heatsink, a plate I knocked up for external fan control, and a 7 port USB3 card. Going to be getting a type C + 3.1 gen2 card too I reckon.
 
Still using a PCI Asus Essence ST sound card on a Gigabyte Z370 HD3P with i7 8700. Owned the Essense ST since 2010, this will be last new motherboard it will be compatible with.
 
I used to run an asus xonar essence ST PCI card up until I upgraded to threadripper. I now run a collection of different PCI-e cards. Currently I have:
Aja Kona LSe digital framestore for video capture
RME HDSPe AIO for audio capture
Firewire 800 interface for DV capture

My server also has an LSI 8888elp HBA, an intel res2sv240 sas expander and a USB 3 card in it.
 
I did have dodgy on-board ethernet in my last PC so I put a cheap network card in it. The performance from the network card was very good, I think there's still benefit from having network cards even though most people don't bother.
 
billysielu said:
I did have dodgy on-board ethernet in my last PC so I put a cheap network card in it. The performance from the network card was very good, I think there's still benefit from having network cards even though most people don't bother.
Click to expand...

Especially with 10Gb, it’s a necessity.

How about we get some pictures of you PCI and PCI-E pron, gents?

I’ll upload one later.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom