Do Dell's Come With PCI Slots?

T

TripleM

Well-known member
The hard drive on my old Dell went out last night. Couldn't reinstall Windows. It wouldn't even format (sat at 0% for an hour). The PC is old and it's time to buy a new one. But I have my Delta 44 sound card that I like and want to continue to use. I've always liked Dell's for recording, so I wanted to get another one. So I started shopping on Dell's website. I don't need a ton of power or memory - so a bottom of the line desktop is more than enough. I looked at a few desktops, and none of them mention they have PCI slots. I need one to use my Delta. HP's site mentions PCI slots in the specs of a few of their desktops.

Anyway, I can call Dell tonight. But I thought one of you might know off the top of your head... Do new Dell desktops come with PCI slots?
 
I do know that many MBs still have PCI slots. I am using an M-Audio 192, MB I purchased a few years back. I am sure the Dell Desktops still have them, but I know you could build your own and get one.
 
I've been researching this lately and I've found that many of the compact home boxes don't have the old, non "e" type. Some of the bigger business boxes do have legacy PCI slots.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
I've been researching this lately and I've found that many of the compact home boxes don't have the old, non "e" type. Some of the bigger business boxes do have legacy PCI slots.
Click to expand...

I haven't looked, but I am sure the all-in-ones don't since they have everything on the back of the monitor. The smaller the foot print, the more likely it won't have places for any cards. Trend seems to be going for Connectors (Thunderbolt, USB 2/3) etc. At least at the consumer level hardware.
 
I came across this problem last year when I upgraded my old PC. I had a nice PCI soundcard by Creative (can't remember the model offhand) which worked really well. When I bought a new PC, it had only PCIe slots in. I eventually managed to find a PCIe version of the soundcard, but when it arrived I found that the drivers hadn't been upgraded for Windows 7 and there were no plans to do so. I couldn't find any way of 'forcing' my new computer to recognise the XP driver either :cursing:

I don't know what platform you're on, but it's worth bearing in mind that if it's an obsolete model, then it might not be backwards compatible. I'm still mourning the loss of that soundcard and am currently struggling with a much less convenient set up...
 
Steenamaroo said:
If the current machine wasn't underpowered, I'd buy a new hard drive.
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I'd go with this also. ^^^^

I have a Audiophile 2496 and I'm not quite ready to let it go yet. Nearly 10 yrs of solid use and not a single fault makes me nervous to change. It's surprising what you can achieve with a more limited PC spec.

Consider that a new machine will come with Windows7/8 and some of your software might not work. I installed Windows7 on this machine some time ago and it didn't play nice with the 2496 at all. Shared IRQ issue and constant pops and clicks when recording and even playing a simple mp3. Never could find a fix.

If you want something with just a bit better spec, maybe have a look on eBay for Refurbished PC's. You can grab a bargain on there sometimes, in the UK anyway - not sure in the US.

:thumbs up:
 
Mr Clean said:
I'd go with this also. ^^^^
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Tell us more. :)
Do you have stuff on the old drive that you'd like to try to rescue? I guess not if you tried to format it....
The guys talked about backwards compatibility of drivers and availability of compatible versions of software. Have you thought about that?

What is the specific spec of your current machine? If you do need a little more edge, it may be that you could pop in the max cpu upgrade your current box takes for buttons, and a new hard drive to get her going again.
Maybe even treat yourself to an SSD, if you aren't a big space user.

Mr Clean said:
If you want something with just a bit better spec, maybe have a look on eBay for Refurbished PC's. You can grab a bargain on there sometimes, in the UK anyway - not sure in the US.
Click to expand...

+1.
I have a c2d e8600 box sitting here that I consider to be scrap.
There are many users on here who'd consider it a substantial upgrade! :eek:
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. The old machine wasn't super-underpowered. But it wasn't super-zippy either. So this is decent excuse to buy a new machine. A modering low end machine is still way more powerful than this machine.

I checked M-Audio's website and they have Win7 drivers. So that seems OK. I also use Sonar 4 (quite old). So I should probably do some checking to see if it runs on a Win7 machine. If it doesn't, I'd probably switch to Reaper. I've stayed with Sonar simply because I know it.

But people seem to be confirming what I'm finding - a lot of the new compact desktops don't come with PCI slots anymore. I think I might just call Dell and make sure I'm getting the right thing.

And a follow up question... I see specs saying things like "PCIe x1... PCIe x16... mini PCI..." Anyone know what PCI the Delta 44 is? Its user manual is old (it talks about WIndows 98 installation!!) and it only refers to a general PCI. So when I look at modern specs, I want to make sure I'm buying the right thing.

Thanks again.
 
I was in the exact same position when I built my new recording computer. I had a Delta 44 and it was a bit of a struggle to find a modern motherboard with a legacy PCI slot. I did, though, on newegg. There are still quite a few out there, but I don't think that they're very common in pre-built systems. Dell's website doesn't go into enough detail to say whether any particular desktop has a PCI slot.
 
This may be worth looking into: ASUS Z97-A ATX MOTHERBOARD

For about $700 (or less) you can build your own. If you need assistance, just post or PM and we can walk you through it. Putting these things together is really like Lego's and and some patience. You might be able to use your old case, Power Supply (make sure the old PS is above 600W), and graphics card. Probably not memory as these things change.
 
Thanks for the picture Steen. Damn - I don't see any PC specs with a straight up PCI slot anymore. Maybe I'll just end up replacing the harddrive. Not what I wanted. But oh well. I'll call Dell anyway just to confirm.
 
Why are you stuck on Dell? After 3 Dells in our house burned themselves out, I said 'no more'! Way overpriced for what they are.
Even at work, all the Dells have been replaced (they offered nice cut-rate no-frills for places tha tneeded lots of computers).
 
mjbphotos said:
Why are you stuck on Dell? After 3 Dells in our house burned themselves out, I said 'no more'! Way overpriced for what they are.
Even at work, all the Dells have been replaced (they offered nice cut-rate no-frills for places tha tneeded lots of computers).
Click to expand...

I'm not completely stuck on Dells. I've had good luck with them (until last night). I guess I'm open to anything at this point. I didn't think it was going to be too difficult to get a PC with a PCI slot. But I guess it is.

I have a Great River preamp feeding my Delta 44. I like that and I want to continue to use that. Or at least the GR.
 
PCI-e slots in the new ones

My delta is stuck in my old rig now...I keep it as a 32 bit rig


though it may be worth the upgrade...the new xps 8700 i7's are lightening fast compared to my old quad core
 
I've had good luck with Dells as well. Typing this on a 5 year old Dell that's still going strong. My previous recording computer was a Dell as well, and I only replaced it because it was underpowered. A friend is still using that old machine, too.

But when it came down to it, the lack of specs on Dell's website steered me away from them when looking to support a legacy card. If you build your own system, you can specifically shop for a motherboard that has any combination of slots that you want/need.

Heck, need a spare Delta 44? I just replaced mine a couple of weeks ago. It's lonely sitting there in its box. If you end up with a motherboard with 2 old-school PCI slots...

[edit]

Oh, and the Delta's Win7 64-bit drivers are rock-solid.
 
Well I didn't think this thread would generate this kind of activity. :D

I'm going to try once more tonight to recover the harddrive.

Then it's down to either getting a new harddrive, or a new PC and finding a different way to connect my GR mic pre. Probably start a different thread to get ideas for that.

Thanks everyone.
 
I bought a larger form factor HP machine and I'm pretty sure it had one PCI slot and one ePCI that were free.... check their range, you might find something.
 
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