The WEIRDEST PC Parts we Found on AliExpress - 2019
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2019-05-06
·
3,284 words · ~16 min read
0:00
Okay, so I'm sitting in my office looking at a motherboard
0:02
and I'm like, all right,
0:03
so you got all these PCI Express slots, right?
0:05
The graphics card goes here,
0:06
but then you got all these other ones.
0:08
What are people actually putting on these things?
0:11
So I started clicking around on AliExpress.
0:13
I'm like, wow, there's some really weird stuff
0:16
that you can put in a PCI Express slot.
0:19
So I issued a challenge.
0:21
Actually, rather I asked Jake to issue a challenge
0:24
to four other members of our writing staff
0:27
to scour eBay, Wish, AliExpress and more
0:31
and find what they believe is
0:33
the weirdest PCI Express expansion card.
0:38
We've provided no definition for weirdest.
0:41
It's going to be down to judgment from your peers
0:45
who managed to find the weirdest thing.
0:49
And I'm participating as well, so.
0:52
And Dennis is here in spirit.
0:54
And the winner gets a trophy, right?
0:56
Yes, and it's engraved
0:57
in everything.
0:58
Where is it?
0:58
Well, you can't see it yet.
0:59
You have to show it to them.
1:00
It's a surprise.
1:01
You know what's not a surprise?
1:02
The fact that I'm going to segue to our sponsor right now.
1:05
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1:07
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1:09
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1:11
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1:13
at the link in the video description.
1:23
Two, all right, Riley, you're going first.
1:25
All right.
1:26
Okay, Riley's first.
1:29
See how nonchalant I am about this?
1:31
Because that's the amount of confidence I have.
1:33
Stop it, only I can.
1:35
Not one, not two.
1:36
Not three.
1:37
Wait, are these just mining risers?
1:39
Listen.
1:40
It's a cool one.
1:41
Wait, you had to buy these?
1:42
This is a small, very small PCIe card.
1:46
Ever seen something like that?
1:47
What's that?
1:48
USB ports.
1:49
Yeah.
1:50
That goes in there.
1:51
Yeah.
1:52
USB into a USB.
1:54
Yeah.
1:55
Do you know the potential of this?
1:57
No.
1:58
You could just keep going forever.
1:59
Adding more and more.
2:00
Let's find out.
2:01
PCI cards.
2:02
Okay, so.
2:03
Look, that goes in here.
2:04
Can we just?
2:04
Wait, wait, whoa, the bench is on.
2:06
Wait, wait, wait.
2:07
No, I turned it off.
2:08
Turn the power supply off.
2:09
No, that can't go in there.
2:10
That can't go in there.
2:11
Yes, it can.
2:12
No, I don't think this is a PCIe X16
2:14
or whatever it is.
2:15
Yes, it is.
2:16
Is it?
2:17
Yes.
2:18
Kind of the entire point.
2:18
Riley, did you even know what you were buying?
2:19
No, I didn't.
2:20
Okay.
2:21
Huzzah.
2:22
So our USB graphics card is working.
2:26
So what is this, like a PLX chip here?
2:28
Definitely, that's definitely what it is.
2:30
Yes, please.
2:31
I have no idea.
2:32
Like, what is the pin mapping here though?
2:35
Like.
2:36
This is what you call a USB port.
2:38
There's only nine conductors.
2:39
Yeah.
2:40
Well, that's all you need.
2:41
I suppose you don't need that many.
2:42
Okay, well, it works.
2:43
So like.
2:44
Does it have ray tracing?
2:45
Yeah.
2:46
So this is an RTX 2070 on, what is this?
2:49
8700K.
2:50
An 8700K.
2:51
So we should be expecting somewhere in the neighborhood
2:52
of 250 plus FPS.
2:55
Okay.
2:56
Well, let's see how we do here then, shall we?
2:58
Yeah, so basically what's happening is
3:01
instead of just converting PCI Express
3:04
to a USB-K,
3:05
which is kind of like just using a PCI Express riser,
3:08
except you're using the USB connector and cable,
3:12
it's taking the same PCIe 1X interface,
3:15
using some kind of a PLX or hub chip of some sort
3:19
or switching chip,
3:20
and then it's turning the single 1X interface
3:23
into four 1X interfaces.
