So, apparently, there are more than 3 types of expansion buses. Up until tonight, I was aware of only AGP, PCI, and PCI express. I am now aware of many others. You see, I've been trying to shoe horn a PVR into my main desktop and I have not been very successful as of yet.
The other day, I scored a Pinnacle HDTV card (http://www.amazon.com/Pinnacle-Systems-8230-10023-51-PCTV-Card/dp/B000X27YQI) from WOOT. At 50 bucks, it looked like a good deal. I've been wanting to make up my own PVR Media Center PC thing for a while, but never had the funds or the drive to do so. I still don't really have the funds to build a new one from scratch, so I decided to stick the HDTV card into my desktop. It fits and works great.
The problem is that I've got a TV and stereo system that would just be wasted if I started watching TV on my PC. Plus, I like using my computer while watching TV, and having an extra window sitting on top of everything gets old really quick. And also, people watch movies and stuff with me in my room, and it would be a pain for them to have to watch it on my monitor. This problem is easily remedied with a couple of cables coming off my PC and sticking into my Stereo setup.
My machine is kind of old. It came from a hospital or something where it probably operated some kind of crazy expensive piece of equipment, so it's still pretty powerful. When I got it, it had a 3GHz Xeon processor, 512MB of ram, and a sweet-ass video card with a Nvidia Quadro4 chipset. I've upgraded the ram to 2 gigs and through in a few old SCSI hard drives. It's a pretty more than decent machine for what I do. Unfortunately, it's got an integrated sound card and no TV out.
Not a problem. I hit up newegg (http://www.newegg.com/) to snag a new sound card and maybe a cheap video card with just a TV out. Before I buy anything, I check the MoBo to see what kind of expansion options I've got. It has an AGP slot that's inhabited by the sweet nvidia card. It's got two PCI slots, one of which was holding an extra ethernet card. Below those, it's got three PCI-X slots, one of which was filled with my PCHD card.
Okay, I thought. I'll get a video card that's PCI-eXpress and a soundcard that's PCI. More than enough room. So I order a cheap PCI 7.1 sound card. And I order a cheap PCI-Express video card with Nvidia chip set and a TV out. Totaled to about 60 bucks. I'm in business.
They came in today. I removed the extra ethernet card and replaced it with the sound card. Awesome. I still can't hook it to my stereo yet because of a weird grounding problem that causes a buzzing noise. That's okay, though. I'll go to radio shack and get a magical box that will eliminate the buzz.
I pull out the new video card and try to cram it in one of the PCI-X slots. It doesn't fit. I cram harder. It still doesn't fit. I took it out and look at the pins. It's obvious that the pins won't fit the slot. Weird. It says PCI-Express on the box... Maybe they mis labeled it? It looks like an AGP card. So I tried replacing my good video card with the new one. Nope. Not an AGP card. So if it's not a PCI Express card, and it's not an AGP card... and it's definitely not a PCI card... what the heck is it?
A quick googling reveals that it is indeed a PCI-Express (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express) card. Just like I had ordered. However, PCI-Express and PCI-X are not the same thing. PCI-X (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCIX) is more like PCI 2.0 or something. This kind of makes sense. It's a really old mobo, so it was probably made before PCI Express (PCIe) got popular. PCI-X and PCIe are not compatible.
A check of the box that my PCHD card came in reveals that it is not a PCIe card. Just a regular PCI card that can also fit in PCI-X slots. Cuz they're compatible sometimes. Or something. I don't really understand it.
The bottom line is that PCIexpress and PCI-X are not the same thing. And I've got a $30 video card that I can't use. I guess I'll try to sell it to some guys at school or try to swap it out with something else I've got around the house. If all else fails, I'll just send it back. In the end, it's just kind of a bummer.
Anyways. Until next time,
~~Ben
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