Aargh! New PC - HDSP9652 won't fit!

[sjpaul]

Fellow SAC'ers...

I appear to have made a b*lls up of buying a new PC for my SAC rig....

It's a Lenovo small form factor core 2 Duo with an E7400 CPU. I thought this would be perfect for me as I'm currently running an older model Lenovo SFF with a Pentium D chip; I just wanted a bit more processing power. Anyway, their is a PCI slot and a PCIe solt, but they don't have the normal height, so I can't fit my HDSP9652 card into the unit!

Is there any way (other than me buying a new case with standard height) that I can get around this? Some kind of PCI extension that I can have the card/s outside of the PC box?

The older Lenovo have has the PCI slots running sideways, so this is how the cards fit in to it ok.

Oops!

[Iain Westland]

think yo can get a right angled adaptor if you have the sideways room, but external boxes are more in the uk than a new case:(

iain

[905shmick]

Whats the back of the case look like? Can you post a picture?

Does Lenovo offer a PCI daughterboard option to allow full height cards to be put in sideways?

Any solution to use the cards externally will either be expensive such as a Magma solution or will be cheap and hack-ish and will probably not work well.

You're probably best to either try and return the PC or sell it and take a loss and buy the right gear.

[quaizywabbit]

might be able to swap out the guts with the older case....but i would take it back and get something that fits right out of the box

[sjpaul]

I've taken another look inside and by the looks of things, even if I did get some kinds of right angled adaptor, there wouldn't be any room for the card/s to fit as the hard drive would be in the way. It's annoying as the great thing about the one I already have is that it's small and fairly light and just fits into a rack mount tray. I'm not sure if I can return it as it was an eBay buy and I've already wiped Windows Vista off it and put on XP Pro before I realised this issue with the PCI slot! Silly me....

I suppose a rack mount case might be in order..... Meh....:mad:

[905shmick]

Is the motherboard Micro ATX size? If so you should be able to swap it into a new case.

[sjpaul]

Is the motherboard Micro ATX size? If so you should be able to swap it into a new case.

Honestly? Pass....

It measures 10 1/2" x 8 1/2"

[quaizywabbit]

so the older lenovo's motherboard isn't the same size as the new lenovo's?

if possible i'd do a complete swap from the newer into the older...same form factor.....newer guts

[sjpaul]

so the older lenovo's motherboard isn't the same size as the new lenovo's?

if possible i'd do a complete swap from the newer into the older...same form factor.....newer guts

I'm not sure... the older one's in work, flightcased.... new one is at home. I'm trying to think back to when I put the system together - I think the older one uses a right angled riser board and that's how it allows for full height cards sideways. I'd hoped to keep that system intact though as a back up unit, so I may have to get a case instead.

[Trackzilla]

you could always go the hackish route & cut a hole in the case that allows the card to stick through...then maybe make a box to cover the stickyouty bits up...maybe use aluminum or at least aluminum tape on it to provide a bit of shielding...cheap & sleazy, but it works!

[RBIngraham]

I have one of the SFF Lenovo PCs myself. You have to pay attention to what you buy because they have SFF and USFF. For Small Form Factor and Ultra Small Form Factor. The USFF leaves almost no room for any cards except true half height cards.

Now I knew that before I purchased, as it wasn't for SAC and I just needed to put in a Firewire card into mine so I found a half height Firewire controller card and it works just fine.

I would say, just press it into service for something else. There are refurbished models available directly from Lenovo for only a few hundred bucks. So I would think about what is your time worth. Is it really worth trying to take this computer and hack it all up to turn it into something else. Or you could just go get one of the tower units and have the room for PCI cards. (2 PCI slots and 1 PCIe slot open if I'm not mistaken)

Example: http://outlet.lenovo.com/desktops/ca9088acu.html

For $300 that's worth it to me to save my time. :)

And since you're dealing directly with them, you can also call them on the phone to make sure of exactly what you are getting.

Sorry to hear about your hassle.

[sjpaul]

I've picked up a s/hand rack mount server case cheap from fleabay today, so i plan to build all the gubbins into that.... I would have needed to buy a rack shelf to fit the original into anyway, so the price difference shouldn't be much...

Thanks for all the replies / suggestions.:)