Dilemna : only 2 PCI slots

[jip]

I have a 1U server that I am trying to use for my BTV box.
Unfortunately I only have two PCI slots available, but I think I need 3.

1 will be used for PVR250
1 for Nvidia MX 440
1 for sound card.

Does anyone know if I can somehow get a card that supports both sound output and video output? Or have a creative idea of being able to support the three functions using only 2 PCI slots. Capture, output, and sound.

I also have two USB 2.0 slots.

Anyone have success using the USB based PVR with Windows 2003 server?

Thanks
- J

[Brett]

Originally Posted by jip

Anyone have success using the USB based PVR with Windows 2003 server?

Had a USBPVR2 and PVR250 running together on W2K3. No issues.

-Brett

[RobertH]

if the board has onboard audio use that, beyondtv doesnt do 5 channel or anything fancy so your going to probably get the same quality sound from the onboard as you will from a pci card.

you can always use the usb ports and run an external usbpvr2 instead of a pci model if you need a soundcard. additionally you can probably get a usb sound card like one of the creative labs ones doing the job too.

[jip]

Thanks for the replies.

As it turns out, the PCI slots are actually PCI-X. I tried plugging a PVR250 into it, and it wouldn't fit. I had read somewhere previously that PCI-X and PCI are compatible.

I will probably go w/ the external USBPVR2 route per your suggestion.

Does anyone have a suggestion on video-out to TV card that uses PCI-X?

I have an IBM e325. The mobo does not have sound built it because this is a server based unit. Although I did see references to the sound chips in the Device Manager in W2K3, but I did not see any output interfaces in the back of the unit.


- J

[mcowger]

Some PCIX slots are backward compatible, some are not.

I've never seen a PCI-X video card. Some people sell PCI Express cards on ebay as PCI-X, but PCI-X and PCIExpress are NOT the same thing.

It sounds like you might be SOL unless you use a VGA scan converter. Even then the card ina server platform like that might not be fast enough to do full screen video.

[gefald]

I've seen USB external sound cards on Amazon and eBay, they're very inexpensive. Much less expensive than buying an external PVR card.