External power for PCI Express card

[dkasza]

Hello everyone,

I just got a board that is too long to fit in my computer (it extends in the wrong direction), but has an ordinary PCI-Express x4 connector. I do not care about the data on this connector. The board has a few FPGAs on it that I intend to reprogram and not use the PCI-Express.
Is there any simple and inexpensive solution to power a PCI-Express card outside a computer?

The board has 4 LTM4600EV devices on the +12V rail, and it has diagnostic LEDs for 5 voltages including +12V, so it is quite possible that the board only needs the +12V and ground pins to be connected, but I could not verify that yet. In that case I could probably just solder leads to these pins and power it from a 12V supply. Still, I would prefer a nicer solution.

Thanks!

[Stonent]

Might work for you:

https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1280&bih=907&q=powered+pcie+riser&oq=powered+pci&gs_l=img.3.0.0i24l4.505.2015.0.3568.11.8.0.2.2.0.114.723.5j3.8.0....0...1ac.1.32.img..2.9.632.tMpkrsF7fQ8#imgdii=_

[mariush]

You can buy pci express female connectors and they're not expensive:

http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/10018784-10201TLF/609-2026-ND/1002341
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/10018783-10201TLF/609-1978-ND/1002293
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/10018783-10011TLF/609-1965-ND/1002280

etc etc

You can solder wires to the correct pins and be done with it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#Pinout

[NiHaoMike]

Or you can get a dead or long obsolete motherboard and take the connector from it.

[dkasza]

Thank you all! Just to be safe, I ended up getting an ExpressCard -> PCI-Express adapter. I wanted to get one of these for a long time anyway. Once I get the board to work with this, I will design a less expensive board to power it.