consumer motherboard w/ PCI-X?

[hashpuppy]

what would be a good consumer grade motherboard that has PCI-X?
DDR-400/FSB800, USB2, 3ghz+ p4 are must haves.

why is PCI-X so scarce (invisible) for consumer products?

thanks

 

[Peter]

None. Simply because no consumer grade chipset has PCI-X support.

You have a slight chance on AMD64 architecture, since chipsets here are fully modular - any board maker can choose to slap AMD's own PCI-X tunnel chip onto a mainboard with any random chipset. Also, since AMD64 chipsets are universal regarding the processor configuration, any board maker can choose to offer whatever I/O busses for any CPU setup - from a plain Athlon-64 to an eight-processor Opteron rig.

On the Intel front, it'll have to be a server grade chipset, rarely seen on single-CPU consumer grade boards. E7505 or ServerWorks Grand Champion WS chipsets are what you need, then.

 

[kmmatney]

Is PCI-X the same as PCI 64-bit/66 MHz? In that case, the lowest priced board I've seen is the CHAINTECH 7KDD AMD for $182. I bought one for work a few weeks ago. The first board went dead after 2 weeks of use, but the 2nd board has been running OK. Overall, I didn't like Chaintech too much (see my NewEgg review) but everything is now working and it does have PCI 64-bit slots.

Edit - Oops. Didn't see that you wanted for P4... Things start out with a $289 Tyan MB and go up from there...

 

[hashpuppy]

I think so, PCI-X 1.0 defines 66mhz and 133mhz buses. I'm looking for 133 though. May have to wait a while, it seems.

 

[Vette73]

I think some of the Athlon FX, Opteron boards have this already. Check out tyan

 

[Peter]

PCI-X is one step beyond 64-bit/66 MHz PCI. It's 64-bit, and the frequency is from 133 down to 66 MHz, depending on how many devices are present on each bus - the more, the slower. PCI-X equipped mainboards have at least two PCI-X busses, so that's a LOT more bandwidth than the previous generation boards with one 64-bit/66-MHz PCI bus.