3:26
And so this is probably fine,
3:28
but if we were to hook four graphics cards up
3:30
at the same time,
3:31
and all four of them were actually doing something.
3:33
We'd be chugging.
3:34
We'd be,
3:35
not.
3:36
And you don't want to do that right now.
3:37
Gaming-wise.
3:38
You don't want to try that.
3:38
What, daisy-chaining?
3:39
No, I don't think there's any point daisy-chaining them,
3:41
but running all four of them.
3:42
Yes.
3:43
You could.
3:44
Let's do it.
3:45
Just try daisy-chaining it once.
3:45
Okay, turn the power supply off.
3:47
All right.
3:47
If you factor out the-
3:48
Really?
3:49
Shorting out the board.
3:50
Oh, power move.
3:53
You know what?
3:54
It did it.
3:55
That FPS though is not,
3:57
this was not ideal.
3:58
Okay.
3:59
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
4:00
We lost.
4:01
We just cut our FPS in half.
4:02
Just see how many noobs you can pwn.
4:04
That's pretty rough.
4:05
Oh!
4:06
Man, you're time traveling.
4:08
For your consideration,
4:10
you have before you a system that could enable you
4:13
to place a GPU anywhere in your house
4:18
while keeping your regular PC right next to you.
4:22
So, pretty awesome.
4:25
But at what cost?
4:27
At the cost of a few frames.
4:30
A few.
4:30
What is that?
4:31
What are frames?
4:34
And here we have a PCI oscilloscope.
4:39
Whoa.
4:41
Wait, it's PCI?
4:43
Oh.
4:44
Oh.
4:46
How does that work?
4:47
Wait, how does that work?
4:48
Well, I assumed you would get at least a PCI express card.
4:52
Oh!
4:53
Excuse me.
4:55
I thought there was sort of a minimum bar here for like-
4:58
Actually, you told me specifically PCIe or PCI.
5:03
That's true.
5:03
This was a conversation that we had.
5:06
Okay, well then why didn't your test bench
5:07
have a PCI slot on it, smart guy?
5:08
Well, I wasn't expecting anybody to do it,
5:11
especially for something that costs $600.
5:14
More like seven.
5:15
$700.
5:16
Are those PCIs?
5:18
No, those are PCI-X.
5:19
See you later.
5:23
What are those?
5:24
Is that the right one?
5:25
No, that's not that.
5:27
That's not a PCI, right?
5:29
Yeah, that's PCI.
5:29
Wait, what?
5:30
We can't.
5:32
Yeah, nothing's happening.
5:33
Yeah, it doesn't post with it in it,
5:35
so there's nothing that we can reconfigure to.
5:41
So, this is something
5:41
that is actually pretty cool for me.
5:45
So, that's a 7950GX2.
5:46
Yes.
5:47
I thought this was super cool
5:49
because I had never seen
5:50
that this is how they used to actually do dual GPU cards.
5:53
Basic.
5:54
It's literally two,
5:55
Riley didn't even know.
5:56
I think it's cool.
5:57
Yeah.
5:58
I've never seen this.
5:59
Instead of like your Titan Z, Zed, whatever,
6:02
if you're Canadian or not,
6:03
how they had those two GPUs on one card,
6:05
they actually just gave you two cards
6:07
that were like duct taped together
6:09
and you get one slot and you just stick it in.
6:11
And that's how you did quad SLI back in the day.
6:14
GPU sandwich.
6:15
You made two of these.
6:16
Yeah.
6:17
So, this one apparently worked,
6:19
but when I got it,
6:20
actually had one of the capacitors knocked off
6:22
and then this one was like falling off.
6:24
So, did you hot glue it on?
6:25
No, hold on.
6:26
I stole this capacitor from another motherboard
6:28
because the leads were broken
6:30
and then to kind of keep it from breaking,
6:32
I put some hot glue on there as a sort of elastic.
6:35
So, hopefully it works.
6:37
I put a lot of, that genuinely took me like an hour.
6:40
This was back when they used to
6:42
really falsely advertise these cards.
6:45
So, it's got one gig, 512 bit on the back,
6:50
but I'm pretty sure what they mean is
6:52
two times 512 megabytes.
6:55
Let's check our eBay ad here.
6:56
256 bit.
6:57
Oh, I'm looking at the card itself.
