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Hello everybody.

I have a few PCI soundcards coming from old computers. All these have stereo inputs and outputs so they should be usable for Softrock purposes. As I use a laptop and have only USB connectors, is there a way to modify these PCI soundcards to USB?

73 de Franco iz2oos

Hello Franco,

Sorry, but the PCI sound cards are not able to be modified for use on USB.

Not trying to discourage you, but I would recommend selling them and buying a USB sound Card.

John

Franco,
Even if you did find an adapter, most of those cards require a driver that would also be hard if not impossible to find for modern-day Windows. There are very low-cost USB sound dongles that would be less than the adapter if you could find one.

Above is my best information, others may have better.
73
Evan
AC9TU

What about such a device?

That is not a USB to PCI adapter.? It is a PCI to PCI extender that happens to use a USB 3.0 cable for it's connection because it is a good multi-lane high speed cable./mike

The card you linked to is a PCI Express to PCI Express adapter. It lets you
plug an x16 card into a smaller x1 slot. It doesn't magically make the x1
slot faster -- your x16 card will only run at x1 speed -- but it does allow
it to function. The primary reason those exist is cybercurrency mining;
they made it possible to plug more GPUs into a computer. Data transfer
would be slow, but mining rigs don't do a lot of that; you load some stuff
into the GPU and let its own processor crunch away on the data.

I don't know of anything for adapting PCI cards to USB. USB 3.0 and higher
are fast enough that they could support that, but I guess nobody has
designed the necessary bridge chip. But there are cards that plug into a
PCI Express slot and provide a PCI slot; that bridge exists. There are a
couple of different styles: one that plugs into a card slot and has a PCI
connector on top, and other that has a short cable to a small board with
two PCI slots.

Either of these would make it possible to use your old PCI card as an
INTERNAL card in a modern computer. There are mechanical issues with
installing either. The single slot type adds height, so it might not be
possible to fit your PCI sound card inside the case, and the PCI card
doesn't come out to the back I/O slots so plugging anything into it will be
inconvenient. The kind with the separate board requires somewhere to mount
that board; if you have a system with a full size ATX case and a Micro ATX
motherboard you might be able to mount the board beside your motherboard so
it has access to the unused rear I/O slot spaces, but the mounting holes on
the two slot board aren't designed to match the mounting holes on your ATX
case (I tried) so you'll have to rig up some other way to keep the board in
place.

Here are examples of the two types

Single slot:


Dual slot:

Also, that adapter is PCI-E (PCI Express) which is not at all like regular
PCI.

I think the only similarity between PCI and PCI-E is at the software
level. Hardware is 100% different.

Andy

Thanks everybody! It was just an idea on using vintage soundcards on my laptop. Good to know also what cannot be done!
73 de Franco iz2oos