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Polizei
10-16-2007, 11:46 AM
Im working at a computer lab on my college campus. I was hired to do the usual loading printers with paper and helping kids who dont know how to use MS Word.

Once the boss found out I know my rear end from a hole in the ground when it comes to hardware, hes got me doing everything and anything as far as hardware installation in the labs.

His boss came to me with a DRC Stream 500 capture card for a class they offer. Has to do with recording a sale pitch marketing students throw at someone off the street and they record it and critique the delivery. I dont know, dont ask. The card will NOT fit in a PCI slot, nor AGP, which is what all 4 machines here in thelab seem to have.

The newest machine, Dell Optiplex 745, have a coupla regular old PCI slots, and then a brown slot with some sort of DVI card in it. The card has a dongle hanging out the back that splits into two regular DVI cables. The slot that the card is in is set back from the edge of the motherboard about a half inch more than a PCI slot, but is nearly the same length, maybe a bit longer.

This (http://www.digital-rapids.com/Products/IndividualProducts/DRC-Stream%20500.aspx) is the card my bosses need to install, but as you can see, it is NOT a regular old PCI slot card. If the card was to fit into a PCI slot, the pins all the way on the right in the picture would hang out the back of the slot, not connected to anything.

My guess is that its a PCI-E x16 card, and if not, a PCI-X card. I want to make sure that its one or ther other before I tell them which one it is for sure, because I dont want them to buy a new workstation just to find that the card wont fit. If all else fails, theyre going to return the card and try and find a PCI variant.

EDIT: It seems one of my boss's found out that it will work in a PCI-X slot. Any insight will still be helpful because I dont think she knows what shes talking about.

Any info is appreciated. Dell support sucks.

PDF Fact Sheet (www.digital-rapids.com/upload/drc-stream500_brochure.pdf)

tiro_uspsss
10-16-2007, 06:37 PM
a PCI card can be plugged into a PCI-X slot

a PCI-X card can be plugged into a PCI slot

if u plug that card into a PCI slot, it will merely have less bandwidth... also be aware that any other card on that PCI-X bus will auto-switch down to the slowest card (IE a PCI card..)... here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI-X