Ive made some fast research and found that PCI bus 2.2 power supply source cannot exceed more than 1A. If that is true, then a generic x86 PC cannot handle more than ONE PCI to mini-pci adapter running a SR5 card?
Guess the adapter convert 5 volts to 3.3 volts and a SR5 mini pci card would consume 4,29Watts @ 3.3volts, so this card on a PCI to mini-PCI adapter would need 0,848 Amperes. Then for 1A max on the entire PCI bus we can only have one SR5? Perhaps 3 x ag530 @ 0,33A = 0,9A.
I can already tell you that you are going to get told my Mikrotik that you can run as many as you want basically. I asked the same question recently about the PCI to 4x miniPCI card using 4 x XR5’s and they said there would be no problems. Apparently either they didn’t follow the specifications for current draw through a PCI adapter or something. I suggested to them that a 4 pin molex connector be added to the 4 and 8 port miniPCI to PCI cards to supply the additional current required to run that many high power consumption radios and I was laughed at. There is no way of supplying 20 watts that would be required by the Ubiquiti XR/SR cards through any PCI 2.2 bus AFAIK but when I asked, even thought their page specifically says “Not for high powered cards”, I was told I could run 4 XR’s without issue.
Personally, I am going to do a little modification on their board to supply the extra power directly from the power supply because I’d rather not burn up a $100 motherboard just to prove a point and still not get any satisfaction. I’d be glad to share what I am doing if you’re interested.
Thank you there. I have no doubts that any radio wont work good enough under overloaded power supply conditions. We are in a hope to solve some link performance problems by avoiding hardware deficiencies, including power consumption. I will be back posting news about it then…