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Intel G33/G35, onboard video, and PCI-E 16x RAID card

E

erwos

Diamond Member
So, this is a weird one, but here we go.

I'm spec'ing a file server build, and wanted to use integrated video (G33/G35-based) to save a bit of money. I was planning on using a PCIe-16x RAID card to handle some of the hard drives. Will this work? I was under the, perhaps mistaken, impression that the G33 couldn't use onboard video while operating the PCIe 16x slot.
 
Entirely BIOS dependent. Technically there is no reason the hardware can't do it, leaving only the motherboard manufacturers design choices.
 
Originally posted by: tcsenter
Entirely BIOS dependent. Technically there is no reason the hardware can't do it, leaving only the motherboard manufacturers design choices.
Click to expand...
I can think of one possible hardware issue: depending on how the on-board video is "wired", it might be using the same 16 PCIe lanes as the slot. I'll check some manuals, I suppose.
 
My guess is probably not.

Bios support is already quite flaky with X38/P35 and using the X16 slot for a raid card.

P5W64 ftw.
 
It looks like the DG33TLM's manual spells it out for the G33 chipset (and I'm guessing it's no different than the G35). If I've got anything but a PCIe 1x card in there, my on-board video goes away. Too bad.

I don't necessarily need video (it's going to run WHS), as I could do everything and then install the RAID card using VNC/rdesktop, but then again, the motherboard might not boot without some sort of graphics adapter. Grr.
 
Originally posted by: erwos
I can think of one possible hardware issue: depending on how the on-board video is "wired", it might be using the same 16 PCIe lanes as the slot.
Click to expand...
That would probably be a design choice, as the integrated video should have its own dedicated internal bus. There are lots of motherboards, with or without IGP, that aren't explicitly intended to have anything else in the PEG slot except a display adapter.
 
Originally posted by: Yoxxy
That is usually what happens with these boards. What is your budget?
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Fairly large ($1500). I just didn't want to have yet another component that could fail, and I can find a better use for $30-$50. If the Phenom X4 drops heavily in price, this might not even be an issue anyways.

And, yes, I know I don't need a quad-core for just serving files. This is going to do a bit more than that.
 
Why my I ask do you need that 16x for RAID anyways?

You plan on running a dozen 15k drives in RAID 0 or something for streaming video? 😀
 
It's a 4-lane card running on the PCI-E 16x bus. It only has 4 SATA ports on it, and I'm not planning on using the RAID part (I'm going to use WHS).

Essentially, I want a single box that can run home automation, media center (to three extenders simultaneously), transcode, and serve up files. WHS can't do the media center part yet, but I have no problems upgrading to the version that can when it comes out (the next version ought to be based on Server 2008/Vista). Unfortunately, that's a set of tasks which really would do better with more cores, more RAM, and more disk IO.
 
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