PCI-E extension question

[Fuganater]

I am picking up a 1u chassis to play with and I have to mount the quad nic card by using a PCI-E extension. I have a few 1x to 16x powered riser laying around and wanted to know if I could us it and not suffer any performance issues. My board is an Intel DH61DL which has a 1x PCI-E slot.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EX627A8/?tag=ozlp-20

 

[HoneyBadger]

Performance, not unless you start using all four links at full-duplex (PCIe 2.0 1x is roughly 4Gbps total bandwidth) but stability concerns would be entirely possible. That's an unshielded cable made from a 40-pin IDE ribbon with electrical tape holding it together. I'd get a solid riser if possible.

Obligatory "no ECC" note as well.

 

[Fuganater]

So something like this is better?

Do they need to be powered?

 

[HoneyBadger]

No, when I mean "solid riser" I mean something like this:

That may not be an option given your board and case though.

 

[Fuganater]

I'll have to look for a PCIE 1x one of those. I see everyone here using the ribbon cable extnesions so I figurd that was a safe bet.

 

[HoneyBadger]

I'll have to look for a PCIE 1x one of those. I see everyone here using the ribbon cable extnesions so I figurd that was a safe bet.

You could probably just Dremel out the end of your x1 slot so that the riser would fit, but you'd want to insulate the overhanging pins.

I did find a riser, but it's US$26.50 and I've never ordered from this site before:

http://www.atechfabrication.com/products/specialty_products.htm

 

[jgreco]

I see everyone here using the ribbon cable extnesions

Where do you see this?!

 

[Fuganater]

Where do you see this?!

Just looking though many of the build threads here.

The case is a 1U case for a Mini-ITX mobo so the "hard riser" should work but I will havve to wait till it gets there before I buy one.

 

[jgreco]

I don't recall having seen ribbon risers almost ever.

 

[HoneyBadger]

I don't recall having seen ribbon risers almost ever.

The only time I saw one was in a "what do you think of this build" thread and I suggested strongly against a case because it would have necessitated a flexible riser.

 

[Ericloewe]

Only a minority here uses something besides relatively spacious, more-or-less ATX chassis. Of those, only a small portion has any need for risers. The majority of those will be PCBs with a plug and a socket (and provided by reputable companies like Supermicro).

I don't even recall the one mentioned by HoneyBadger.

So yeah, not common at all.

 

[jgreco]

We've actually got the tooling here to mod them in the rare case we use them, because excess length on the ribbon cables sucks. Mostly not an issue now that we primarily pump out Supermicro servers.

It used to be a real ***** to get two PCI slots on the back of a 1U (one of the few times I can recall actually using a flex riser). These days you can get three! (1018R-WC0R)

 

[HoneyBadger]

I don't even recall the one mentioned by HoneyBadger.

Right here.

Note that the user did in the end go with a different solution. ;)

 

[Ericloewe]

Right here.

Note that the user did in the end go with a different solution. ;)

Thanks for the link, but you're giving people the idea that I want to remember every single build thread around here. :p

Jokes aside, I do not have a team of highly-trained monkeys keeping track of things.:D

 

[Fuganater]

No, when I mean "solid riser" I mean something like this:

That may not be an option given your board and case though.

I found this one on Ebay for $18 for a 2 pack. I'll let you guys know what I end up doing once the case arrives. Hopefully that should be next week.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Thanks for the link, but you're giving people the idea that I want to remember every single build thread around here. :p

Vodka helps. The forgetting, I mean.

Jokes aside, I do not have a team of highly-trained monkeys keeping track of things.:D

Only reason I remembered is because I was the one posting the warning.

@Fuganater - Glad to see you found some solid risers at a discount. I ended up having to eat $30/riser for some specific Supermicro units once, that was a bad day. Riser cost more than the damned card going in it.

 

[Fuganater]

Well, now that I am home looking at the motherboard this option will not work. You can see that there is a capacitor? behind the slot so I can't cut it down to fit a riser.


I decided to give the ribbon riser a try with a RAID card I had laying around and it worked just great.


I will keep looking for a x1 "hard" riser but this may be my only option for this board.

 

[jgreco]

What a crappy design for a slot!

 

[HoneyBadger]

Well, at least it fits ...

Considering the board itself though, I assume this is mostly a testing/play system anyways.

 

[Fuganater]

I found this one on Ebay. Should work if I cut down the back of the slot. Will probably buy 2 or 3 in case I screw up.;)


This actually will be going into a 1U chassis for pfsense. The riser is for a x4 quad nic.