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Motherboards w/single PCI slot

Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 11:08 am
by capacitor
Howdy,

I'm looking for a tiny motherboard, to support a single Pulsar card. Any ideas?

Basically as small a package as possible.

Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 11:35 am
by Shroomz~>
Hey there!

Astroman had one running in a mini ITX. I'm sure he described the performance etc on the forum. Should be easy to find if you run a search. I can't think of smaller solution right now. :)

Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 11:46 am
by capacitor
Hehehe - I need to RTFF :D

I'm going as small and fanless as practical. This will be life support for a single Pulsar or Luna.

Here's a possibility: http://www.aicsys.com/sbh-4218a2gnl.php

The idea is that the motherboard connects to the Pulsar via a dual PCI backplane. That & a small power supply, and I think I'm set. This is a custom tube guitar amp - I have a lot of leeway regarding the enclosure.

I'll check out Astroman's setup as well, and thanks. BTW, thanks for a whole lot of good stuff I'm finding here with your name on it :)

Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 12:23 pm
by Shroomz~>
Ah, now you're talking. That's definately a small package!! :D

Sounds like an interesting project. :)

Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 1:10 pm
by astroman
Capacitor, the ITX project actually wasn't the most enjoyable experience...

first - I bought the mini board too early, the heatpipe-equippend version wasn't released yet - impossible to run the thingy without a fan...
to verify that it would be operable at all with a Pulsar, I cludged it together on a table and it seemed to work, even with a decent Masterverb result.
The latter surprised me due to it's VIA heritage :P

so I ordered a 1-unit rackmount supposed for mini-itx and a 90 degree slot adapter, which took over a month to deliver... and then it lacked half an inch in depth to properly house a Pulsar One.
Ok, my fault - the pictures suggested enough space and I didn't measure...

I cut out a piece from the front panel, so the card would fit in (I would later add a nice piece of wood or so to make it look good), put everything together and ended with a (ground?) noise horror.
Starting at -55db and no better than 68 or so, while I usually have -80 to 85 dB

I suspected the PSU might be too weak, or the board had a flaw from laying around - strangely I don't remember such noise from the first test.

This wasn't a priority project - I only worked now and then on it, but in fact one of it's intentions was to have some mobile guitar fx unit - SpaceF's Echo and Celmo's Amp Sim in the first place ... :D

If you also want to use a Pulsar One, then check the chipset first - I may not remember it correctly, but the 915 might be incompatible with generation one boards
AndreD once mentioned something like this, I just don't remember the precise number, sorry.
I currently have the Pulsars in a 946 and that seems flawless.

cheers, Tom

Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 2:49 pm
by Shroomz~>
Hey Tom, how many people do think bought 1u rack chassis' & riser cards over the years, with the eventual conclusion that... it didn't actually fit. Don't fret about it. :D

Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2008 8:46 am
by capacitor
Thanks for all this info, it is very helpful. I *should* be able to handle grounding and noise issues, maybe with some custom filtering and mu metal. Going to be interesting :D It is going to be more of an integrated design, rather than an effects loop.

I'll rtff and summarize what I find regarding chipsets.