6:59
I'm saying our eBay seller was an honest guy.
7:01
Okay.
7:02
He said two by half a gig.
7:03
Okay.
7:04
He's a good guy.
7:05
Oh my God, it worked.
7:06
Yay!
7:07
Shut up.
7:07
That's sweet.
7:09
I don't know.
7:10
Getting pretty close to Alex territory.
7:12
Here.
7:13
Hey, the computer turned on.
7:14
That's true.
7:16
That's pretty different.
7:17
You're on the podium.
7:18
You can believe whatever you want.
7:20
There's no way there's a Windows 10 driver.
7:23
I'd be surprised if there's a Windows 7 driver for this.
7:26
That's a dead video card.
7:28
He said it was working.
7:30
So, these look like dead pixels kind of, but they're not.
7:35
Please don't waste time DDUing it.
7:37
Just, you can try and install your driver,
7:39
but like it's not gonna work and your card is broken.
7:42
It lets you select it.
7:43
And then it's like, yeah.
7:46
I can't believe how much money you guys spent on-
7:49
$70.
7:50
And not working hardware.
7:52
It was damaged in shipping though.
7:53
30 bucks.
7:55
You don't sound convinced.
7:57
Yes!
7:58
Woo!
7:59
We're in the BIOS.
8:05
Oh, and this is the deluxe.
8:07
Nice.
8:09
All right.
8:10
Get them.
8:11
Nice.
8:12
We're really-
8:13
Nice.
8:13
It's like a horse race where the horse and race in first.
8:16
Okay.
8:17
So you have other problems coming for you though.
8:19
No race defined.
8:21
What OS were you planning to boot here?
8:24
I have Windows 7 32 bit.
8:26
Oh yeah.
8:27
On that drive.
8:28
Oh yeah?
8:28
Yeah.
8:29
Oh yeah.
8:30
Is that not gonna happen?
8:31
No.
8:32
No?
8:33
Okay.
8:33
What do I boot on this?
8:35
XP.
8:36
Oh, Jesus.
8:37
Oh, it's working.
8:39
Look at these pads.
8:41
Okay, to be fair.
8:42
It's like this graphics card.
8:43
This graphics card transports the character models
8:45
back to the era it came from.
8:48
Are you telling me right now that this is working
8:51
because I'm physically holding a capacitor in place
8:54
on the graphics card?
8:55
Let's try that and go in a minute.
8:57
Like, is your finger comfortable?
8:58
Are you good?
8:59
It's kind of warm, but I'm fine.
9:02
All right.
9:03
How do we save?
9:04
I assume that just saved.
9:06
Don't, why would you-
9:07
Oh my God.
9:08
What?
9:08
No way!
9:09
You have to get a shot.
9:10
Can you please play?
9:11
Oh.
9:12
I saw it.
9:13
This is starting to burn my finger.
9:15
Here, tag me in, buddy.
9:16
Oh, you gotta, you can't just let.
9:20
What?
9:21
That's what did it?
9:21
It just stopped?
9:22
You can't just let go.
9:23
It stopped as soon as I let go.
9:25
Oh, this thing is holding on the power.
9:27
Oh, Colonel.
9:29
That's, that's Jake right there.
9:30
Why did you let go?
9:32
Look at my finger.
9:34
Look at my finger.
9:35
Give me a shot of it.
9:36
I'm just gonna give it the old.
9:37
Oh God.
9:38
There we are.
9:41
Literally repairing this graphics card with scotch tape.
9:44
And the same artifacts.
9:45
That's crappy.
9:46
Wait, are you telling me that the tape is doing a better job
9:48
than Riley ever could?
9:51
My finger was burning.
9:52
You let go of it.
9:53
You could have like-
9:54
What do you want me to do?
9:55
Okay, it's working.
9:56
Claiming at about eight FPS.
9:57
Oh, I got, I assisted.
10:01
Oh, okay.
10:02
No artifacts.
10:04
No artifacts, it's the best GPU.
10:08
No artifacts to speak of.
10:12
This is exactly what we need right now.
10:13
You plug this in, it's a fan.
10:16
Ostensibly, it just blows air right away.
10:18
And the bonus part is-
10:19
Right away.
10:20
It can cool down your glued on capacitors
10:23
and make your other stuff work.
10:24
Was this planned?
