NVMe SSD to PCI (not PCIe) adapter?
Posted by Krotchity@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 25 comments
So I have an old Compac Presario 5000 and I want to breath some life into the old girl. It has PCI slots only. Does anyone know of a way that I can connect an M.2 NVMe SSD to either the PCI slots or the IDE?
Krotchity@reddit (OP)
I am still not sure what solution to use but I would like to thank everyone for all the comments and insights.
Marco-YES@reddit
The BIOS wouldn't have a driver for it and won't know what to do with it.
otakunopodcast@reddit
If that old Compaq has SATA ports, NVME M.2 to SATA adapters exist. Pair that with an SATA to IDE adapter, and you *might* have a working setup.
Disclaimer: I am not sure if this adapter combination abomination will actually work.
Or, there are a few IDE SSDs out there. Dosdude1 makes one and they are quite good. He released the PCB design as Open Hardware and it's on github though I believe he also sells them. (can't find a web store for him tho, you'll have to email him)
AbleEntertainer8446@reddit
OP, it is 100% possible, grab one of these-
https://www.startech.com/en-us/cards-adapters/pci1pex1?srsltid=AfmBOoqgA-uXLRi2j-cL3_FLoj86wvfFpjCmjd7R-lZBb21h2-y-lWNP
And a standard low profile NVME mount.
Technically speaking, the converter is transparent or close to it, and if you are running something like linux, no reason it won't work.
You will be bus-limited, but it's a pretty cool thing to try!
People talking about IDE etc are confusing "bootable" with "workable"
What I do is install the bootloader to compact flash using standard IDE or even a usb drive if the PC can boot from USB, then I place the data partition on the newer PCIE based storage.
NVME is lower overhead then AHCI and SATA, so it's honestly not a terrible idea if your OS situation allows it.
Soylent_Caffeine@reddit
https://shop.rabbitholecomputing.com/products/sata-pci-hard-card|
There is this but it is sold out.
setwindowtext@reddit
CF cards are essentially IDE. There are very inexpensive CF-to-IDE “dumb” adapters. This would be the cheapest and easiest way, especially if you have an old DSLR (those often required CF cards).
SHDrivesOnTrack@reddit
An NVME SSDs is essentially 4 lane PCIE card, just in a different form factor. To get that to work with anything other than a PCIE motherboard, you have to convert the protocols, not just the physical connection. There are such adapters, but they tend to be 1 lane PCIE, so whatever you use to connect that to an NVME card is going to have to deal with that. The other thing is that your motherboard may not know how to boot off a disk device on a PCI slot; the BIOS may simply not recognize that as a bootable thing.
Here's the other thing. PCI is actually quite slow by modern standards. A PCI slot can only transfer about 133MB/s.
Parallel IDE, the last generation before SATA, also operated at around 133MB/s.
For comparison, an older SATA 2 port can operate at 300MB/s. SATA3 is double that.
I suspect this motherboard is too old to have SATA, so IDE is likely the best solution. You should be able to get a 32G ide ssd for under $50, and that will probably be the cheapest way to get an SSD attached to this computer. Its also probably the most likely to work as the BIOS is expecting to find a hard drive on the IDE connector and should know what to do with it to boot.
There are $20 PCI to SATA adapters, and this might also be a good solution. You can probably find a better price on a SATA SSD than an IDE one, as they are more common. However, the motherboard BIOS may not allow booting from this solution. Hard to say without trying it.
HOWEVER, you may still run into BIOS problems. Remember, this computer was made along time ago when disks were small, and a modern 500G SSD may be beyond what the bios can deal with.
sidusnare@reddit
I'd go through SATA. NvME to SATA, SATA PCI.
frsbrzgti@reddit
Run Live CD Linux on it via CDROm. And store all data in a cloud app. Use PCI for graphics and LAN or WiFi card
Krotchity@reddit (OP)
So what would be my solution here for a bootable drive as the main drive?
justananontroll@reddit
Also keep in mind that operating systems of that era were limited on how big a boot drive could be, typically slightly more than 128GB. So if you go with a modern SATA drive, you may wind up with a 120GB C: drive and a comparatively massive D: drive. Software and games back then were much smaller, often installing from a single 640MB CD-ROM. So a 64GB or 128GB SD or CompactFlash will likely be plenty for a vintage computer to play around with.
I have ISOs of the original Diablo and the Hellfire expansion and together they are under 900MB.
pinko_zinko@reddit
I use MSATA to IDE adapters. They come as 2.5" HDD format and then can use standard sleds and adapters, or just sticky tape, to go anywhere.
redditshreadit@reddit
Sata to ide. Sata SSD.
justananontroll@reddit
Or even an IDE to SD adapter. Cheap and easy.
redditshreadit@reddit
Windows can do a lot of writing to the drive. Keep a backup in case of excessive write failure.
gcc-O2@reddit
Don't know of one, and there would likely be compatibility issues anyway, like not having a driver for your desired OS.
However, SATA PCI cards with drivers going back to Win98SE do exist, and SATA-IDE converters exist too. Your mileage will vary. Even a SATA SSD will more than saturate the PCI bus on such a system, so you aren't losing anything not having NVMe.
Krotchity@reddit (OP)
So what would be my solution here for a bootable drive as the main drive? Downgrade to Win98SE (preferable) and use a sata pci card?
gcc-O2@reddit
SATA-IDE converters hide the difference and it looks like an IDE drive to all the software.
SATA PCI cards have an option ROM, like a SCSI card, so you follow the "period correct" procedures (install Win98SE and then install the driver afterward, or for NT/2000/XP, need a driver floppy during install)
MojaMonkey@reddit
Just use an ide ssd.
LSD_Ninja@reddit
You can theoretically jerry rig something with a PCI->PCIe adapter card with one of those PCIe->M.2 adapter cards plugged in to it, but you’re unlikely to be able to even see the drive, much less boot from it, in a machine that old. An SATA drive, as the other commenter suggested, or even an SD card solution would be a much better bet.
Krotchity@reddit (OP)
Can you suggest an SD card solution?
LSD_Ninja@reddit
Any ATA->SD card adapter you can buy from eBay should work. I think they’re all based on the same chipset.
justananontroll@reddit
This is the way.
1275cc@reddit
It doesn't need such a fast drive
MWink64@reddit
It's incredibly unlikely. NVMe drives are meant to connect to the PCIe bus. While there are adapters to connect them via USB and such, there aren't even any to convert them for SATA, so you can forget about IDE.