[Balinus]

Hello! I might have finally found what I'm looking for. The Wesena ITX7 case is not ugly, is SFF and have the space for 1 expansion slot (Wesena ITX7 back)

However, my objective is to use the expansion slot with a TV Tuner and not a GPU. Most ITX MB have PCI Express 2.0 x16 and TV Tuners seems to be for PCI-E x1. Hence my question, can I directly plug a PCI-E x1 card in a PCI-E 2.0 x16 ? The case doesn't seems to allow space for an inside adapter.

So, if that works, I plan to buy an AMD APU (probably the A6-3500), the ITX7 from Wesena and a Tv Tuner card.

Thanks for your help and knowledge!

[Mallet21]

I believe it will work just....hopefully a few more folks will confirm.

[Balinus]

ok thanks! Meanwhile, I've read a similar answer in a thread on Tomshardware forums. That's good news. Close to buying everything!

[eskro]

However, my objective is to use the expansion slot with a TV Tuner and not a GPU. Most ITX MB have PCI Express 2.0 x16 and TV Tuners seems to be for PCI-E x1. Hence my question, can I directly plug a PCI-E x1 card in a PCI-E 2.0 x16 ? The case doesn't seems to allow space for an inside adapter.

technically, PCIe x1 cards in PCIe x16 slots should work...
however, till you dont actually try, no one can confirm at %100...

example, PoofyHairGuy already answered Subliminal Aurora on this,
Poofy linked him to a ZOTAC manual stating that doing such a thing,
might not work as it hasnt been fully tested....

but on the other hand, it might be ok too

[Balinus]

Thanks!

As I understand it, it MB related... I'll ask Asrock directly to confirm with the MB I want. I'll report back.

[Balinus]

From Asrock support, for the A75M-ITX :

"[...]The ASrock motherboard can support a PCIexpress card into the PCIexpress 16x slot.

ASRock America Support "

[dudeskeeroo]

Time to de-lurk...and necropost!

Hi Balinus,

How'd you go with the A75M-ITX?

I have that mobo and it doesn't seem to like my DVico Fusion HDTV Dual Express 2 PCIe x1 card (what a mouthful!) The OS (Linux) doesn't even find it, let alone probe for drivers. As far as the OS is concerned the card is not present.

I tried the tuner card on my desktop, in a 16x slot, and a 1x slot and it detected and probed fine (also Linux).

Did you have any joy?

[Balinus]

Sorry to her that dudeskeeroo!

As of now, I still haven't bought the Tuner card!

As far as the MB goes, I am satisfied so far. Haven't had trouble with it yet, but the duty I ask of the HTPC is rather limited to media playback through XBMC. On a side note, the HTPC wasn'T able to boot yesterday. Let's hope it's not a bad motherboard or another component.

Thanks for the info on your card though, I'll look for a different card!

[dudeskeeroo]

Hehehe, it sucks alright.

I tried an old x16 nvidia graphics card in the slot and can confirm the slot works, just that damn tuner won't. I'd be interested to hear of any further tales regarding your x1/x16 adventures on the A75M-ITX.

Keep up posted, please.

[Balinus]

Sure, will do!
Good luck with your tuner card.

[bluray]

How about this- Hauppauge 1120CN WinTV-HVR-950 Hybrid Video Recorder.

[Balinus]

How about this- Hauppauge 1120CN WinTV-HVR-950 Hybrid Video Recorder.

I prefer a PCIe tuner card at first. So I have less things on USB ports.

[bluray]

I prefer a PCIe tuner card at first. So I have less things on USB ports.

Do you really need it? I have a TV tuner card in one of my HTPC, and I never use it. At least with the USB TV tuner, you can easily remove it and move it to another PC. With the TV tuner card, it may limit the air flow in the tiny case too. Just a thought!

[Balinus]

Do you really need it? I have a TV tuner card in one of my HTPC, and I never use it. At least with the USB TV tuner, you can easily remove it and move it to another PC. With the TV tuner card, it may limit the air flow in the tiny case too. Just a thought!

Well, my objective is to someday use XBMC PVR and record over-the-air shows. As I have "only" 1 TV (I don't plan to have a 2nd) and 1 HTPC, moving the Tuner card is not an incentive.

Airflow is though! But I don't think that it will reduce airflow that much since the side vent situated the the PCIe slot is near the front of the case, while the Tuner card would be situated at the back of it. I'll have to make sure the Tuner card is small though.

[BigO]

PCIe is backward compatible so a 1x will work just fine in a 16x. Ive even seen 16x cards fit into 4 and 8x slots and still work just fine, the only difference is the amount on lanes in the PCIe bus you will have access to.