[SOLVED] external PCIe x16 possible?

[advhus]

Hello. We are using a Matrox Orion graphic card as an additional graphic card to our PC (used to receive 2 video inputs from another system). Currently we're using a big desktop simply because the smaller ones only have one PCIe x16 slot (and it's taken by the OEM graphic card). My problem is that I want to integrate this card into our slim MSI desktop (Trident) instead of using the bigger case. MSI already told me that it is not possible to have another slot into this slim case, so I'm looking for other solutions.

What I'm interested in knowing is if there are external PCIe x16 slots that i can plug into this PC? And if so, how do they connect? Via hdmi? Is there a way to connect an external slot directly onto the motherboard somehow?

I read in another thread that someone wanted to do this for his laptop, and most of the answers were related to the fact that it doesn't make sense, both financially and operationally. I'm trying to get as much information as possible about what solutions are out there, regardless of price.

 

[Eximo]

What PC specifically? Can't really answer without knowing the PCIe configuration on that system

As for HDMI, no, not sure what gave you that idea. That is a display input/output standard, not related to PCIe or ATX for that matter.

There are PCIe extension cables if you have a physical slot to plug in to. That would let you relocate a card that won't fit due to space limitations. But if you only have a 16x slot already occupied, not so much.

Do you know the minimum number of lanes that Matrox card will operate with? Might have to ask Matrox if it supports running on newer PCIe revisions at 1x or 4x, again a lot depends on the computer you are plugging this into.

Simplest solution would be to buy a chassis and a motherboard with enough slots to run all the hardware you want to put in it. Plenty of workstation models out there, or you can build your own.

 

[tennis2]

Does the motherboard have an M.2 slot? That's PCIe and I've seen people use adapters to make that work.

 

[advhus]

Thank you all for your answers. I don't know enough about the motherboard specs -- I do have the PC specs: https://www.msi.com/Desktop/Trident-X-Plus-9th/Specification
When we opened it up we didn't see a spare pcie slot.

I was searching online and saw this: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...n_ect3_pcie_tbt3_expansion_box_for.html/specs The guy said that if I have a usb type C connection (which i do) it'll work.

Do you guys agree?

 

[advhus]

Does the motherboard have an M.2 slot? That's PCIe and I've seen people use adapters to make that work.

The specs say this:

2x M.2 SSD (1x auto switch and 1x PCIe (or Intel Optane))
Up to 2x 2.5” SSD / HDD

Will that work?

 

[tennis2]

Both solutions will work. The eGPU enclosure will be more elegant.

 

[advhus]

Both solutions will work. The eGPU enclosure will be more elegant.

Sorry, which eGPU enclosure? The link that I put? It will only connect using a Thunderbolt 3 connection which my PC doesn't have. Or did you mean something else?

 

[Eximo]

So an ITX board with no expansion slots except the one with the GPU in it.

Thunderbolt enclosures are designed for laptops, very few desktops have thunderbolt support. Type C is just a form factor, says USB 3.1, so that is all it has to offer. USB, while decent, not enough bandwidth for a PCIe card.

M.2 adapter might work, but still very silly, and you would probably be giving up your boot drive, and have that whole mess to deal with of moving the OS around and getting a SATA drive to put it on. You will have to find or cut an opening somewhere to get the cable out, and still need an external power supply for the GPU.

This is just the wrong computer for the job.

Return it, buy a standard mid-tower computer and chassis with an ATX board that will have the additional slots.

 

[tennis2]

There are two M.2 slots, I doubt they're both populated.

2 x USB 3.1 Gen2 (10Gbps)

 

[advhus]

Yea, I opened it up and saw the empty M.2 slot. I was surprised to see how hard it is to find a PCIe to M.2 adapter. The opposite is easy. I only saw it on chinese websites.

 

[Eximo]

There are two M.2 slots, I doubt they're both populated.

2 x USB 3.1 Gen2 (10Gbps)

A little over 1x for PCIe 3.0 which is measured in GB/s (2x for PCIe 2.0, 4x for PCIe 1.0)

Not sure how much bandwidth that card needs, seems to be older, but since it handles video, probably more than any USB adapter can handle.

 

[Eximo]

Yea, I opened it up and saw the empty M.2 slot. I was surprised to see how hard it is to find a PCIe to M.2 adapter. The opposite is easy. I only saw it on chinese websites.

Pretty much only the one kind. M.2 broken out into an x16 slot. Basically PCIe to PCIe only really the form factor that changes. Now M.2 has its own foibles, because not all M.2 slots are PCIe, some only support SATA communications.

Not sure how that motherboard is setup, but Z390 probably has only NVMe (PCIe) M.2 ports.

If you still want to do down that route, you would basically be replicating what people do when they are trying to add a discret GPU to a laptop that doesn't have thunderbolt.