Seems nice... that way you could have physics and a Soundcard!!!

This might be tough to do though since with 2 PCI-E cards in SLI/Crossfire with a sound card is a tight sqeeze as it is. We are going to need a huge case to fit 3 cards w/ a soundcard

My Jetway GT4 has 3 Pci16 slots, Bring it on...lol

markklebMy Jetway GT4 has 3 Pci16 slots, Bring it on...lol

Thinking towards the future with that mobo? I always thought it was a little odd :laugh:


I immediately thought physics too, so I like this.

(has no intention of crossfire and another physical 16x slot):)

Actually the origional idea was the center slot was for just 1 VC and if you wanted to go SLI you used the outer 2 (no jumpers,no setting anything, just plug n go)
but technically if you went SLI the center slot could be a Physics card, oooohhhhhhh.

This has to be the BEST $45 MOBO ever! LOL

bruins004We are going to need a huge case to fit 3 cards w/ a soundcard

I think it's time we come up with a new form factor. I'm thinking...UberATX? It has support for 14 PCI slots, will effectively double the height of a computer, is stable (and heavy) as a rock, and can hold all your gigantic cooling device thingies :laugh:. Of course, this is UberATX Alpha, we'll develop the beta as more people actually agree on the specifications lol.

For my next build I think I will just build the comp inside my fridge. That way it can cool my sodas too.

markklebFor my next build I think I will just build the comp inside my fridge. That way it can cool my sodas too.

I like that idea :toast:

Also I would find lengthening that ATX factor board to be the way to go. Even now, you hardly get any PCI slots left unhindered to add in sound cards and other peripherals. The whole SLI and CrossFire thing already occupies so much space, especially the double slot cooling solutions.

If they would get rid of the PCI slots and just put good sound on the mobo there is plenty of room.
When i was a kid and worked on cars I used to complain how stupid the engineers were to design things so hard to service. It seems like the same engineers are designing mobos.
Like the DFI LanPartys(EXCELENT mobos but the stupid chipsets are under the video card)

And one of my favorite mobos my Soltek 939 had fan headers at all 4 corners. Why dosent everyone do that?(simple but so dam handy)

There are limits to how mainboards can be designed due to various factors to do with trace length and so on. an nf4 sli chipset sadly also cant be moved much, this is down to limitations because of trace length etc.

ultimately mainboards dont have enough space, either add 3 - 4 inches to the board in height or ditch PCI.

alternitively graphics manufacturers could stop being stupid and put dual cores on one PCB. its been done many times in more recent years very successfully. (gigabyte 6600GT, 6800 (forget manufacturer) and asus 7800 i think is the other. thers also a dual gpu 7900 in the works, again i think asus are working on it.

these dual gpu cards run toe to toe with SLI, only being seperated literally by 2FPS or so, which largely can be argued is well within the margin of error.

Umm... I'm pretty sure the third slot will be for physics. The chipset supports 48 PCIe lanes, so why not make all three full x16? It's not like anyone EVER uses the 2x, 4x, or 8x (unless physically 16x)... EVER!
www.hkepc.com/bbs/itnews.php?tid=608109
Yeah, I'm gonna be getting this when Conroe comes out. But don't get crazy; that's just the reference board. The RD580 reference board was uglier. I hope ASUS makes the flagship RD600 have this layout

16x PCIe
PCI
15x PCIe
PCI
16x PCIe
PCI
PCI

But the latest boards show that ASUS doens't seem to like the top slot and they hate PCI slots!

A GPU for physics makes so much more sense economically. Instead of buying a card solely for physics, you have one that can aid in Crossfire in non-physics games and be used in physics games. Or when you upgrade your GPU, you can use your old one for physics! This will also help sell the lower-end X1Ks. All will be revealed this week!

I think if they are gonna have those 3 16x PCIe's they should take all those lame PCIe 1x's out.
No one uses them so whats the point, unless they make that 1x lane be used for a soundcard then im fine.

