Ok, so I have an old dual core system I’m thinking of turning into a retro machine for DOS and 3.11 games. However, I also want fast boot times, but the 16X pcie slot is taken by the GPU (I’m thinking an old radeon HD 4890 I’ve got kicking around) Now, obviously I could just get a SATA SSD and be done with it, but where is the fun in that? I have two unpopulated PCI slots, would they work both in signal, and in voltage for an m.2 drive?
Yes, you could use something like this if you have an x4 port available:
https://www.amazon.com/Bejavr-PCI-E3-0-Expansion-Aluminum-PCI-Express/dp/B09JM5FVC7
x1 also exists.
https://www.amazon.com/ELUTENG-Conversion-Expansion-Convertor-Compatible/dp/B0CC9424PD
Do understand the motherboard needs to support booting from the drive; if it cannot, you need to do some trickery but I think you might be able to just preload GRUB or something, mount the drive and then boot via GRUB. No idea how far back legacy support goes.
no no, you are misunderstanding my question. I am interested in PCI, not PCIE.
PCI to PCIe adapter card:
Should work with some low-profile PCIe to M.2 adapter like Delock 47003
I am not sure if NVMe is supported by PCI, so the drive may be readable by the OS, but not bootable.
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Does the computer have usb 3? That is going to be faster than PCI, so you might as well buy a usb m2 adapter. (might also be able to boot from it.)
nvme would also be an issue, so maybe it will only work as a storage drive with drivers.
By the way, IDE is the same speed as PCI (133mb/s) so you could just get an IDE to Sata adapter and be done with it.
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this is a real headache project 
You need at least Windows XP for your GPU, but XP doesn’t officially support NVME, there was an experimental driver, but I have no idea if it’s still available.
Another Problem is Soundblaster emulation without it it’s no fun, you may have a look at DOSBox-X, that will be easier
Edit: I just found exodos, I’ll take a look at that myself
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the odds of your board supporting booting over PCI, let alone NVME over PCI, are exceptionally low.
there are still some valid things you could add via PCI though.
and or
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My Asus Sabertooth 990fx in it’s later years got support for booting from nvme with adapter so that goes to show it’s going to be tough depending on how old the machine is.
What motherboard do you have? That will answer the question on what would or not work.
No USB 3, this is an old dual core 6600 I think. (not sure of the CPU specifics, I just don’t remember 100%)
I have ExoDos installed, and sadly, I have to say it’s a mixed bag. Not only do not all the games install and WORK, but also there are a lot of games I’m just not interested in playing. Either I don’t know the controls, (and the game doesn’t tell me) or I’m just not interested.
I have an old PCI soundblaster card, actually. And the USB 3/ PCI is interesting. That way I could use either a M.2 drive or a standard external SATA SSD! I think I’ll try that first, beyond anything else. Insofar as the OS, I think I’ll go with win 8. An Alternative is an old RAMdrive. Does anyone have one, and willing to sell it for a reasonable amount, or better yet, trade for it? There is ONE on eBay, but the guy wants $400 for it, and so no, that’s not in the spirit of this build.
Even if you do get an adapter to make it work I highly doubt a machine that old will be able to boot from the PCI slot attached NVME. Even newer machines that had only PCIe slots still took a generation to enable booting to PCIe attached SSDs.
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thanks for your input, I’m stubborn though, and I’m still going to try. I don’t know why this idea is so appealing to me, but it is.
Depending on your PCI slot, it can be really slow (133mb/s). so that doesn’t leave much usb3 speeds. But i am interested in if it will work 
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I have been looking into the PCI to USB 3 card you linked and was able to find the manufacturer’s website, here: StarTech.com | IT Pro's Trusted Source for Connectivity Accessories looks interesting. Also when I put in this part number, PCIUSB3S4 , it came up no problem, and I found drivers and the manual and associated bundled documentation. This seems like a cool site regardless, if a bit pricey, but hey, that’s buying new for ya.
That is what I would like to know, does the PCI slot bandwidth exceed USB/2/3 @ 1.5/3/6Gbps?
Then again, max throughput doesn’t always equal real world performance, so the only way to truly know is with benchmarks.
Although I would be highly skeptical that a Core-2 could leverage the performance advantage of an NVME over a SATA/m.2 SSD anyways.
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i own a lot of StarTech stuff, mostly sourced from Ebay.
one USB3 device should saturate the PCI bus, but still, better than nothing.
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apparently the theoretical max for a PCI bus is 1.3gbps? I dunno it was what popped up on Google, seems a bit high to me though. At this point it looks like USB 2 would saturate the bus, and I am leaning towards a SATA SSD at this point anyways, I just have two 128gb m.2 drives laying around, and I was loathe to buy MORE drives.
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SATA is the way to go here for performance with the bandwidth speeds in mind, good catch:
| Standard | Theoretical | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| PCI | ~160 MB/s | 120 MB/s |
| SATA v1 | ~190 MB/s | 150 MB/s |
| SATA v2 | ~370 MB/s | 300 MB/s |
| SATA v3 | ~750 MB/s | 600 MB/s |
Also, each SATA is their own bus, PCI share with whatever you put on the bus.
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Thanks for the info bud! While a lot of my posts on here are because I’m poor, and struggling, and therefore need to find odd or old workarounds for my current needs/ideas/experiments, I actually LOVE the 1970s and 80s era of DIY in electronics, and I am afraid we’ve sort of lost that with all our modern, plug and play tech. At the moment, Due to the aforementioned being poor, I’m looking into packet radio as a means for emergency email communication. I’ll probably post something on that separate here shortly.
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