Modding My questions thread: motherboards

[Maki role]

Well doesn't socket 2011 support 40 PCIe lanes? Wouldn't that mean that you wouldn't be able to run 4 cards at 16x each?

[siliconfanatic]

Sorry bout that. I'm no expert with the sockets, however I do know that some motherboard manufacturers will add extra chips to the boards in order to boost lane count. Following this reasoning I have searched for that one board.

The closest I've come is a mobo made by AsRock, But it doesn't seem to be built to handle OC'ing very well, and the BIOS Is apparently a tad on the glitchey side. Not mentioning It can only handle 4 cards at full x16, add one more and only one slot has x16, everything else drops to 8, even at only 5 cards. So I'm cautious About that one.

The one other board, The EVGA "dark" mobo was just recently unveiled(not even in production yet) by EVGA. Schweet board from the looks of it. Angled connectors, Plenty of power phases, and 5 pci-e lanes capable of x16 even when all of them are filled. However, Due to hit-or-miss mobo's and customer service, I'd rather stay away just to be safe. Great company 50% of the time(especially with their graphics cards), But the other 50% its alot like cyborg.

I've looked at all the ASUS Rog mobo's, but sweethearts they may be for overclocking, they are tlacking in that one imperitive.

Thanks for the help anyways, buddy If ya have any Ideas Just lemme know

[fr0Zen]

just get the evga x79 dark at release

[The_Crapman]

You do realise that there is little to no difference in performance between pci-e 2.0 and 3.0, so if they're 3.0 running at x8 that would be plenty. Also the sli scaling drops off a cliff once you put a 4th card in. Have a look at the Asus Ares 2 review here and you'll see with 2 cards in quadfire most of the results are worse. Finally, even with just 3 cards, a dedicated physx card will do jack didly squat for performance. Save yourself some money and lots of hassle and stick with 3 cards.

[siliconfanatic]

I realized and in fact knew all of this when i went looking for such a board. Sometimes, overkilling the hell out of something just doesn't quite cut it. I admire your wisdom, but I was only asking if such a board existed. Thanks anyways though!

@fr0Zen: I would prefer not to buy an evga mobo. Hence why I said I knew of it and said I was against that purchase. If i am going to waste money I'd much rather waste it on a board which stands less of a chance of being DOA, and with a company I know for sure will reply.

[The_Crapman]

Evga's customer service and warranties are some of the best. Why do you think most people here would recommend their graphics cards? The asrock extreme 11 is the alternative to the evga board and if that's the one you refer to above, then to bad.

Seriously though, just stick to 3 cards and learn how to overclock. Just look at what tg's 3 670's have been doing. Spending all that money just for the sake of it is just plain retarded. And if i remember correctly you were previously complaining about being poor and wanting to do things on a shoe-string budget.

[siliconfanatic]

Not anymore; got my grades up finally so the budget just went AWOL

And I do remember now that they do have good service. Someone I know just had a really hard time with them so that was the first thing that came to mind.('course he has UPS so the deliveryman might've played soccer with the box for all we know )

I have flawed judgment at times, But then again we all do. My... issues are just more frequent

Think I'll go with three. Maybe physx... If the temptation is too great
Though there is the fact that that free slot would make a soundcard a possibility. Thoughts on that? I'm probably gonna go with the AsRock... Its not still pending.

[Furball Zen]

Doesnt exist and we havent exceeded 2.0 yet...

[siliconfanatic]

thanks for clarifying that bit of misinformation

Still, any thoughts on the sound card?

[Owndapwn]

It is impossible to have more than four cards without running dual Xeons.
With dual Xeons, the highest possible is seven, and I'm not sure of the speeds.

To clarify, if you run quad 7970, due to the massive memory bus, PCI-e 2.0 will be saturated at 8x speeds, which will hold the 16x cards back.
PCI-e 3.0, even at 8x speeds, will not become saturated.

The dual socket board I'm thinking of is an ASUS, I believe.

If a single-socket board has more than four slots, it is so you have a greater degree of freedom in placing the cards.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...irtualParent=1
Actually, scratch that. You can not go higher than QuadFire or QuadSLI.
I heard of the board on a BitCoin chatroom. You can run seven cards separately, but that's useless if they aren't being used for calculations.

[siliconfanatic]

Ahem

I knew all of that. Err, aware of. Board makers use second-party chips to boost lane count(Enough $ gives you a way 'round everything ). Oh, and i ain't quite that new to the trade The plan was for quad sli and dedicated physx. But that got bashed by the fact that the poor scaling actually tended to reverse the performance gain. So now its down to 3-sli and physx/or sound card.

[bigkingfun]

Originally Posted by siliconfanatic

Still, any thoughts on the sound card?

If you want a soundcard just to fill up the slots, I would go for an Asus. Stay away from Creative. The support from them tends to be non existing.

If you want quality, go for a external DAC. Personally I have this, and loving it. They can be pricey though.

[siliconfanatic]

That much I was going for, ASUS all the way for sound(NTM OC'ing ) Just wanted to know if it was worth it. DAC is waaaay outta my league yet. only willing to go sound card and maaaybe a vacuum tube amp(that's a really shaky maybe). I am not any sort of sound guru, but I know one and good god that sound quality just blew up my tiny, little, insignificant insect brain

[bigkingfun]

I had the Asus Xonar Essence ST before I got my DAC and was very happy with it.
You will probably want the PCIe version: Link

[siliconfanatic]

Thankee. +rep(bomb!)