Ketxxxalternitively graphics manufacturers could stop being stupid and put dual cores on one PCB. its been done many times in more recent years very successfully. (gigabyte 6600GT, 6800 (forget manufacturer) and asus 7800 i think is the other. thers also a dual gpu 7900 in the works, again i think asus are working on it.

www.nvidia.com/page/geforce_7950.html
It's called the 7950GX2, and it's not just some vendor custom thing. It doesn't support SLI yet, but will soon.

3rd PCIe Slot

Let me see, that's 3 GPUs, 1 physics engine, 1 quad core, 2 gigabit lans, 4 gigs of RAM,.... and a partridge in a pair tree!!!!

Anybody need a first born child or a kidney???

If these 3 PCIe X16 slots are for CrossFire and the other X16 for physics, we would have a tight fit with a sound card if it's still the ATX from factor. What they (as in ASUS, ABIT, DFI, etc.) should really do is have a really good onboard sound. There's some motherboards with SoundBlaster Live onboard, now just think if it was SoundBlaster X-Fi onboard! That's what we need if we're gonna keep the same form factor.

markklebFor my next build I think I will just build the comp inside my fridge. That way it can cool my sodas too.

It would not only kill the fridge after a while, but it would also kill your components from condensation. Trust me, lots of overclockers have thought of this already hehe.

I put my comp inside of a deep freezer for about an hour once. When I was done, and took my case out, there was condensation on the outside of it, and even some inside near the mobo, and it was a little scary to say the least.

But it was fun.

My GPU temp sensor went berserk from the coldness :D

standard midtowers have 7 expansion slots. That's plenty. Actually, what would be best, would have a PCI at the top and then nothing but PCIe x16s with space between for double-wide GPUs

PCI
PCIe x16
--
PCIe x16
--
PCIe X16
--

Look at the back of your computer. Picture an X-Fi card on top, with three R600s below it. Now open up you computer. Picture this all on a nice black ASUS PCB with a Core 2 Extreme X6800 covered with a Zalman CNP9500. Picture all 4 RAM DIMMs filled with top-of-the-line 1GB sticks. Now isn't that a pretty site? Very jammed and a heat monster, but looks cool!

I just thought of something... what about power for the third GPU?

If you think your gonna fit 3 videocards in that small of a spot, your crazy.. the only way that will happen is if the cards have no cooling attached to them..

Its a joke. I cant even afford 2 of them...

No pci slots, that would be a big change... remake all modems, wifi cards... ehh

jbizzlerwww.nvidia.com/page/geforce_7950.html
It's called the 7950GX2, and it's not just some vendor custom thing. It doesn't support SLI yet, but will soon.

He's talking about 1 PCB. The 7950GX2 is two PCB's put together connected with a bridge. If you look at the ASUS 6800, they're two GPU's on one PCB.

DeadZombieIf you think your gonna fit 3 videocards in that small of a spot, your crazy.. the only way that will happen is if the cards have no cooling attached to them..

That's a pretty good mobo I heard from markkleb. It's a Jetway GT4 SLI. The inner one is for single card X16 and the outer ones are for SLI X8 each.

DeadZombieIf you think your gonna fit 3 videocards in that small of a spot, your crazy.. the only way that will happen is if the cards have no cooling attached to them..

theinq.com/?article=32208

Looks like there won't be need to have a two-slot card be for physics. The X1600XT looks just fine for physics, as ATI says it's 2x faster than current PhysX processors. While there is no way to know becasue of different APIs and driver optimizations, I believe ATI. This pic appears to show enough room for 1 GPU between two double wide ones. That is a graphics card in there, right?

Anyway, since ATI and NVIDIA will be using HavokFX, and Ageia says the PhysX proc can use other APIs too, I think We'll see HavokFX become the physics standard, unless of course, MS makes a DirectPhysics as I've heard rumors of.

jbizzlerwww.nvidia.com/page/geforce_7950.html
It's called the 7950GX2, and it's not just some vendor custom thing. It doesn't support SLI yet, but will soon.

that thing is also ugly as hell :p the dual 7900 is rather sexy, as is the dual 7800 ;) whats happened to graphics manufacturers largely only using that ugly green pcb anyway? enthusuasts dont spend thousands on parts and god knows what else making a system look the don to have it destroyed with an ugly green pcb. :shadedshu