How to buy a PC to accomodate 5-Volt PCI card PCI-6602?

Question

We've been having the devil of a time finding a computer with 3 or more
PCI slots at all, and then most makers & sellers have no idea about
voltage compatability!  My understanding is that the NI-PCI-6602
(of which we have just bought 2) is a 5-Volt card, and therefore my PC
needs to have either a "5-Volt" slot or a "Universal" slot which would
be capable of accomodating either a 5 volt or a 3 volt (3.3 volt?)
card.  To confuse the issue further, some *cards* are said to be
'Universal,' meaning that they can operate in either a 5 volt slot or a
3 volt slot.  Thus, a slot capable of accomodating a 'Universal'
card is not necessarily a "Universal" slot!  Oh, and did I mention
that all these cards and slots fit mechanically, it is just that some
combinations don't work electrically.  Besides this, I have heard
that some motherboards, while not offering "Universal" slots are
switchable to either 5 or 3 volts.  I'm not even getting in to the
different kinds of PCI slots (PCIE, PCIX, etc.)  The slot I think
I need for my new pair of 6602s is a plain old PCI slot.  I am
happy to buy (or even build) new computers to do this job.  I just
need something with 5-volt plain PCI slots, five of them ideally but at
least three.  Thank you!

Answer 1

Pretty much any new computer that you can get will have the appropiate
PCI type that you need to use these boards. You will be looking for a
Computer/Motherboard that is compatiable with the PCI 2.1 or 2.2
standard which supports the 5V you need to power these PCI-6602s. What
you might be seeing is a lot of computers that are coming with the
PCI-Express slots, which are very different then stardard PCI. These
computers, since they have PCI-Express, have a limited number of
standard PCI slots (usually 3). So if you go with a computer with no
PCI-Express, then most will have 5 slots. So depending on whether you
go with your favorite computer maker or decide to build a machine
yourself just make sure that the motherboard says it has 5 PCI slots
(and not PCI-Express, or PCI-X) and as long it is new you should be just fine. If
you want to read up on some on the PCI standard here is a link to a
good resource.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pci
Good luck with your computer hunting.
-GDE