Intel Sandy Bridge E and LGA2011 Discussion

[Jaskanwar Singh]

MSI Big Bang XPower II X79 Monstrosity Smiles For The Camera | techPowerUp

[vickybat]

^^ My god What a board!!!! Tailor made for a $999 cpu. It has a whooping 24 phase vrm design. Will definitely break some overclocking records once 2011 cpu's start shipping.

[JojoTheDragon]

Looks wicked!

[topgear]

I really liked the ammo belt shaped heatsink

[Jaskanwar Singh]

I really liked the ammo belt shaped heatsink

me too and ofcourse those number of pcie slots

[topgear]

ASUS P9X79 Pro - VFM X79 mobo



ASUS P9X79 Pro Motherboard Revealed - Softpedia

[Skud]

Poor placement of PCI-e slots.

[d6bmg]

MSI Big Bang XPower II X79 Monstrosity Smiles For The Camera | techPowerUp

Spoiler:

Real killer mobo..
But EVGA have the best looking mobo of x79.

[Extreme Gamer]

d6bmg: you havent seen the Rampage IV Extreme yet have you?

Your opinion will then change.

[d6bmg]

@EG: yes, I saw that too. I think this board is superior due to the fact that it have 7 PCI-E slots whereas rampage iv have 5 slots....

so, one can opt for quad sli, physx & 2 more slots will be there for future use.. cool.

[gameranand]

Arn't higher end cards have dual slot design so you can't fill consecutive ports right ??

[Skud]

Exactly. I couldn't get the point of boards like Gigabyte UD7 and MSI Bing Bang. How many of those 7 PCI-e slots are a user going to use? At least 3 of them will be wasted in any case.

[gameranand]

Exactly. I couldn't get the point of boards like Gigabyte UD7 and MSI Bing Bang. How many of those 7 PCI-e slots are a user going to use? At least 3 of them will be wasted in any case.

Yup. I guess they want to look good on papers.

[Extreme Gamer]

those slots can be filled with the help of watercooling.

The EVGA classified mobo has only 5 slots.

the SR2 has 7 slots, which will have bandwidth issues.

[Skud]

Point is, is 5-way or 7-way SLI/CFX even possible? Doesn't get the logic behind that many PCI-e slots. May be I am missing something.

[rajnusker]

Point is, is 5-way or 7-way SLI/CFX even possible? Doesn't get the logic behind that many PCI-e slots. May be I am missing something.

For position I guess. May be how far you want to keep the cards apart, some cards take up huge space, while others a little.

[Skud]

OK, suddenly remember some ASUS cards do eat away 3 slots. If someone want to put 3 of them together...

I do agree the mobo looks better and symmetrical with 7 equal length slots, rather than slots of various lengths.

[Extreme Gamer]

5 slots,7 slots are for HPC/F@H/SETI@H/4-way+physx/multimonitor(over 3 monitors).

You can also put add-on PCIE cards like RAID controllers,sound cards, revodrives etc.

The possibilities are endless

[gameranand]

I guess most soundcards come for x1 slot right ??

[d6bmg]

those slots can be filled with the help of watercooling.

I was about to post this, but thanks to eg, I don't have to.

the SR2 has 7 slots, which will have bandwidth issues.

Good point. Then I think these 7 slots are only good for marketing.

5 slots,7 slots are for HPC/F@H/SETI@H/4-way+physx/multimonitor(over 3 monitors).

You can also put add-on PCIE cards like RAID controllers,sound cards, revodrives etc.

The possibilities are endless

RAID controllers are very useful to use, as most of the on-board controllers are sh!t, specially when connected to SSDs.

[topgear]

Poor placement of PCI-e slots.

the placement is Kinda OK IMO - looks like the blue pci-e x16 will be used for gfx cards - so there's enough spacing between 2x gfx slots - it's suitable for those who will only use 2x gfx cards in SLI/CF without any other internal pci-e cards and so far this one look like the most cheapest and VFM X79 mobo

[Extreme Gamer]

@gameranand: It doesnt matter. As long as the slot is bigger than the card's connector it is compatible.

This only applies to PCIE.

[gameranand]

Means a x16 slot can also serve as x1, x4 or standard pcl slot ??

[Skud]

the placement is Kinda OK IMO - looks like the blue pci-e x16 will be used for gfx cards - so there's enough spacing between 2x gfx slots - it's suitable for those who will only use 2x gfx cards in SLI/CF without any other internal pci-e cards and so far this one look like the most cheapest and VFM X79 mobo

Blue slots may be OK for SLI, but no crossfire bridge is that long, unless the mobo manufacturer provides one, which is rare anyway. And what about 3-card config?

Means a x16 slot can also serve as x1, x4 or standard pcl slot ??

It will serve as x4, x1, x8 PCIe but not standard PCI slot. Those two are different.

[gameranand]

Ok thanks for the info didn't knew about then. Then this much slots can be used for other purposes too.

[Extreme Gamer]

Yes anand, they can

Like Skud said, PCI wont work in PCI-E or vice versa, because the underlying tech is very different, the slots are not of same size and their distance from expansion slot bay is different from PCI-E.

But dont think that an x1 slot can run x4 or x4 can run x8 etc. If the size of the slot is bigger than the connector, it is compatible.

[Skud]

Forget to mention it depends on the electrical connectors of the slot, not the length.

[Extreme Gamer]

lol if there is a slot if x16 length even if it only runs at x1 speed, it will support an x16 card.

Case in point: MSI big bang marshall.

[Skud]

But that card will operate at X1 speed, ain't it?

[Extreme Gamer]

That is correct. The number of connections remain the same but the bandwidth available is less due to less number of lanes.

A bit like two sticks of RAM in single channel mode.