How to buy a PC to accomodate 5-Volt PCI card PCI-6602?

[DrWin]

We've been having the devil of a time finding a computer with 3 or more PCI slots at all, and then most makers & sellers have no idea about voltage compatability!  My understanding is that the NI-PCI-6602 (of which we have just bought 2) is a 5-Volt card, and therefore my PC needs to have either a "5-Volt" slot or a "Universal" slot which would be capable of accomodating either a 5 volt or a 3 volt (3.3 volt?) card.  To confuse the issue further, some *cards* are said to be 'Universal,' meaning that they can operate in either a 5 volt slot or a 3 volt slot.  Thus, a slot capable of accomodating a 'Universal' card is not necessarily a "Universal" slot!  Oh, and did I mention that all these cards and slots fit mechanically, it is just that some combinations don't work electrically.  Besides this, I have heard that some motherboards, while not offering "Universal" slots are switchable to either 5 or 3 volts.  I'm not even getting in to the different kinds of PCI slots (PCIE, PCIX, etc.)  The slot I think I need for my new pair of 6602s is a plain old PCI slot.  I am happy to buy (or even build) new computers to do this job.  I just need something with 5-volt plain PCI slots, five of them ideally but at least three.  Thank you!

[GDE]

Pretty much any new computer that you can get will have the appropiate PCI type that you need to use these boards. You will be looking for a Computer/Motherboard that is compatiable with the PCI 2.1 or 2.2 standard which supports the 5V you need to power these PCI-6602s. What you might be seeing is a lot of computers that are coming with the PCI-Express slots, which are very different then stardard PCI. These computers, since they have PCI-Express, have a limited number of standard PCI slots (usually 3). So if you go with a computer with no PCI-Express, then most will have 5 slots. So depending on whether you go with your favorite computer maker or decide to build a machine yourself just make sure that the motherboard says it has 5 PCI slots (and not PCI-Express, or PCI-X) and as long it is new you should be just fine. If you want to read up on some on the PCI standard here is a link to a good resource.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pci

Good luck with your computer hunting.

-GDE

[Siddhu]

Dear DrWin

Are u able to find out any PC of such Kind as I too has a similar requirement. Also, I could see that most of the PCs are now coming with PCI 2.2 standard which supports 3.3 signalling. My PCI slot require 5V power and signalling so I expect it not to work with PCI 2.2 slot. In general does PCI cards comaptible with 2.1 standard work with 2.2 PCI slot computers.

Thanks and Regards,

Siddu

[MickeyD]

Hi Siddu,

The PCI 2.2 spec will output 5 volts if the card is a 2.1 standard card.  The main trouble will be PCI 2.2 cards being used on a 2.1 standard slot.  That will not work.

I don't know would meet your overall requirements, but the PCI2.1 card will work in the 2.2 slot.

Have a great day,

Michael D
Applications Engineer
National Instruments