- Jun 30, 2004
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I've only glanced at this Motherboard forum, largely ignoring it in past posts mostly on "Cooling" and "CPU/Over-Clocking."
I'm looking to build a Conroe-based system after it's "on the market" and in reasonable supply. [Some reviews foresee a shortage, with shipments going to OEMs as a priority.]
Here's my shoppin' list of dreams:
* Must have PCI-X slots for a hardware RAID5 solution.
* Must have a dual-GPU solution, and preferably nVidia.
* Prefer 8-cycle voltage regulation.
I've looked at the Intel "Bad-Axe," but I see it only has two PCI slots -- and no PCI-X.
I'm lookin' at the P5WDG2-WS, which also has an i-975X chipset. It meets the first and third requirement.
However, nVidia's compatibility list for the 7950 GX2 dual-GPU (single PCI-E card) only includes the Bad-Axe (i975X). But the list notes that the boards in the list are the only ones for which tests have been performed (so far.) We've experienced this phenomenon before with memory compatibility lists -- a compatible memory module isn't listed, because it "wasn't tested."
I want to implement hardware RAID5 with a controller's own XOR engine. You might think this won't make much of a difference, since we're talking about a dual-core CPU anyway, but I'd like to "go after every grain of rice" on this build without complete bankruptcy. RAID5 should save me the cost of a fourth drive over a "0+1" solution, and reduce power consumption a little.
I don't want to do "Cross-Fire." The 7950 GX2 graphics cards are supposed to be -- at the moment -- the fastest single-card options available. The card falls a few points short of a dual-card 7900 GTX SLI solution, but is just short of double in performance over a single 7900 GTX. I also suspect that there would be some incremental power consumption savings with a dual-GPU single card option as opposed to a dual-card SLI, but that's mostly an intuitive guess. Anyway, KISS -- simple is best.
Any observations that might help me avoid misery and frustration -- are encouraged.
I'm looking to build a Conroe-based system after it's "on the market" and in reasonable supply. [Some reviews foresee a shortage, with shipments going to OEMs as a priority.]
Here's my shoppin' list of dreams:
* Must have PCI-X slots for a hardware RAID5 solution.
* Must have a dual-GPU solution, and preferably nVidia.
* Prefer 8-cycle voltage regulation.
I've looked at the Intel "Bad-Axe," but I see it only has two PCI slots -- and no PCI-X.
I'm lookin' at the P5WDG2-WS, which also has an i-975X chipset. It meets the first and third requirement.
However, nVidia's compatibility list for the 7950 GX2 dual-GPU (single PCI-E card) only includes the Bad-Axe (i975X). But the list notes that the boards in the list are the only ones for which tests have been performed (so far.) We've experienced this phenomenon before with memory compatibility lists -- a compatible memory module isn't listed, because it "wasn't tested."
I want to implement hardware RAID5 with a controller's own XOR engine. You might think this won't make much of a difference, since we're talking about a dual-core CPU anyway, but I'd like to "go after every grain of rice" on this build without complete bankruptcy. RAID5 should save me the cost of a fourth drive over a "0+1" solution, and reduce power consumption a little.
I don't want to do "Cross-Fire." The 7950 GX2 graphics cards are supposed to be -- at the moment -- the fastest single-card options available. The card falls a few points short of a dual-card 7900 GTX SLI solution, but is just short of double in performance over a single 7900 GTX. I also suspect that there would be some incremental power consumption savings with a dual-GPU single card option as opposed to a dual-card SLI, but that's mostly an intuitive guess. Anyway, KISS -- simple is best.
Any observations that might help me avoid misery and frustration -- are encouraged.
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