I'm going to build a system using either the Asus CUBX or the MSI BXMaster motherboard. Before I begin with specific questions, I'm interested in hearing your feedback as to which you would recommend and why. I know both are pretty solid boards, but I'd value the input of people who use these boards day in, day out.
My concern stems from the fact that the CUBX board has, as stated in Anandtech's Intel 440BX 133MHz Motherboard Roundup (www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1250&p=9), essentially only 4 usable PCI slots. The CUBX's PIIX4e South Bridge supports only 5 PCI bus master devices; the 6th PCI slot is a slave. Furthermore, the 5th PCI slot is a slave because the on-board CMD 648 Ultra DMA 66 controller acts as a bus master PCI device. My system will have two NICs, a modem, and a sound card. Are all of these PCI cards bus master devices? If not, which ones could I put into the 5th and 6th PCI slots in the case the I need to throw in another card in the future? The BXMaster, by the way, has a PCI arbiter chip which allows all 6 of its PCI slots to support bus master devices.
If I'm stuck with putting all of my cards in the first four PCI slots of the CUBX board, my main concern becomes IRQs. According to the same article noted above, the AGP slot can share an IRQ with the first or second PCI slots, the third and sixth PCI slots share an IRQ, and the fourth and fifth PCI slots share an IRQ. Is it the case that I don't want often used PCI cards to share IRQs? (What would happen if two often used PCI cards share an IRQ?) If this is the case, would the best setup be to have the modem, which would be the least used PCI card in my system, occupy the first or second PCI slot, the sound card the first or second slot, and the two NICs the third and fourth slots? Would any of this change if I decide not to include the sound card? (this is a possiblity as I really don't need a sound card for this system)
Thanks for your input.
My concern stems from the fact that the CUBX board has, as stated in Anandtech's Intel 440BX 133MHz Motherboard Roundup (www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1250&p=9), essentially only 4 usable PCI slots. The CUBX's PIIX4e South Bridge supports only 5 PCI bus master devices; the 6th PCI slot is a slave. Furthermore, the 5th PCI slot is a slave because the on-board CMD 648 Ultra DMA 66 controller acts as a bus master PCI device. My system will have two NICs, a modem, and a sound card. Are all of these PCI cards bus master devices? If not, which ones could I put into the 5th and 6th PCI slots in the case the I need to throw in another card in the future? The BXMaster, by the way, has a PCI arbiter chip which allows all 6 of its PCI slots to support bus master devices.
If I'm stuck with putting all of my cards in the first four PCI slots of the CUBX board, my main concern becomes IRQs. According to the same article noted above, the AGP slot can share an IRQ with the first or second PCI slots, the third and sixth PCI slots share an IRQ, and the fourth and fifth PCI slots share an IRQ. Is it the case that I don't want often used PCI cards to share IRQs? (What would happen if two often used PCI cards share an IRQ?) If this is the case, would the best setup be to have the modem, which would be the least used PCI card in my system, occupy the first or second PCI slot, the sound card the first or second slot, and the two NICs the third and fourth slots? Would any of this change if I decide not to include the sound card? (this is a possiblity as I really don't need a sound card for this system)
Thanks for your input.
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