PC Suggestions for HD# PCI & Omni combo

[540s]

Greetings and thank you in advance!
I'm finally in the process of switching from LE to an HD3 system. I had originally inteded to use a loaded expansion rack in my current PC but after careful consideration I felt the Omni is just about the perfect interface for my application & support for the chassis' stopped right before Omni support started the plan got revised a bit

I've been running 8 LE on my Tyan S2877 mobo w/ XP which I built from suggestions here back in 2007 or 2008.& thats been an excellent system sincne day 1. I'd use this same PC for the HD except I've read there are issues caused by a PCI-E slot between the first & second PCI slots. I'd also prefer to keep the LE system complete in another room but thats not nearly as important as getting this upgrade done. .

So the hunt begins for a used PC thats blessed with a bunch of PCI slots & preferably runs windows 7 though XP would be fine too. .

Any thoughts or suggestions ? I do not want to build a new PC for this. as I will probably be in a position to move up to HDX within the next 18 months. I already have an HD core with 4 Accel cards (PCI) the HD Omni. I think the only pieces I'm lacking at the moment is a digilink cable and a plan for what computer to install the cards in.

Another option I considered on my current PC was the possibility of a longer TDM flex cable to join the cards that would have the PCI-E slot between them. I have the ability to build those cables in any length or simply fab a junction to use two cables but that also assumes there are no electronic issues with the layout of the Tyan S2877's slots.

Thank You! Any help is greatly appreciated!

[soul]

You know you have to have PTHD software version to make use of the TDM HD cards, right?

What did you hear about the 1st and 2nd PCI slots having conflict with the PCIe slot? I am having issues with adding a 3rd card to my computer (in the 2nd PCI slot)

[540s]

Hi Soul, Thank you for the reply. I'll be running HD 8.1 which supports the Omni, TDM cards & my OS. I wish expansion chasis support stayed around longer :)

Much Of what I've learned came from reading here. Especially regarding compatibility issues & fixes etc. when I first got 7 LE in 2007. Is your problem simply the placement of the slots or do you have electronic issues also?

After more investigating & some test fitting I did make progress & discovered some of my previous info was incorrect once I dug into my PC. As it turns out I'll be able to use my existing PC for three cards, possibly a 4th. In my situation 3 cards fit fine once I modified the hard drive cage (cut out about 40% of it) & moved a few other things around.

My issue is going to arise when I try to add the 4th card. (assuming no unknowns pop up first lol) I mistakenly thought the pci-e slot was between the 1st & 2nd pci slots but it is in fact between the 3rd & 4th. The conflict is physical.. the cards are too far apart for the flex cable to reach as well as some surface mounted componants interfering with the bottom of card. Most likely I'll be satisified runnung HD3 but I'll see how this all works out. I won't know if the 4th card will work in my MOBO even if I can get it in there since I've never read of it being done & didn't try yet. I know it will annoy me to have the 3rd Accel card here & not end up using it.

I'm looking at a few options to get over the issue of having the pci-e slot between pci slots. I've read there was someone on here who made longer cables at one time who may or may not be reachable now but I've found the manufacturer of the connectors and cable which seem to be available. I may have a line on pre-made flex cables in various lengths as well as the parts to make them myself but I'll tackle that once I can get a card in that 4th slot. I'm thinking of just buying or making a connector to join two OE flex cables if I cannot source a longer pre-made cable. Another option MAY be trying a few different slot risers to move one of the cards. theyre cheap enough to try from places like Newegg.

Even though I'll probably have this running with 3 cards in the next week I still would like to run the HD system on a new/different computer & keep my LE system in another room. I've been looking at some new industrial computers with a lot of pci slots but I think it would be a crap shoot finding one that runs PT well.

I won't get much more acomplished on this until the Digilink cable gets here during the week. but will update when I get to the next stage.