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External PCI Box for Laptops?

Posted by Cliff on from the screw-PCMCIA dept.

cagem0nkey asks: "I am in need of some type of external PCI card box for use with a laptop. I was able to find several different solutions, but these were all WAY to expensive for my wallet (at around $1,000 ea for one PCI slot!). Does anyone know of a cheaper way to add PCI card capability to a laptop? Possibly a USB or Firewire external enclosure?"

4 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. cardbus by claudius0425 · · Score: 4, Informative

    I am unaware of the existance of such a thing, but it would be MUCH, MUCH simpler to implement as a cardbus device, as cardbus is a pure superset of PCI, whilst USB and 1394 are entirely different protocols (with lower bandwidths, at that).

    It could be implemented as a cardbus card which just pulls the wires out to a PCI connector. Not pretty, but perfectly effective.

    --
    Phus. Sysiphus.
  2. Dell Latitude by ForestGrump · · Score: 4, Informative

    I have a Latitude C640 (thank you work place!)
    and I have a dock station this thing, I think. In class right now, but its pretty darned close.

    The dock has 2 pci slots, so I plugged in a radeon 7000 card and so I can run 3 displays (2 crt, laptop LCD).

    If you have an insp laptop, it is possible to modify it (and flash with a latitude bios) so that it will work with a latitude dock station.

    Note: the latitude c640 requires a 70 watt power supply, but with the dock it demands a 90 watt power supply. I don't have a 90 watt, so it works with the 70 watt, running the cpu at 1.2 gig instead of 2.4 gig. Doesn't matter for me because my work requires me to do simple graphical and text. No fancy graphics, etc.

    Grump.

    --
    Is it true that more people vote for the winner of American Idol, than vote for the president? -Ali G.
  3. Re:And Why Do you NEED a PCI slot? by fm6 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Not if the hardware he's trying to use comes in PCI and not Cardbus. In that case, it doesn't help him that Cardbus is a kind of PCI. Still, it would help if we knew why he needed PCI in the first place.

    That's the problem with a lot of Ask Slashdots: people focus on the technology they want to use, rather than the task they're trying to use it for. Cliff really ought to bounce back stories like this with the request that they fill in such details.

  4. Re:$1000?!?!??!?! by hords · · Score: 4, Funny

    If your time is so valuable, why did you click through the story, and spend the time to post a rant about it?

    Because he's at work getting paid to do it. ;)