How do you convert a pci slot to pci express

[buckchaser]

I have an older P478 MOBO with 5 PCI slots. I want to use a PCI slot for a PCI Express Device. Has anyone done it?

 

[C12Friedman]

Welcome to Tom's Hardware Forums,
I'm personally thinking it isn't possible. I'm going to direct you to these wiki articles on PCI and PCIe - explains the differences and even shows the pinouts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conventional_PCI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCIE
One major obstacle I foresee is getting a card to fit in a case slot after crosswiring a bridge. After I compare pinouts, that's minor.

 

[boabs]

U DONT

 

[mi1ez]

Even if you could the bandwidth would be terrible!

 

[ss202sl]

You replace the motherboard with one that has PCI Express.

 

[Pinhedd]

It is not possible to do so.

While it is possible to create a logical interface between PCI and PCIe it is not possible for a user to create one and modify a motherboard to support it. Additionally, Drivers would not support it.

 

[palladin9479]

And so you guys know ... somewhere ... out there ... there is an enterprising EE with entirely too much spare time who is going to make one of these. You know it...

 

[Pinhedd]

And so you guys know ... somewhere ... out there ... there is an enterprising EE with entirely too much spare time who is going to make one of these. You know it...

I'm actually tempted to do this. My FPGA dev board has enough LVDS pairs for a couple of PCIe links, supports 3.3 volt signalling, and has boatloads of GPIO for the PCI.

Challenge accepted

 

[gamerk316]

Well, lets put aside the voltage/timing requirements, the bandwidth would be so bad, the PCI-E device would probably be virtually unusable.

 

[graemevermeulen]

Why would you want to do this? You can't mod the actual slot however an adapter card could work if the device you want to use has a low profile bracket.

 

[Pinhedd]

Why would you want to do this? You can't mod the actual slot however an adapter card could work if the device you want to use has a low profile bracket.

Probably for a graphics card or something. All graphics cards have been speaking PCIe since it was introduced in 2004. Any card made for AGP/PCI uses a bridge chip which speaks PCIe on one end and AGP/PCI on the other

 

[palladin9479]

Why would you want to do this? You can't mod the actual slot however an adapter card could work if the device you want to use has a low profile bracket.

You haven't known many EE's have you? The sheer nerd cred from doing this is enough of a reason in and of itself.

 

[pctopcie]

And so you guys know ... somewhere ... out there ... there is an enterprising EE with entirely too much spare time who is going to make one of these. You know it...

I'm actually tempted to do this. My FPGA dev board has enough LVDS pairs for a couple of PCIe links, supports 3.3 volt signalling, and has boatloads of GPIO for the PCI.

Challenge accepted

I just made an account to ask you Pinhedd for info about your pci to pcie project???????????????????

 

[pctopcie]

come on pinhedd reply plz

 

[atty2005]

https://www.amazon.com/PCI-Express-Adapter-Card/dp/B0037ECAM2/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1542531228&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=pci+to+pci+express+adapter+card&dpPl=1&dpID=41QCZYcFPEL&ref=plSrch

 

[DSzymborski]

https://www.amazon.com/PCI-Express-Adapter-Card/dp/B0037ECAM2/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1542531228&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=pci+to+pci+express+adapter+card&dpPl=1&dpID=41QCZYcFPEL&ref=plSrch

This is PCI express to PCI, not the other way around. There's no bandwidth issue, so it's a much simpler task.

Also closing this thread as answering five-year-old threads isn't terribly helpful.