pci to pci-e adapter for only 50 euros !!!!

husak · Post by **husak** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 7:41 am

hello i found this page whith this hardware

http://www.virtuavia.eu/shop/pci-expres ... 29855.html

and now i can run my old pulsar II into my new 8 cores MAC

and waiting osx drivers soon as possible of the new creamware 5 software

Fede · Post by **Fede** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 10:40 am

very interesting! perhaps it is possible to unmount the original metallic plate and mount the card shifted though loosing some adats...

cheers
Fede

JD · Post by JD » Sat Apr 05, 2008 3:52 pm

like the idea, looked around their website and found this. have any of you tried this solution

PCI Express to PCI Expansion Box
http://www.virtuavia.eu/shop/pci-expres ... 29809.html

bill3107 · Post by **bill3107** » Sun Apr 06, 2008 10:57 pm

Yes ! I have recently tried their box (pci-to-pcie) and the result was :

1) ok with 1 uad and may be several ? I had only one for testing
2) ok with 1 soniccore board but NOT OK with 2 (because of stdm cable ?)... And yes, a 6 dsp (and more) does not fit so you must customize the box...

Should you want to run a host of synth (1 scope pro for ex for that) and that's a cheap solution. Nothing more though ...

Jo

kylie · Post by **kylie** » Sun Apr 06, 2008 11:09 pm

yes, the case is too small to hold a card bigger than the luna series (if closed). the former owner also found out that more than one (cw/sc) card is not supported.
the case is mine now; I have nevertheless other use for it right now, and, thus, not tested more than one card with it.

it is available now with an expresscard, too.

-greetings, markus-

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 3:31 am

well, i'm under the impression that some folks assume the 'higher' PCI-e specs might improve the performance of old cards...

imho it can be at best 100% of the former PCI performance, but a 'protocol conversion penalty' is more likely. At least that's my guess.
As long as there's plenty of boards still equipped with PCI (there really are and it doesn't even look they're about to vanish...) there's few need to bother about adapters.

cheers, Tom

kylie · Post by **kylie** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 3:36 am

astroman wrote:As long as there's plenty of boards still equipped with PCI (there really are and it doesn't even look they're about to vanish...) there's few need to bother about adapters.

...and you are really telling that people owning an intel mac, tom?

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 1:37 pm

kylie wrote:...and you are really telling that people owning an intel mac, tom?

sorry, you're correct - I overlooked the line that Husak indeed owns one of those silver dual Quads

but I still don't get the point that a Magma connector (which is known to work) is regarded a problem if you're able to spend > 2k Euro on the CPU.
Even more if you consider that those 'cores' (in the Mac Pro) are extremely expensive - and imho far from delivering the paid potential in real world apps.
We're not talking server or highly threaded rendering here.
I didn't benchmark th MacPro personally, but it's always been a 400% price tag for a 20% increase of performance, wasn't it ?

... of course I don't want to spoil the party, so excuse my rant

cheers, Tom

kylie · Post by **kylie** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 12:08 pm

astroman wrote:but I still don't get the point that a Magma connector (which is known to work) is regarded a problem if you're able to spend > 2k Euro on the CPU.

of course. but maybe the apple pricetag somehow suggests "it has plenty of everything", so people don't want to spend another 2K on stuff a new pc for 140 eur (yes they sell the low end machines for that price) has

Fluxpod · Post by **Fluxpod** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 12:30 pm

I dont get all that apple bashing! Fine machines.No idea who came up with that you can build it yourself bs....i use apple and i use pcs..both work .Pricetag is fair enought imo.

Fluxpod · Post by **Fluxpod** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 1:53 pm

Fanboys this fanboys that...Both plattforms work well if the user dont suck.And the omg apple is overpriced thing is going on for 10 years now..i just laugh and use it.The price of the 8 core machines is ok imo.Its not cheap but its really in the ballpark for what it delivers.Apple bashing is sooo 2003 .

Post by **garyb** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 3:44 pm

i agree, there's no reason to trash apple, it is a very good machine. one funny aside though, i recently installed windows xp on my stepson's brand new macbook pro and did my usual tweaks of shutting down the eye candy. as always with apple, everything i needed to know was clearly explained and available to me. the process of creating a new partition was well planned and easy. the punchline is that i was amazed at how much better the macbook ran on windows than it did on osx....

kylie · Post by **kylie** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 12:42 pm

Fluxpod wrote:I dont get all that apple bashing! Fine machines.No idea who came up with that you can build it yourself bs....i use apple and i use pcs..both work .Pricetag is fair enought imo.

if you feel bashed, sorry. I don't deny they are fine machines. if you're fine with the restricted hardware pool they provide.

the main reason that held me back from buying one is still the fact that they decide what's inside and what not. building PCs for almost 15 years I'm used to be able to decide to a certain degree what my box has inside. it isn't that factory adjusted and biased system a mac is told to be, but still it is my decision to go that way. sorry, but I just couldn't stand the thought having to get rid of all my expansion cards the moment apple decided that the time for abandoning PCI had come. especially my CW/SC cards.

the mac pricetag in general is ok for me, since I assume that you just have to pay a certain amount for having hardware and software more carefully adjusted to each other. paying big buck for "downgrading" to capabilities I consider a matter of course (by buying a magma) is still no option for me, neither is tinkering inside the shiny mac case with the slot adapter mentioned above (given the fact that it is meant for low profile cards only, which most probably disqualifies a scope card).

that's my opinion. bash me if you like

.

sorry to hijack your thread, husak, but I don't think it will fit without modifying the case. and since osx support is not mentioned (be that necessary or not), you won't be able to complain if it doesn't work either.

-greetings, markus-

dehuszar · Post by **dehuszar** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 1:01 pm

I had my Scope and PulsarII in a Magma chassis no problem. The real issue was that my laptop/cardbus controller couldn't provide enough bandwidth for it to be really portable. That, and dragging the magma around ended up being a bit of a pain. Putting an X-Cite and a decent pre in a rack'd box with a handle would be waaaaaay nicer.

That said, if putting a Magma chassis allows current gen cards to be seen by SFP5, then why not just build an Intel box, buy a copy of OSX, and set up an OSX86/Hackintosh rig. You spend 1/3 of the money (I've priced an Intel dual-core box with 8 gigs of RAM for a little over $700) and still get a rock solid OSX rig (and PCI slots native to the motherboard).

It wouldn't be supported, but neither is a Magma rig.