Hack my motherboard... Add PCIe x16 Slot?

[cynicaldriver]

This is not something that I must do, but it would be interesting to try it if it's possible.

 

I have (see pics) a simple motherboard from Dell, which has two PCIe x1 slots, and one PCIe X16 slot. The second PCIe slot is hidden under the graphics card.

 

Now, there is a "pad" for a second x16 slot, and I would like to know if it is possible to solder one in and make it work.

Why? Because it might be fun, and it would allow me to use a flexible PCIe riser cable to install other PCI cards further down in the case (which would preserve the airflow on the GPU.)

 

I was curious tonight and searched for a PCIe Thunderbolt 3 card, which I could not find in x1. The throughput for Thunderbolt requires at least a 4x slot. I know 4x accessories can be installed in empty x16 slots, so that led me to think about adding that second x16 slot on the board myself. I am confident in my soldering skills, but not too sure if it would be locked out by the BIOS anyway. Has anyone successfully added features to their limited boards? Am I just crazy for even thinking about this? Where would someone even be able to purchase the slot piece to solder in anyway?

 

I would just buy another board and have the slot, but... Well, that will have to wait until I have the funds available to do that and get a retail copy of Windows 10 at the same time, which would also mean that I have to reinstall all my software... Something I do not feel like doing unless I absolutely have to. lol. Having Thunderbolt 3 isn't critical, because nothing really uses it yet, but it would be cool to have.

 

Pics in spoiler.

[Godlygamer23]

The BIOS itself may reject the slot, depending on how it's programmed.

[techguru]

This is not something that I must do, but it would be interesting to try it if it's possible.

 

I have (see pics) a simple motherboard from Dell, which has two PCIe x1 slots, and one PCIe X16 slot. The second PCIe slot is hidden under the graphics card.

 

Now, there is a "pad" for a second x16 slot, and I would like to know if it is possible to solder one in and make it work.

Why? Because it might be fun, and it would allow me to use a flexible PCIe riser cable to install other PCI cards further down in the case (which would preserve the airflow on the GPU.)

 

I was curious tonight and searched for a PCIe Thunderbolt 3 card, which I could not find in x1. The throughput for Thunderbolt requires at least a 4x slot. I know 4x accessories can be installed in empty x16 slots, so that led me to think about adding that second x16 slot on the board myself. I am confident in my soldering skills, but not too sure if it would be locked out by the BIOS anyway. Has anyone successfully added features to their limited boards? Am I just crazy for even thinking about this? Where would someone even be able to purchase the slot piece to solder in anyway?

 

I would just buy another board and have the slot, but... Well, that will have to wait until I have the funds available to do that and get a retail copy of Windows 10 at the same time, which would also mean that I have to reinstall all my software... Something I do not feel like doing unless I absolutely have to. lol. Having Thunderbolt 3 isn't critical, because nothing really uses it yet, but it would be cool to have.

 

Pics in spoiler.

20160115_203922.jpg

20160115_203927.jpg

the bios would have to be hacked/modded to even make this work

[Bajantechnician]

This is not something that I must do, but it would be interesting to try it if it's possible.

 

I have (see pics) a simple motherboard from Dell, which has two PCIe x1 slots, and one PCIe X16 slot. The second PCIe slot is hidden under the graphics card.

 

Now, there is a "pad" for a second x16 slot, and I would like to know if it is possible to solder one in and make it work.

Why? Because it might be fun, and it would allow me to use a flexible PCIe riser cable to install other PCI cards further down in the case (which would preserve the airflow on the GPU.)

 

I was curious tonight and searched for a PCIe Thunderbolt 3 card, which I could not find in x1. The throughput for Thunderbolt requires at least a 4x slot. I know 4x accessories can be installed in empty x16 slots, so that led me to think about adding that second x16 slot on the board myself. I am confident in my soldering skills, but not too sure if it would be locked out by the BIOS anyway. Has anyone successfully added features to their limited boards? Am I just crazy for even thinking about this? Where would someone even be able to purchase the slot piece to solder in anyway?

 

I would just buy another board and have the slot, but... Well, that will have to wait until I have the funds available to do that and get a retail copy of Windows 10 at the same time, which would also mean that I have to reinstall all my software... Something I do not feel like doing unless I absolutely have to. lol. Having Thunderbolt 3 isn't critical, because nothing really uses it yet, but it would be cool to have.

 

Pics in spoiler.

20160115_203922.jpg

20160115_203927.jpg

ms toolkit

[cynicaldriver]

alternatively you could cut out the back of that PCIe x1 on your motherboard slot like linus has done and be limited to 1GB/s over thunderbolt. I have personally done this before, and so has linus:

 

 

Also that "pad" is actually called a motherboard artifact. Also, that is a PCI slot like this one:

download.jpg

 

That slot is called a PCI slot and it will not work with the thunderbolt card so even if you went through all the trouble of soldering a new PCIe slot on it wouldn't even work. If you are set on putting in a thunderbolt card you will need to cut the single PCIe x1 slot on the motherboard and live with 1GB/s speeds.

Yeah, looking at it again, you're right about it not being an express slot, which is quite disappointing.

 

As far as cutting that x1 slot, do you know what kind of functionality I would lose with Thunderbolt 3 being limited to the 1GB/s?

I suppose I don't really need that much speed for anything, but I was hoping to find a Type-C Thunderbolt 3 USB 3.1 Gen 2 hub, and be able to use any connector I needed to, whenever I needed. I know I can get a USB 3.1 card that uses x1, but I am pretty sure that is USB 3.1 Gen 1 (usually marketed as USB 3.0,) rather than Gen 2, and I know Thunderbolt is capable of doing a lot more things than just simple data transfer functions.

[Enderman]

thats a PCI slot not a PCIe slot

[-rascal-]

On does not simply solder a PCI slot to a motherboard

1. The PCB traces (electrical paths) from the slot to the chipset needs to exist
2. Motherboard BIOS (or even CPU) needs to support it
3. The supporting electrical components for the PCI slot must exist (i.e. the capacitors / diodes / resistors, etc)
4. One does not simply solder on a multi-layer PCB with ordinary soldering tools (motherboards can be somewhere as many as 18+ layers

[boarder2k7]

I see you've resolved this as not possible since it's a different slot, but www.mouser.com has PCI and PCIE slots available.