SionicIon Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 Have a dell optiplex 960. I have random cables and things around that could allow it to get USB3. I found this pci-e card that does just that. Problem is the system only has one pci-e slot. But I found another that's for the dell wireless nic. Its designed just for it. Its not on the back of the tower. I didn't have a low profile bracket for this card anyway and I just need to plug it in, it doesn't have ports for the back. Instead it has two ports. One for PSU. And the other is for a case front panel USB ports to be connected. Can I plug this card in the dell WiFi card slot since it looks to be pci-e? I'm planning on using another cable that attaches to this that gives me 2 USB3 ports on the other end. Also the PSU cable might not stretch over, will this kind of card work without that? But without superspeed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xendrome Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 Say what? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SionicIon Posted July 27, 2014 Author Share Posted July 27, 2014 The optiplex 960 can have WiFi builtin. Under the hood its just a card but the way you connect it isn't with all the other expansion slots, but below the heatsink. The slot is right there all by itself. On the bottom of the case right below the slot on the motherboard, is a hole. So when you plug the special card in, part of it goes into this hole in the case I guess for the antenna to work right, and the other part goes into the slot on the motherboard. I'm asking if I take off the bracket off my card that I want to plug into this motherboard, can I use this special WiFi slot for dell's special internal WiFi card? Because the regular pci-e slot for general purposes is already being used by something. Or will it burn or kill the board? Like this slot looks just to be a generic PCI-E slot, its just for dell's special purposes. Can someone look up the docs on this PC or does someone know that I for sure won't blow up my Dell if I plug another card in that fits perfectly? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SionicIon Posted July 27, 2014 Author Share Posted July 27, 2014 The card looks like this http://www.stuartconnections.com/products/Computers/Components/Cards/Network/Dell_Network_Card_Assembly_T186D/DSC01601w.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SionicIon Posted July 28, 2014 Author Share Posted July 28, 2014 FYI the computer didn't blow up, it still POST. But the card didn't work at all. I think the card was faulty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raa Posted July 28, 2014 Share Posted July 28, 2014 The slot you used was probably not a fully connected PCI-E slot. Often manufacturers cheap out and only connect certain pins to the bridge, so that's more likely why it didn't work. Many Dells are like this. Mine has 3 slots, but one slot will only take certain cards (mainly WWAN cards) :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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