Who wants a motherboard workout?

[dgrmkrp]

Long overdue, but the one I liked and thought it was unique was the ECS 945GCT-M, with 2x 16x, one of which is electrically 4x.

About the quote from the wiki, Tom's HW or Xbitlabs did an experiment to see whether a 16x video card is influenced by the 16x, 8x.. 1x. They just taped the surplus connections on the PCI-E side of the card and plugged it in. Some documenting was made before, they didn't just tape it. Their result: 16x is better than 8x, so all those with 2 cards in SLI or Xfire would have benefitted from upgrading their 2x 8x to 2x 16x. Nowadays, most boards are dual 16x, so no biggie there.

But, it proves that even the mightiest cards they used (before DX10) were capable of working at even 1x speed. Maybe someone else read the article.. and remembers it..

Anyways, looks like a good setup you have there. If the gigabyte board has nice OC capabilities, you could buy the cheapest core 2 you can and OC that.. A really fast single core could be better, but not an older P4.. Does anyone remeber the highly OC 805 CPU? It could get 4GHz+ but it is not so competitive today... And this is an old generation dual core. I'm going with the others and crenn on the dual core. Much better.

[Zephik]

Low GHz dual core. Hands down. Although, do you really need a C2D? Could always try AMD if you need a cheap dual core PC.

Don't worry, I'm not a fanboy. I've actually checked out AMD a few times. I like their motherboards alot more too. But it would cost me more to go AMD, even though I would be saving money on the motherboard and processor. Reason is, because I would be out over $40usd for a new heatsink. I only have the LGA775 brackets for my Blue Orb II. I had AM2 or something like that, but I haven't a clue where that mounting plate went.

Its also that the Core 2 Duo's are better than the AMD's currently. Even though that will change soon enough, but the motherboard I buy may not support the new line of processors, so I don't want to be out even more cash to get the new line of processors. I won't upgrade to a new processor until I have enough money to get a decent one, so when the time comes, I'll probably be looking at the E6600 or better/similar. Then I got to also be thinking about getting a new video card with DX10 support, I'm thinking this one.

So it would just be better if I went Core 2 Duo. Its not only cheaper in my case, its also better. ...and they run really cool from what I've heard too. So I would only guess that they last longer before they start degrading and slowing down. Although, I probably won't have the same processor or maybe even the same PC 5+ years from now.

Does anyone know what the nVidia equal to that card is? hehe, I might not be a processor or motherboard fanboy, but I AM a video card fanboy! nVidia FTW! ...not that I don't like ATI, and especially because they are owned by AMD now. nVidia is just more... of a fail proof brand. I don't think I have ever heard even once about a person complaining about their nVidia card. Plus, their name is just so much cooler sounding. It also has some pretty cool meaning behind it! It comes from roman word invidia, which means envy or jealousy. It is also personified as a female goddess, who wouldn't want a card thats namesake came from a hottie roman goddess? Thats just a FTW situation if I ever did see one. :p

invidia

Anyways, looks like a good setup you have there. If the gigabyte board has nice OC capabilities, you could buy the cheapest core 2 you can and OC that.. A really fast single core could be better, but not an older P4.. Does anyone remeber the highly OC 805 CPU? It could get 4GHz+ but it is not so competitive today... And this is an old generation dual core. I'm going with the others and crenn on the dual core. Much better.

Thanks for the info! I was thinking that the dual core would be better. lol I was just trying to cheap my way out of it I guess. ...how MUCH better is it? THAT is the question! haha

Love the new sig btw dgrmkrp, very slimline and very nice looking. Not overly complicated either. It also seamlessly flows into your award too! Very nice.

...I'll give you FIVE dolla for it! lol :p

[Crazy Buddhist]

About the quote from the wiki, Tom's HW or Xbitlabs did an experiment to see whether a 16x video card is influenced by the 16x, 8x.. 1x. They just taped the surplus connections on the PCI-E side of the card and plugged it in. Some documenting was made before, they didn't just tape it. Their result: 16x is better than 8x, so all those with 2 cards in SLI or Xfire would have benefitted from upgrading their 2x 8x to 2x 16x. Nowadays, most boards are dual 16x, so no biggie there.

But, it proves that even the mightiest cards they used (before DX10) were capable of working at even 1x speed. Maybe someone else read the article.. and remembers it..

You're right. I've been reading up on this. 4x slots are physically smaller though. But you can dremel out the end of the slot, tape up the pins that stick out and away you go. The PCI-e architecture negotiates to use as many lanes as it can snatch. If a PCI-e x16 VGA card is in a slot with four lanes thats what it will use. Which is why you can buy x4 to x8 and x8 to x16 converters and they work.

In any case the old stylee split the bus x8 x8 SLI could never have been implemented if cards were not capable of using less than their maximum lanes. You just get a reduction in bandwidth.

Microslop's information on the bus architecture seems incorrect on this basis. However all the experiments and logs I have found about doing this were based on systems running XP and the full capabilities of the PCI-e architecture are not implemented in XP but only Vista onwards. It may be that under vista these mods wouldn't succeed.

