PCIe x1 in M.2 slot?

[DJ_Level_3]

I'm trying to add a FireWire card into my PC so I can connect to some old hardware, but my mATX motherboard's PCIe x1 and x8 slots are both covered by my GPU. I have found a riser cable for the x1 slot on my motherboard, but it's too short and I'd have to jam the card between my GPU and PSU, which would block airflow. I have only found a few risers with a 90 degree male connector, and none of them are long enough except for some really sketchy or slow-shipping ones.

 

However, I do have a slot that has NVMe support with 4 lanes of PCIe Gen 3, so I might be able to connect in the card there. Problem is, I can't find any adapters that go into an M.2 slot and have a PCIe slot on the outside, only ones that have a second NVMe slot. Is it possible to connect a PCIe card into an M.2 slot, and if so, can you send a link to something that does that?

 

Thanks,

DJ_Level_3

[DJ_Level_3]

Actually I might be kinda stupid I can get a short 90 degree riser and then connect it to a long straight riser.  I'd still prefer to have it in the M.2 slot though since there's more space, so if anyone can find that that'd be great. I'll keep looking as well.

[--SID--]

Ultra M2 slot is for storage only.

 

What's the brand and model of the motherboard?

[DJ_Level_3]

It's a Gigabyte B450M DS3H motherboard. Also, I've found an M.2 to PCIe x4 card but the ratings are 90% "Mining worked!", 5% "Works but closed ended so no GPUs", and 5% "Terrible quality and fried my card".

[DJ_Level_3]

Here is the one I found.

[mariushm]

You can buy a M.2 to pci-e adapter card, but you'll need to power the pci-e slot separately (usually the adapters have a molex or sata connector to power the card from it).

The M.2 connectors only have 3.3v while regular pci-e slots have both 3.3v and 12v.

 

Example : https://www.ebay.com/itm/333391391689 - The sata - floppy adapter cable "injects"  12v into the pci-e slot from the sata connector ... 3.3v is supplied from the m.2 connector.

 

 

You can also buy pci-e riser cables that convert a pci-e x1 slot to a pci-e x16 slot, and you can plug the pci-e card into that pci-e x16 slot. Again, those riser cables will power the pci-e slot directly from power supply using some kind of input (molex, sata or pci-e 6/8 pin)

 

There are some pci-e x1 riser cables or extenders that don't need separate power cables, here's an example : https://www.ebay.com/itm/273986312739

 

While M.2 connectors are usually for storage, for SSDs, majority of computers will accept anything in those slots, as they're just regular pci-e lanes.

 

I'd also like to point out the Firewire support in modern operating systems is kinda finicky, buggy, and some features of Firewire may not even work (because it was found that by design it was insecure, a camera or a firewire device could send data that would overwrite memory that belongs to operating system or other programs... or something like that)

 

 

 

[DJ_Level_3]

2 minutes ago, mariushm said:

You can buy a M.2 to pci-e adapter card, but you'll need to power the pci-e slot separately (usually the adapters have a molex or sata connector to power the card from it).

The M.2 connectors only have 3.3v while regular pci-e slots have both 3.3v and 12v.

 

You can also buy pci-e riser cables that convert a pci-e x1 slot to a pci-e x16 slot, and you can plug the pci-e card into that pci-e x16 slot. Again, those riser cables will power the pci-e slot directly from power supply using some kind of input (molex, sata or pci-e 6/8 pin)

 

While M.2 connectors are usually for storage, for SSDs, majority of computers will accept anything in those slots, as they're just regular pci-e lanes.

 

 

Good to know. The boards I found did in fact have a molex connector, so I think I'll get one of those since a FireWire card is quite inexpensive so if it gets fried it's not much of a loss. Thanks so much!

[mariushm]

I edited my post to include some links ... there's a m.2 to pci-e which has a floppy connector and comes with a sata - floppy adapter.

 

This style of riser/extension converts the x1 to x16 and has separate power for the x16 slot : https://www.ebay.com/itm/253465917250

The USB cable between the two cards only connects the DATA wires (the pci-e lane) so no power is sent from the motherboard to the extension board, so it's a must to have separate power.

With a bit of search you can find versions of these cards with the usb connector on the tiny board at right angle, so your usb cable won't hit the video card plastic shell.