PCI in PCI-X slot?

kalvindeane · 14 Jan 2013 at 23:35

Hi there. Can anyone shed any light as to whether a 32bit, 5V PCI card will work in a PCI-X slot? From what I can tell it will physically fit, and both PCI and PCI-X run on 5V. The PCI card in question is a D-Link 570TX.

I've got 3 of these cards for my networking lab and am thinking of buying an old, rack-mounted server to put them in (I use them to connect my GNS3 routers to my real Cisco switches). So far the only cheap and second hand servers that I've seen use PCI-E or PCI-X.

Much appreciated.

PhillyDee · 14 Jan 2013 at 23:42

I have ran pci-x in a PCI slot, I imagine it would work the other way.

bremen1874 · 14 Jan 2013 at 23:46

If it fits it should work. Some PCI-X cards/slots are 3.3V only, but they should be keyed differently.

kalvindeane · 15 Jan 2013 at 03:35

I hope so.

I've seen old HP servers sell for £20-40 which have a few PCI-X slots, although the spec sheets are a little bit confusing. For instance the HP Proliant DL380 G4 (yeah, it's an old model

) has 3 PCI-X slots as standard from the looks of it. The documentation from HP mentions using PCI cards in them but it doesn't mention 66mhz PCI cards (which I think my network cards are), or the voltage that the slots use.

I've been Googling for a bit to try to find out more and it looks like they will work... I think I'll just bite the bullet and buy one of these servers when I see a good deal next.

Cheers for the replies guys. Will post back whenever I get one if it works.

bremen1874 · 15 Jan 2013 at 11:09

A DL380 G4 appears to have 1 x PCI-X/133MHz and 2 x PCI-X/100MHz all at 3.3V.

Those NICs appear to be 5V only. Most more recent PCI cards are 3.3V or support both voltages. Finding a server with three 5V slots could see you needing to go much further back in time.

AFAIK all PCI-X slots are 3.3V only. The older 64bit/33MHz and 64bit/66MHz slots (which look like PCI-X, but aren't) should have the 5V support you need.

OliverDavis · 15 Jan 2013 at 13:11

Hello

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI-X#Mixing_of_32-bit_and_64-bit_PCI_cards_in_different_width_slots

kalvindeane · 15 Jan 2013 at 14:32

Ah well.

I can't really get anything older than that because they won't be powerful enough for my needs.

Maybe I'll have to save up a bit more and have a normal PC in there with 3x PCI slots and find a cheap rack-mounted case.