Computers & Electronics

Using PCIe riser to use empty slots on mATX board

  • Last Updated:
  • Jan 2nd, 2018 3:27 pm
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Aug 22, 2003
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Using PCIe riser to use empty slots on mATX board

I have a mATX board in a Full ATX case, and am looking to add more SATA ports.
my graphics card basically covers all my slots, so I'm looking to get a riser/extender so I can put the SATA expansion card (PCIe 1x) in one of the blank case slots.

Basically I want to do this:
Image

So looking around I can find a lot of these:
Image
which would suit my needs, but i need the connector to be at right angle - otherwise it wont fit and I cannot mount it in a case

Which then leads me to something like this:
Image
Which seem to be used to cryto mining, would this do the trick? Is this actually a USB interface or is the cable a cheap/common stand in cable instead of using the ribbon cable?
Is there a performance hit or compatibility issues by doing this instead of just having a 1 to 1 lead like the full ribbon cable does?
Last edited by JustinZ on Jan 1st, 2018 11:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
5 replies
Deal Fanatic
Jul 26, 2004
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The USB cable is basically the "data" cable that links the slot from your motherboard to the riser I believe. You plug the little one on the right side into your mobo, and link it to the bigger one via USB You'll need to power it too with a SATA power plug I think. The miners should be able to tell you exactly
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Aug 22, 2003
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coilz wrote: The USB cable is basically the "data" cable that links the slot from your motherboard to the riser I believe. You plug the little one on the right side into your mobo, and link it to the bigger one via USB You'll need to power it too with a SATA power plug I think. The miners should be able to tell you exactly
Sorry i shouldve been more clear...
Im wondering why they are using a usb cable there instead of having a 1-to-1 connection like the ribbon cable does

is there a performance hit by doing this? and will this even work for my use case
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Aug 22, 2003
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It didnt occur to me at first that I could just buy a right angle adapter at the end
so I ended up getting the ribbon + this:
Image
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Sep 13, 2016
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Mississauga
I could be wrong, but from what I have read on various mining sub-reddits is that miners prefer the USB ones with external power supply because mining puts more strain on motherboard, and there were some instances of ribbon cables catching fires.
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Aug 31, 2005
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Richmond
If you are not picky about the transfer rate, those PCI-E extension using USB cable as bridge actually will work just fine. The performance hit shouldn't be huge. It is still remarkably close to PCI-E 1x. Just a little more latency where any SATA drive shouldn't notice.

As you imagined, it is just using the USB cable as a common stand-in bridge cable. However, you need extra power plug for the PCI-E extension.

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