PCI Issue - What is wrong with this picture

SandLake

SandLake

SandLake

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26 Feb 2021
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Antrim
I'm planning to use a 'Thin Client' to build my own router. The computer has what I think is a PCIe x16 slot and I have a PCIe x4 4-port network card. I am currently waiting on an x4 riser ribbon cable arriving but I'm not convinced my PCIe card is going to fit in my PCIe slot - I believe an x4 is compatible with an x16 just restricted to x4 speeds

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The smaller of the 2 connectors both have 11 pins but the motherboard slot is approx 1.5cm long and the card connector also has 11 pins but is 1cm long.

What am I doing wrong?
 
Literally just figured this out myself - it does help to write/type a problem down!!

Not sure an X1 pcie slot is going to cut it - back to the drawing board.

Thanks
 
Might just stick with what I have, a Fujitsu Futro S900, I don't like the idea of a trailing USB NIC adapter, it would be OK for a temporary solution but I want to add in a seperate gigabit NIC, the S900 will do it but I think (so far) that it'll have to be a 1 port NIC, there is always the built in NIC making 2 in total.
I got it off Ebay from Germany, it is in really good condition and cheap too
 
It fits in a dedicated slot on the T620 :) Should've stated its the plus model, Guess it depends on your uses, I wouldn't want a router with only 2 nics.

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That does look better but a quick check on Ebay looks like £100, I'm just have a play around with a home built router, just bought a x1 PCIe riser off ebay to use with my single gigabit NIC that I have hacked the full profile backplate off to make it fit low profile and i'll stick that in my S900 for now
Thanks
 
I saw that and did track the item number down but not very available, obviously I don't know much about PCIe but an PCIe X1 ribbon cable 'should do'
 
SandLake said:
I saw that and did track the item number down but not very available, obviously I don't know much about PCIe but an PCIe X1 ribbon cable 'should do'
Click to expand...

If you read that link - a PCIe x1 ribbon cable definitely "won't do", as although it looks like a PCI-E 1x socket, the pinout has been changed:

parkytowers said:
PCIe: There is what looks to be a PCI-e X1 socket. On a board layout diagram I have it is identified as a 'PCI-e X1 socket'. However elsewhere in the same document it is identified as being a 'proprietary X2' socket.

In December 2017 Istvan discovered (as I subsequently did as well) that if you plug in one those PCI-e X1 extension cables into the socket on the motherboard, even with nothing plugged in the other end, the S900 will not power up. It was after finding this out that I looked further and discovered the 'proprietary X2' words hidden away in the D3003 documentation.

There is some very detailed technical documentation on the D3003-S motherboard on the Fujitsu website - use Google to search for the file TechNotes_V3.1_Mini-ITX_D3003-S.pdf. This includes the pinout for their PCIe connector which is significantly different from the standard. If you have any interest I've listed the connections here. The immediate killer is that pins A1, A2 and A3 are +12V in the standard but, whilst pins A1 and A2 are +12V on the D3003 connector, pin A3 is Ground. (My thanks to Goetz for drawing my attention to the PCIe details in the document).
Click to expand...
 
You could mount USB Ethernet adapters internally, as the motherboard has some USB headers, but all the USB ports are only USB 2.0 so will be limiting in terms of throughput.

Hopefully you didn't pay much for the Futro S900 - at this point you're probably better cutting your losses and getting something else to use as a firewall. There are plenty of cheap chinese mini PCs around that come with multiple ethernet ports that are better suited:

e.g. this type of thing
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It's far from the end of the world - but I think I have gotten too involved in all this. Take a step back and have a nice family weekend! Thanks for all the input!
 
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