10:25
Value on value.
10:26
Was this planned?
10:27
No, that's just how handy these are.
10:28
You need this in your life right now.
10:30
Let me show you how this works.
10:31
You know what's really good about them?
10:32
I'm pretty sure the plastic is UV reactive.
10:34
Jesus.
10:38
We really need it.
10:40
This is how those infomercials always start.
10:45
Look, the package says-
10:47
Comes with headphones.
10:48
Light it up.
10:50
It's lit.
10:51
What the heck?
10:53
This doesn't even count.
10:55
It doesn't even have anything.
10:57
We might need to modify it.
10:58
The slot, like, yeah, it slots in.
11:01
It's for PCI.
11:02
This is super old.
11:03
Oh, we can use it to cool my stuff.
11:07
I think it came with Amazon Prime, actually.
11:10
This was in stock, ready to go.
11:12
I'm confused as to like,
11:14
why does it look like it's a children's toy
11:16
from a dollar store?
11:18
Because this used to be the style
11:19
when it came to like,
11:20
hardcore PC modding.
11:22
I'm not even joking.
11:23
Unlike some people, I only spent $20.
11:27
But wait, there's more.
11:29
Look at this little dial.
11:31
You can go from low to high AF.
11:35
It does fit in a PCIe slot, sort of.
11:40
So it's going to blow air at the front.
11:42
What about the-
11:44
Thank goodness for ROG shielding stuff.
11:47
Okay, it's fine, I'll do it.
11:52
Okay.
11:52
Um. Here we go.
11:53
Here we go, ladies and gentlemen.
11:55
I'll put it down on the low setting.
11:56
Oh my God.
11:58
And it turned off, but the lights are on.
12:01
Little lower, little lower, yep.
12:03
Is it too much?
12:04
One fan works.
12:08
Wait, really?
12:09
It might not be enough power.
12:11
No, it's plenty of power.
12:14
Barely even blowing any air.
12:16
Okay, so James is done.
12:18
I still need to go.
12:18
But in the meantime, we have an update over in Alex land.
12:21
We have a hard drive detected.
12:24
Optical drive detected.
12:26
And theoretically, we have a Windows XP boot CD.
12:34
Have you ever seen an Ethernet card this small?
12:38
Yeah, the one that I'd had.
12:39
Yeah, but it's USB.
12:42
Oh, an Ethernet card.
12:46
This is how I intend to plug it in.
12:49
Now, you'll have to give me a moment, gentlemen.
12:54
Ahem.
12:57
So first, I will be needing, ah, yes.
13:01
The Vakind mini PCIe to PCIe converter wireless.
13:08
This.
13:09
Oh, I wait, that's not that interesting.
13:11
All right.
13:12
I need an iFixit kit as well.
13:13
I, I have my sincere doubts as to whether
13:16
or not this is going to work.
13:18
At this point, we have gone from PCI Express 1X
13:22
to mini PCIe to PCMCIA.
13:27
I just need this.
13:30
Here.
13:31
Here we go.
13:34
So this goes in, this is PCMCIA.
13:37
It was an old laptop expansion standard.
13:39
Is it going this way?
13:41
This way or this way?
13:41
I don't actually know.
13:44
That way.
13:45
Yep, okay.
13:46
Cool.
13:46
I like that spring action.
13:48
To USB.
13:52
Wait, what?
13:54
Hold on, ladies and gentlemen.
13:55
Is the USB port on the end of the PC and the CIA?
13:58
Okay, to-
14:00
Riley, he might be able to get this farther away
14:02
from his PC than even yours.
14:03
Dual PCI Express 16X.
14:08
Then we've got a PCI Express 4X interface
14:11
at the bottom of this card here
14:13
that we have adapted, using this card, to U.2.
14:18
Then we've got a U.2 to M.2 board installed in that,
14:24
which has an M.2 to U.2, the other end,
14:28
like mini SAS HD, whatever this is called.
14:31
Then we've got a mini SAS HD to U.2 over here,
14:35
plugged into a board that does U.2 to PCI Express 4X,
14:39
where finally we have installed a network card.
14:43
Now, will this work?
14:45
I have no idea.
14:47
It doesn't smell like my ex graphics card.
14:49
Something just burned.
14:52
Oh.
14:53
That smells.
14:55
Yep.
