External PCI Box for Laptops?

cagem0nkey asks: "I am in need of some type of external PCI card box for use with a laptop. I was able to find several different solutions, but these were all WAY to expensive for my wallet (at around $1,000 ea for one PCI slot!). Does anyone know of a cheaper way to add PCI card capability to a laptop? Possibly a USB or Firewire external enclosure?"

Re:And Why Do you NEED a PCI slot?

[fm6]

Not if the hardware he's trying to use comes in PCI and not Cardbus. In that case, it doesn't help him that Cardbus is a kind of PCI. Still, it would help if we knew why he needed PCI in the first place.

That's the problem with a lot of Ask Slashdots: people focus on the technology they want to use, rather than the task they're trying to use it for. Cliff really ought to bounce back stories like this with the request that they fill in such details.

$1000?!?!??!?!

[m0rph3us0]

If the project is important enough to warrant an external PCI card surely it is worth $1000 to buy an adapter? You've probably wasted more money by waiting for /. to respond. On /. everyone wants 100K / year in order to work but doesn't think anyone elses time is worth more then $2.50 / hour. I know this may confuse some /. readers but time is worth money, at least, my time is worth money.

Re:$1000?!?!??!?!

[GigsVT]

What kind of crazy logic is that? If your time is so valuable, why did you click through the story, and spend the time to post a rant about it?

What is this PCI device?

[kosmosik]

* It has to be portable?

* You are certainly sure that you need to plug it directly in your notebook?

I mean if yes than you are focused on bandwith from/to this device, but you've mentioned about firewire and USB - they do not have awfully big bandwith as PCI so this would be a bottleneck...

IMHO for $1000 you surely can get equivalent of PCI device (what is this device?) on either USB, firewire or PCMCIA. If not you can get small case (mATX?) with two PCI slots as external device and export this PCI device via network (you surely can get it below $1000 including entire small PC system and Gb ethernet conectivity)...

Re:$1000?!?!??!?!

[Anonymous Coward]

" If the project is important enough to warrant an external PCI card surely it is worth $1000 to buy an adapter?"

Uh...no? Especially not if there's a $200 solution, which is what he's asking. Also, he never said "a project".

Re:Dell Latitude

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't measure processor speed in "gigs"

Mod parent flamebait/anal-retentive.
Anybody reading the original comment would know that "gig" referred to Gigahertz rather than Gigabytes

Re:And Why Do you NEED a PCI slot?

[Alereon]

A problem I have with a lot of Ask Slashdots is that even though a simple straightforward question is asked, readers are not satisfied to simply either answer the question that was asked, or not post a reply, but instead insist on a either answering a different question, or berating the person who asked the question.

Simply answering someone's questions is a very poor way to help them do what they want to do. In this case, I suspect that the original questioner MEANT something like "what is the cheapest, most portable, and easiest way to do foo." By telling us what foo is, we can come up with a better solution than they had even thought of.

For example, think of someone asking how to run a long run of CAT6 accross a highway in a safe, secure, and weather-proof manner. Rather than offering them methods of running CAT6 in this manner, suggesting that they instead use wifi and directional antennae would better meet their needs.

In the case where the original questioner DOES have the best solution in mind and just needs implementation advice, explaining the situation helps us know that they HAVE done their homework.

Re:$1000?!?!??!?!

[Detritus]

The government would waste hundreds of man-hours in committee meetings discussing the problem and looking for a solution, rather than spend $1000 to solve the problem. This also holds true for many corporations.