Reddit reviews Tenext PCI-E 1X Riser Card Extender Cable Ribbon

So proof of concept... Pull your loaded mobo out of your case and set it on a table.

Get a 1x riser: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0067WZH2Q

Check the pci-e pinout and notice you need 12v and 3.3v. So get a good quality, clean 12v PSU and probably a step-down circuit to get 3.3v. Direct wire those PCI-e pins to your psu. I don't know how much 12v power you would need. You will also need to somehow figure out your grounding. Some ground pins are probably biased to the PC and others are biased to the power supply. So you'll need to ground your external psu to your PC case and/or play with it. (I think, I'm not an EE)

Plug it all in, fire it up, and run some real benchmarks to get verifiable results.

I have run a complete low-power itx computer from a 12v 9amp linear psu (the psu was bigger than the computer). I noticed no difference in the spdif output from my m-audio 192 that I had at the time running into my DAC. However, I did feel that the analog output sounded better. No measurements, so expectation bias and all that... who knows if it was actually better.

I assume the wireless card is connected to a PCIe 1x slot? You could get something like this, and see if you could reorganize the devices in your machine. I know in my towers I usually have extra space, just am limited by the positioning of the actual PCI slots on the motherboard.

https://www.amazon.com/Tenext-Quality-Riser-Extender-Ribbon/dp/B0067WZH2Q

Something like this should be good right

https://www.amazon.com.au/Tenext-Quality-Riser-Extender-Ribbon/dp/B0067WZH2Q

See if a pcie 1x riser would fit in your 1x port.

You can probably find one cheaper if you don't want to pay 8$

EDIT: You might have to jerry rig your case though if you don't have any extra slots or one of those spare slots on the back like this

Damn, it really sucks that your motherboard was designed like that.

Looks like a PCI card really might be one of your only options.

Just be aware that with PCI, you will not get the full benefit of USB 3.0. Two USB 3.0 ports at full capacity require much more bandwidth to the motherboard chipset/CPU than PCI can handle.

If I were you, I would seriously consider whether it is actually worth spending any money on upgrading a PC this old, or whether you want to save for building a new PC.

Another alternative it to buy a USB 3.0 PCIe card and plug it into a ribbon cable like this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Tenext-Quality-PCI-E-Extender-Ribbon/dp/B0067WZH2Q/

You can make some super ghetto setup where you plug that ribbon cable into the motherboard PCIe slot. Then plug a USB 3.0 card into that, leave it dangling inside your PC, and finally have a single USB 3.0 cable routing out of your PC case to a USB 3.0 hub.

This allows you to have several USB 3.0 ports neatly available from the front of your PC.

Ebay or amazon. You would be looking for a cable that looks like this. It could be x1 to x16, you'll only need one big enough to fit whatever USB 3 card you get. Assuming the slot IS under that GPU and is x16, anything from x1 to x16 will work in that slot. Just make sure to get a card and extension cable that will work together.

you mean this?

https://www.amazon.com/Tenext-Quality-PCI-E-Extender-Ribbon/dp/B0067WZH2Q/

I use it to basically do the same thing, move my pci-e wifi/bt card over to another slot

Just bought this

Ah, you got one of those stubby but very wide EVGA cards that were introduced this year. I guess that rules out my initial idea, but perhaps a PCIe x1 riser would fit the bill.