The research lab where I work has been offered a bunch of IBM rack-mountable servers for very little money. The hardware is a bit outdated but it would suit our needs perfectly -- If we can fit one of our customized PCI cards into one of them.
I looked around but just can't find any information on how much space is available for PCI cards. They have been referred to me as "IBM xserie 345" [sic], but I believe they meant "xSeries 345".
Do you have any link to official documentation that can help me? I need to know exactly how big a PCI card must be to fit into a server.
kind of backwards but here is a doc that shows a full length PCI card can fit into a 345
http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?infotype=an&subtype=ca&appname=redbooks&htmlfid=897/ENUS103-206
and another doc states that "Full-length PCI cards are 107mm (height) X 312mm (long)."
If it's a standard size PCI card (such as a add-in card for a desktop for extra USB, Soundcard, NIC, etc) it should be fine. If it's larger, "it depends".
Provide dimensions.