Will the Intel X38 chipset support SLI?

[Frag Maniac]

Someone on another forum stated Nvidia will not allow SLI support via X38. So for I've found nothing to confirm this. There was a rumor it might be allowed, but of course that is unconfirmed too.

[Raptorfury]

Nvidia wants sli for thier chipsets only ... from what i understand . intel wants it both ways nvidia and ati .. so far nvidia goin to lose a lot of ground when the x38 comes out because the p35 is proving to be a better chipset then Nvidia's ..

[Bio-Hazard]

All depends on how you look at what you think the best is.......;) Intel's memory controler is still sub-standard to Nvidia's IMHO. Haven't seen any numbers on the X38 yet, but no one else has either, but I'm still liking the Nvidia memory options better right now.

[Schwarz]

I like the fact that you can unlink your memory.

[papubhai]

intel is much better

[Schwarz]

Why would you say that??
So far the nvidia chipset have made all the headlines and are recognised to be awesome overclockers.

[Frag Maniac]

I like Intel CPUs, but they do still work best with their own chipsets. Running an Intel CPU on an Nvidia chipset is still a bit of a bottleneck just due to the extra chip needed for compatibility. Personally I don't know if I'll bother with SLI, but if the X38 were to support it and perform well in SLI I would certainly consider it as an upgrade path.

[Raptorfury]

from my experience the intel chips do perform a lil better then the nvidia counter part . nvidia does have a slightly better memory controller but thats bout it .

[Schwarz]

Isn't the top score of 3dmark06 held by a striker extreme??
Maybe it changed but anyways 680i FTW !

[sushrukh]

MSI made a brief introduction of its upcoming X38 based motherboard. This might be among the first board to support Intel X38 high end chipset. This Ultra high end motherboard will be really overclockable and it comes with 4 Phase PWM design. The most interesting is the four PCIe express physical 16X ports all PCI-E 2.0 ready but electronically two of them are PCIe 16 while two are PCI-E 4X. This will still be enough to host four PCIe cards at the same time. It also comes with 4 DDR3 memory slots and 2 DDR2 slots so it will make the transition really easy and the board comes with well known X-Fi audio. The board should be ready in September time.


http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/5458/msix38sg1.jpg

Link :- http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2518&Itemid=37

[Schwarz]

Wow...
It ain't missing anything.
I don't personnaly like MSI because of a bad experience but DAMN I might consider this in one of my future build.
I mean it even supports DDR2 so I can use my crucial I just bought and make the transition later on.
I like the onboard sound too.
Pretty hardcore board if you ask me...
And when they mean that the can support PCI 2.0 it means I could fit a normal PCI card in the PCIe slot ?
And whats the circu pipe under design is there pipe running under the board ?!?!

[sushrukh]

And when they mean that the can support PCI 2.0 it means I could fit a normal PCI card in the PCIe slot ?


This isn't PCI 2.0 actually.It's PCI-E 2.0 so only PCI-E cards can be plugged in.And compatibility with older generation PCI-E 1.0 cards ?

PCI Express 1.0 not compatible with 2.0 spec

With Asus latests P35 gaming boards, the Blitz Extreme and Blitz Formula, which are using an IDT chip to give you two x8 PCI Express slots instead of the normal x16 and x4 configuration of the P35 chipset, a problem has occured on the Asus FAQ. It seems that the second slot is PCI Express 1.0/1.0a only and according to Asus, this older PCI Express standard isn't compatible with PCI Express 2.0.

Link :- http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2499&Itemid=34

[Frag Maniac]

...whats the circu pipe under design is there pipe running under the board ?!?!This is the most detailed info I could find on it:

http://www.custompc.co.uk/news/601220/msi-water-cools-x38-diamond-motherboard.html (http://www.custompc.co.uk/news/601220/msi-water-cools-x38-diamond-motherboard.html)

The X-Fi audio is no doubt a step up from most onboard audio, but in a high end system using a board like this I tend to think most would opt for a more high end X-Fi than their lowest level one. The X-Fi Xtreme Audio card doesn't support 24-bit Digital-to-Analog conversion of stereo digital sources at 192kHz, has no X-Ram, and is likely short on other features. Creative doesn't even give a distortion spec on it so I'm sketical it's even as clean sounding as their better ones. They'll probably bump the price up $50-$60 bucks just for the onboard sound it has too.

[Schwarz]

Oh thanks.
I guess the circu pipe is not under the board its just that its not ready yet and they did not include it on the picture.
And be sure to get at least 250 300 bucks ready for that board, i'm sure it will go in the ROG prices.

[slugbug]

The only MSI product I've ever owned was a MSI Mega 651.
http://techreport.com/reviews/2003q2/msi-mega651/index.x?pg=1
This does look like a really good board.

[Schwarz]

the board I had was supposed to support AGP 8x it was one of the first AGP 8x mobo and it did NOT support it.
It kept setting back to 4x even though I had a 8x videocard...

[Frag Maniac]

I guess the circu pipe is not under the board its just that its not ready yet and they did not include it on the picture.Yeah, I think "under design" is just another way of saying: "The board’s cooling system is still under development". The way they worded it had me scratchin my head too though.:lol:

[Schwarz]

Well I wonder if heatpipes going under the board all the way to the top of the board to carry heat would be a good idea...?

[Frag Maniac]

Well I wonder if heatpipes going under the board all the way to the top of the board to carry heat would be a good idea...?The only thing close to water cooling I would want is a closed heat exchanger system that works off a vacuum assisted boil/evaporate/condense method like the Zalman aftermarket coolers have. They did something similar to the CPU cooler in the Xbox 360 as far as I can tell only better, mainly because it's bigger and fan assisted.

The one on this card is talked about as possibly being adaptable to a dedicated water cooling system, but those scare the crap out of me and I really don't see a need for them with these new 45nm CPUs that run cooler coming out. Maybe it's just that I have an old car and know what cooling system leaks can get like even without all the sensitive electronics to worry about.:wink:

[Schwarz]

The only thing close to water cooling I would want is a closed heat exchanger system that works off a vacuum assisted boil/evaporate/condense method like the Zalman aftermarket coolers have. They did something similar to the CPU cooler in the Xbox 360 as far as I can tell only better, mainly because it's bigger and fan assisted.

The one on this card is talked about as possibly being adaptable to a dedicated water cooling system, but those scare the crap out of me and I really don't see a need for them with these new 45nm CPUs that run cooler coming out. Maybe it's just that I have an old car and know what cooling system leaks can get like even without all the sensitive electronics to worry about.:wink:

I wouldn't consider the 360 for having a good cooling solution hehehe.
Wasn't the overheating problem going as far as 35% of users ?!?!

[Frag Maniac]

I wouldn't consider the 360 for having a good cooling solution hehehe.
Wasn't the overheating problem going as far as 35% of users ?!?!I didn't say the 360 had a good one, though other products have certainly proven the basic design idea is sound. The key things to note in what I said above is the size of the cooler, particularly the fin area, and whether it has a dedicated fan, neither of which the 360 can boast. There's also not much space in a 360 box. You can take almost any sound design, implement it poorly, and masses of people will suddenly think it's trash.

These new MBs that have passive heatpipe systems capable of being hooked up to water cooling systems have in tests shown to cool very efficiently with no water cooling added. Even for OCing I think making it a closed heat exchanger would add just enough cooling without being overkill or risking leaks. THAT was my main point.