Nvidia SLI XE primer

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2006/01/17/nvidia_sli_xe/1.html

 

Holy bejesus, that's quite the northbridge cooler!

Anyways, great move on their part. I really love nVidia's chipset offerings, and expanding their Intel (Dell) choices is an excellent idea. Not to mention how much easier it makes things on system builders, with all drivers ending up the same (I would hope, anyways) from budget to ultra-ubertastic.

 

So, apart from the fact that the SLI XE has 2x8 PCIE sockets vs 2x16 in the SLI x16 (which, by all accounts, makes sod all difference at the present time given that even a 7800 GTX 512 can't saturate eight lanes of PCIE, let alone 16), and the provision of 8 USB ports instead of 10, the only differences are in favour of the cheaper board!??!? NVidia, you've gone mad I say - MAD!

edit: btw, on first glance at that board, I though "hmm, strange place for the CPU to be..." before I realised that that mighty HSF is on the NB. Wowzers!

 

It's a good move, although the loss of two USB ports is.. strange. HD audio is overdue though and Id go for that and a couple of x8 lanes over x16s and AC97 anyday. Active Armour tends to be more trouble than it's worth at times too, so no real loss there.

 

I was thinking, with such a big NB hsf, and with it getting bigger when nvidia releases support for quad-sli, how the hell do you fit a cpu cooler in? With reductions in pci space, we are going to need bigger motherboards,which means bigger cases.

/me hugs cm stacker for futureproofing!

 

I have an older board (NF4-SLI Intel), and i can tell you that the NB doesn't even get warm, let alone hot. The monster coolers are really just there for future proofing.

 

The 10 vs 8 USB ports is indeed strange, and I agree about HD audio - I'd take that over X16 and AC97 without hesitation.

Back to the USB ports - it's a bit odd, but probably no great hardship - you can always add a USB hub if needs be. Personally, I've got a keyboard, a mouse, a printer, a scanner, a remote, a joystick, a couple of data sticks, an MP3 player, a bluetooth dongle, an IR dongle, an ADSL modem and a digital camera, so I could, in principle, burn through 8-10 USB ports fairly easily, but I'd say I've got more USB devices than most people, and tbh never really have problems. First, these things are never all connected at once - by their very nature, data sticks, MP3 players, cameras etc. are only connected from time to time. Secondly, I've got a cheap powered USB hub, which connects the printer, scanner, remote and bluetooth dongle, and that leaves me plenty of spare ports.

 

why didnt they put the nb in the same place on the amd mobo's?

god dammit!!, looks like intel could be coming back into the gaming market, but unless they make the chips cheaper i'll stick with AMD.

i was wholehartedly dissapointed with the P4. but amd's XP rocked in comparison, i hope AMd start doing mobile procvessors to even the market a bit, thus dropping prices for everyone, instead of intel and amd having seperate markets.

 

amd do make mobile processors, they just (imo) arent as good as the pentium m and especially the new core duo chips

+1 people who'd take the HD audio over dual x16

why isnt there an nf4 with HD audio for amd yet

 

Its interesting how Nvidia is expanding to the smaller little details. How they release a new mobo with all most little change. Does any one remember the DFI NF4 ultra-D board. The first version of these boards when they came out had two pci-e slots that can be turned in to SLi board with a simple connecting two things on the board. This new XE board reminds of that now. A simple change makes a whole new board. MSI also had a board with two pci-e that can be converted also into a sli mobo. But Nvidia was super mad about this and demanded the makers change the boards so that they cant be modded to make them sli. Same thing here, a simple mod in the factory making to make a ultra board sli xe or sli board to sli xe. HAHAHAHA. All Dells have a modded mobo. HAHAHAHA.



ALso I think HD audie is a intel thing. I think intel spent lots of money making it or exploring the idea. Its more of a medi centre thing then power user thing. But I guest gamers I power users that need powerful media hadware also.

 

except the ATi AMD boards have HD audio too, so its not limited to intel

 

I do wish the hardware makers would take into consideration the limited space of people's computers; its getting difficult to fit all the hardware inside with these super long video cards and two slot heatsinks, let alone with large coolers on processors, northbridges, etc

 

Die shrinks They'll be moving to .000234nm by Q3'06 in order to deal with it. That would end up as the spec of silicon edition.

Hamish - the HD audio is an Intel thing; I'd imagine more or less a requirement of chipsets for their LGA procs. In any case, I'd still very much question its quality, and it's still lacking in things that are genuinely useful like DDL. What with Intel trying to make the PC the center of the living room, you'd think they'd implement that so you can hook up your PC to a decent reciever and have surround sound in everything and not just pass-through apps (DVD software... umm... that's about it)

 

does anyone actually use more then 8 USB ports? If so, how!?!

 

Printer
Scanner
Harddrive 1
Harddrive 2
USB key
iPod

I'm out. I guess if you had a digital camera, and some USB trinkets.

 

keyboard, mouse, printer,scanner, UPS, camera, thumbdrive, microphone/headset, webcam
By the time I am done spending money to buy a new rig, the difference in price between this board and the one that has everything I want, is not even an issue. I would rather be budget minded on audio, or processor than on a MB that is missing an option/upgradable option that I want/need. If I were replacing an old MB that died, than I might think about this as a replacement; might.
And I would also agree that space is becoming a bit of an issue on almost all the newer MB's. When I build a new rig, for my gaming/desktop, 99.99% of the time, my case stays where it is at, even with a couple lan parties a year. I have the 1998' Antec SOHO server case, THICK gauge steel, and plenty of room. It saddens me to see that they are building so many MB's that if you have a dual slot cooler, in sli, that it leaves you with only 1-2 pci slots left. Why put them on there if they are un-usable? I think they have been updating an old design too much lately and not trying to re-think their real-estate. Personnaly, I am using 4 pci slots right now, and with the new boards, forgetaboutit. (although I wouldnt need the raid card anymore with most boards supporting raid on MB).
Where are all the PCI-E 4-8-16 non-GPU cards? I have only seen 1-2 articles on anything that used these ports from bit-tech; (no need to correct if less than 6, as I do not claim to have read every article, although I try). And if they do start saturating the market, If I use a single card that i dual slot, I lose a pcie4 slot, or by using two single slot cards, I still lose a pcie4 slot. Enough about real-estate.
So they want a mid-range priced board that is flexable? Set it up for one PCIE16 slot, add the bridge for amd/and/or/intel CPU's. Add 4 pci slots, and 1PCIEx4 slot. At least set the FSB at 1Ghz or better, 6 SATA ports with raid, 5.1 AC97. Hot glue one IDE connector on, set it all on an ATX form factor; spend all the money you would have spent on creating all the hype for a new BADGE on reducing the price.
Then sit back and relax for one week on the profit that rolls in. Then get to work on doing the same thing for next year, just don't forget to send a lap dance my way