Tom's Hardware > Forum > Graphic & Displays > Graphics Cards > External PCI
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geoffry   04-14-2007 at 05:37:07 PM

Is there a PCI enclosure that exists?

I want to make a PCI card of mine external and connect via USB or firewire to a different computer. I searched for awhile and can only find HDD enclosures...

The reason is the other computer is an imac with obviously no available PCI slots:)

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nh484000   04-14-2007 at 06:38:46 PM
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I looked at a few places and cant seeem to find one either, maybe you can see if you can get the same thing in a USB package?

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sithscout80   04-14-2007 at 07:09:36 PM
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There exists no such device. The closest thing is External PCI Express, which is yet to be released which will allow external graphics cards and other components.

As nh484000 stated, look for a product that has the same function as the PCI card.

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geoffry   04-14-2007 at 08:21:20 PM
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Ya, I seen that PCI-E thing from Asus as well, looks pretty neat.

Thanks for your help, it was a TV tuner in my PC but the screen on the 24" imac is just so much nicer, I was going to have this as my vista media center with boot camp.

Thought I could save $150 bucks or so and get an enclosure but alas...

Maybe I'll wait for some external HDTV tuners to really bring out the beauty of the screen, I read about that ATI one that is only for OEMs right now, hopefully it goes retail soon after.

Thanks again.

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sithscout80   04-14-2007 at 08:38:26 PM
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Here are a lot of USB TV Tuners that could work with your iMac.

USB 2.0 TV Tuners - Newegg.com

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geoffry   04-14-2007 at 08:50:37 PM
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Thanks but I live in Canada and Newegg doesn't ship here. But I did see some HD tuners in that list that I'll definately search for on Canadian sites, thanks again.

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flasher702   04-14-2007 at 09:23:32 PM
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Running a TV-tuner over a PCI to USB bridge would suck anyway. Almost anything running over a PCI to USB bridge would have lousy performance. If such a bridging device doesn't already exist in the consumer market (I don't know of any) it probably never will as PCI is obsolete.

I've seen docking stations with PCI slots in them before but they used host interfaces that were at least semi-proprietary (it was an old HP laptop with a giant docking connector, no clue what signals it was running).

If your iMac has USB 2.0 that would probably be your best bet. iMac screen isn't that great, if your other monitor is worse you may want to consider a new monitor also.

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