What use a x4 PCI-e slot is for graphics I don't know. There are some old PCI-e x1 Graphics cards I have seen from Matrox which would work in the slot but that was it. And it certainly would not seem likely to support SLI so it would basically be for running low graphics demands multiple monitor systems I guess. O/w it looks like SATA Raid, one soundcard and a few other oddities you could slap in there at this point in time.

[crenn]

May I suggest this graphics card?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814122034

EDIT: Errr.... I mean this one!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814122024

[dgrmkrp]

In that article they were scientifically.. trying.. to find out what effect and where lower bandwidth has. And it only affect card with huge processing power, that may suffer from this bottleneck. I've seen modifications of chipset/boards that didn't support SLI officially, but had their lanes split by the manufacturer and created "XLI" (DFI or epox, don't remember). Worked almost the same with mainstream cards.. Even though one card was at 16x and the other at 4x.. Also, the slots were the same.
And checking out the new boards with the 600 series chipsets you can see 3 pci 16x slots, and you don't really have to put a 16x device there: a 8x or 4x raid card would work, a 1x sound card or tv tuner would also work Those guys who made the PCI-E architecture are pretty smart.

Well.. this is a nice de-railment off topic Sorry...

Oh, Zephik, how would you plan to pay? 10ks for the compliment though

[Zephik]

EDIT: Errr.... I mean this one!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814122024

Why that one?

Pros:
32 PixelPipelines
nVidia Brand
$50 Instant Savings

Cons:
Green

Not too many cons, but thats not my point. This is my point. Why would I choose the nVidia card over the ATI card? I might be a fanboy, but I still buy whats best for performance/price ratio. It seems that ATI is better on almost all fronts, and if not, then its just as good?

nVidia:
32 PixelPipelines
Core Clock - 540Mhz
Memory Clock - 1400Mhz
RAMDAC - 400Mhz
DVI - VGA Adapter
HDTV Cable

Features:
NVIDIA Lumenex Engine
NVIDIA unified architecture
GigaThread Technology
NVIDIA Quantum Effects Technology
Microsoft DirectX 10 Shader Model 4.0 Support
NVIDIA PureVideo HD technology

ATI:
120 Stream Processors (Universal PixelPipelines as I understand it?)
Core Clock - 800Mhz
Memory Clock - 1400Mhz
RAMDAC - 400Mhz
DVI - VGA Adapter
HDTV Cable
S-Video Cable
CrossFire Bridge

Features:
Equipped with ZALMAN VF100-Al high-performance single slot cooler
Gold-plated ports and black panel plate – Hi-fi concept
390 million transistors using 65nm fabrication process
High-speed 128-bit HDR lighting
Up to 24x Custom Filter Anti-Aliasing
ATI Avivo HD Video and Display architecture
Built-in HDMI and 5.1 surround sound Support for the ATI Radeon DVI to HDMI adapter Unified Video Decoder (UVD) for Blu-ray and HD DVD

[crenn]

http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/440/14/

The 8600GT performs better, and a little overclock never hurts! (I have the 256MB Leadtek 8600GT)

And the first one I recommended had GDDR2 not GDDR3.

[Zephik]

http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/440/14/

The 8600GT performs better, and a little overclock never hurts! (I have the 256MB Leadtek 8600GT)

And the first one I recommended had GDDR2 not GDDR3.

Thats seriously weird. It seems like... logic says that the ATI should perform better, but the nVidia one actually does? Why is that I wonder?

Oooh, overclocking the video card, never thought of doing that! lol man I can't believe I ever even thought of abandoning PCs for laptops, must of been something funny in the water I was drinking. lol

[crenn]

The difference in performance is the drivers used.

And I've overclocked my laptop's GPU.... just it got HOT. (85c). I loved my laptop when I got it.... don't love it so much.

[Zephik]

The difference in performance is the drivers used.

Yet another reason why I prefer nVidia over ATI.
...........

Does anyone know if the Abit Fatal1ty issue has been fixed yet? There were alot of people complaining about motherboards dying left and right and whatnot. Just wondering if they ever got that fixed? Seems like I've heard somewhere that that board was a pretty decent overclocker. It also has four DIMM slots as well as some pretty nice on-board graphics.

I'm thinking about putting a little more money towards the motherboard, then buying a really cheap-o case until I can afford a better one. What do you guys think? I would like to keep the total around $130, but I can go as high as $150 altogether.

Hmm, not sure what to do...

I suppose I could get like a 15 dollar case, then get a cheap graphics card... that would open up a whole new line of motherboards I could choose from. I could probably even run the motherboard without any case at all, that would save even more money...
...........

I think, I'm going to go with this setup.

Motherboard - on-board graphics, so no need for a graphics card. Also has some nice overclocking options from what I hear.
PC Case - Cheap, but fairly nice looking. Also has a 120mm exhaust, so thats nice.

Not too shabby eh? Better motherboard by leagues if you ask me. Downgrade in the case department, but I'll just call this baby a "sleeper". Looks normal on the outside, kicks ass on the inside! The motherboard also supports 45nm processors, so thats pretty cool!