Just to be clear, since you currently have a PCI card in a desktop PC, I wouldn't start looking into PXI cards that require a dedicated chassis. The cards I was referring to were the (similar-sounding) PCI-express X-series multifunction series.
Any of them will provide you the counter features you need immediately. They all provide some additional analog and digital capabilties as well, and you should use those specs to help you decide. Unless you're building a locked-down system that won't change for years, I'd recommend buying a card that has a bit more capability than you can immediatley identify a need for. A year from now, it's likely you'll have found a use for some of that extra capability.
Here's a page to start from: http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/209166
I don't really know how other people have solved this problem. It's not my field and I only have a passing familiarity with things via these forums. I know many people wrote about doing the "binning" method, but I don't think they all viewed it as a compromise. I think that's what they wanted to do in the first place, though maybe that was mainly because it was the only thing they knew to be practical.
-Kevin P
-Kevin P
ALERT! LabVIEW's subscription-only policy came to an end (finally!). Unfortunately, pricing favors the captured and committed over new adopters -- so tread carefully.