14:56
Oh, what happened?
14:59
I like that smell.
15:03
Hold on a minute.
15:05
No, I still have an entry.
15:09
Because I did convert back to PCI Express at some point,
15:14
I can cut out some parts of my chain here.
15:18
My submission is a PCI Express to U.2, to M.2, to U.2,
15:25
to U.2, to PCI Express 4X, to network adapter.
15:34
Get out of my way.
15:35
Whoa!
15:37
The disrespect.
15:38
Well, the slot that I wanted to plug into is broken
15:41
because of my previous attempt.
15:42
I wonder if my network card is dead.
15:48
Okay, because even that didn't work.
15:49
This should be pretty straightforward.
15:51
This is just PCIe to...
15:53
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
15:54
Now, hold on just a gosh darn minute here.
15:58
The whole time.
15:59
Is it just a bad network card?
16:00
Oh, because that's why it was going to set on fire, right?
16:04
Okay, right?
16:05
All right.
16:05
It honestly feels the same on both sides.
16:07
Okay, wait for it.
16:09
I don't know.
16:10
That's because the air is going in, though.
16:11
This is it, ladies and gentlemen.
16:13
My time.
16:14
My time to shine.
16:17
It's my time in the sun.
16:19
You know what this is like?
16:21
Let me speak your language.
16:22
It's like in Fortnite,
16:24
when you get shot and you're crawling around,
16:26
but you're not dead yet,
16:27
but there's no way you're going to win.
16:29
Yeah.
16:32
That's these two.
16:33
Just log out.
16:34
Nope.
16:35
Turn your computer off.
16:36
I'm installing drivers as we speak.
16:39
I am moments away from having this fully operational.
16:42
Okay, okay.
16:43
My entry is...
16:48
This graphics card.
16:50
What?
16:51
I mean, network card.
16:53
Isn't it adorable?
16:55
Oh, that's cute.
16:56
Yeah, wow.
16:57
Yeah, wow.
16:58
You didn't kill anything in putting that in.
17:00
Yay, I've got a link.
17:04
Can we get close up?
17:04
Meanwhile, over in Alex land, how are we doing?
17:07
So it seems like it is working.
17:10
Here it is, I think.
17:11
Yeah.
17:14
So now we just need a program to use it.
17:19
You didn't even know what program?
17:21
So we would need to install LabVIEW
17:23
and then it should work just fine.
17:25
How much is a LabVIEW license?
17:27
I don't know.
17:28
Okay.
17:29
I think we just have to do the voting now.
17:31
You have to vote for two people.
17:34
And the competition is without any real guidelines,
17:37
the weirdest PCI or PCIe device.
17:41
The weirdest.
17:42
Starting with the most disappointing thing of tonight,
17:45
me and James with just one vote.
17:48
Oh.
17:49
And then you get Linus with two.
17:50
With two.
17:51
Hey, I'm on the podium, baby.
17:52
With two.
17:53
Yeah.
17:55
And then it's Alex with four.
17:56
So we all suck.
17:57
Woo!
17:58
Yeah.
17:58
So I'm happy to present you today.
18:00
That's it?
18:01
Just shut up.
18:03
I don't know how to open it, but this is a quality.
18:06
We have scissors.
18:07
No, it's good. We're good.
18:09
This was the coolest, weirdest trophy I could find.
18:11
Such a mad dog.
18:13
What?
18:14
What?
18:15
Best weird finder 2019.
18:18
There you go.
18:19
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18:23
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18:52
you want.
18:53
And they've got over a thousand servers in 33 countries
18:55
and they don't log user activity.
18:57
So what are you waiting for?
18:58
Go to LMG.gg slash PIA Linus2 and check it out today.
19:05
So thanks for watching guys.
19:06
If you disliked this video, you can hit that button.
19:08
But if you liked it, hit like, get subscribed,
19:09
or maybe consider checking out where to buy
19:11
the stuff we feature.
19:12
Let's go.
19:14
Wait, let's put this on LCG store.
19:16
Somebody can buy it.
19:16
At the link in the video description.
19:18
Also down there is our merch store, which has cool stuff.
19:19
Cool shirts like this one.
19:21
Seeing if anyone else is a team player.
19:22
Good job.
19:24
Also down there is our community forum.
19:26
Join that too.