Is it just me that wants a mobo like this?

[MU51CL]

Seems to me there are a heap of mobo choices just a little bit different from each other.
As an example, Asus P5K Premium - P5K Deluxe.

My personal favourite Gigabyte is similar. P35-S3L - DS3L - DS3 and so on - a capacitor here, a SATA connector there sort of thing.

With Gigabyte in particular on the P35 chipset, when they add a PCI-e x16 slot, you lose a PCI slot. The boards are still populated with often 3 practically useless PCI-E x 1 slots (who uses them?).

So with only 2 PCI slots, you put in a sound card and a TV card, it's full. And a bunch of spare slots you aren't gonna use.

So if you want a pemium mobo, it is somehow assumed you are gonna play Crossfire (or SLI with an nVidia chipset)if you want the full Silent Pipe / Crazy Cool set-up. P35-DS4 the prime example.

So if like me you will NEVER run multiple graphics cards, you have to live with the above.

Is there not a market for a mobo like a P35-DS3P / DS4 or P5K-Deluxe etc with a SINGLE PCI-e x16 slot?

I'd buy one in a minute. As per the thread title, is it just me?

[Chakka]

No its not you...I personally try and get 2nd/3rd gen parts on the cheap...the p35 is still a great mobo and you can get great ones for around $100. The 2 other major factors in multiple gpus is power consumption (you dont need a thermal nuclear psu) and noise (one card should almost always be quieter than 2).

Plus with a good set of cheap ddr2, youve got one potential great rig...Im about to upgrade from my ddr1 rig which still seems to run most of the games I play today but I noticed I have to turn down the "eye candy" features to get things to run smooth so its time to upgrade for me again...

[Frag Maniac]

IMO there is no excuse for giving you only 2 PCI slots on a non SLI/Crossfire MB unless they change sound cards, TV tuner cards or other cards that use PCI slots to using Pci Ex 1x slots. I agree that Pci Ex 1x slots are in general a waste of space and money in MB manufacturing. The only thing that has really made use of them is the odd RAID card here and there. There was talk of PhysX cards being made for Pci Ex 1x at one point but it never came to fruition. It's bad enough when hardware and software manufaturing get out of sync and you have to wait for some time for hardware that can make use of a game's full potential. When hardware manufacturing doesn't sync with the available hardware needs though, it gets a bit ridiculous.

[srpeters18]

Actually, the Asus Mobo's at least some of them come with PCI-E x1 sound cards and I know my brother was using a PCI-E x1 wifi card, so they're out there, even if not all that common. They will most likely become more common though, just as ISA was slowly replaced by PCI.

[hatakezetsumei]

Wow this is sooo true. My bro just until the hybrid Xfire and all this awsome stuff about it came out, cuz he has a DS3P and has no use for the Xfire, and bought it cuz of the performace and the coolness cooling but now he realized how awsome Xfire is. I am a fan of multi Cards cuz of coolness factor.

[MU51CL]

For those of us that find a single 3870 or 8800GTS 512 (I'll get there eventually) quite enough video card for our needs, and want a high-performance mobo for general use, the mobos available just don't cater for that.
The prob with SLI / Crossfire is the price of multiple cards and if you don't need them....

And I can't see why not when there's all these tiny niche markets that get catered for. I mean the diff between say P35-S3L and DS3L is like $4. A tiny buying niche if ever there was one.

I did see Asus with their plug-in PCI-e x1 sound card and thought "At last" a use for one of those slots....without the need for a fancy network or firewire 800 solution, what good are they otherwise?

Seems the mobo manufacturers might take something on board for the need for such a mobo in the marketplace. here's hoping :)

[PP Mguire]

You can get Sound cards, Raid cards, WiFi cards, and Gigabit cards in PCI-E 1x flavor. They are out there, just nobody has them because they built their PCs a while back.

[timberwolf120]

I plan on getting the Asus Xonar D2X (asus pci-e sound card).

Here is a tv tuner that uses pci-e:
ATI TV Wonder™ COMBO 650 PCI Express
ATI TV Wonder™ 600 PCI Express

Bjorn3d did a review of the 650 PCI Express from Visiontek.
http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1190&pageID=4140

These PCI-e x1 might be good for those single gpu users because these cards should work in those unused pci-e x16 slots (x16 or x8 electrical). I'm not sure if it is standard or up to the manufacturer to make this happen. But I was researching the Asus Xonar D2X and 2 sources said that it worked in all PCI-e slots.

[SonicWRX]

I am never satisfied the a motherboard and its options. There is never one out that has all i am looking for. As far as the PCI-e 1x slots I have no need for them at this time. I am sure that some day we will need them but right now i have no need.

[PP Mguire]

Well you WOULD have a need, you just have to buy 1x cards to suite the need.