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Micro atx with 2 x pcie 16x ports?

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I have been looking at http://www.prisjakt.nu/produkt.php?p=465419 and http://www.prisjakt.nu/produkt.php?p=517759. As you can see there is pci-e then another pci-e/pci and then another pci-e. The ud6 has that 'third pcie with space between', but not the others. I think I need at least one slot between the gpu and the soundcard. Also I read a few reviews and found http://www.trustedreviews.com/mothe...04/Asus-P7P55D-E-Premium-Motherboard/comments where the guy talks about he asus board.

"The PLX chip. This chip essentially creates a secondary PCI-E Gen 2.0 16x lane in order to provide additional bandwidth to both S-ATA and USB 3.0. This is the reason that the native PCI-E 16x is left alone.

This board is special. That it supports both S-ATA 3.0 and USB 3.0, and with the PLX chip, it means that your primary graphics card will still run at PCI-E 16x this is one thing ASUS has over Gigabyte usb3 6gb sata motherboards. BUT REMEMBER THE Asus P7P55D-E does not have the PLX chip only the higher models"

I cant find any info on a 'plx' chip on asus´s site though.
 
You're right about there not being too much difference cpu-wise between P55 and X58, but the cpu is not really the issue. The reason people are advising X58 is because of the lack of pci-e 2.0 lanes on P55 when running 2 cards. P55 offers 16 pci-e 2.0 lanes for graphics cards. When running 2 cards this gets split to 2x 8 lanes so there's less bandwidth available.

X58 on the other hand has 36 pci-e 2.0 lanes, meaning that 2 graphics cards can run at full x16 lanes bandwidth with lanes to spare. Now, normally I don't consider this a big deal, because even a GTX480, which is the fastest single gpu card atm, is only marginally affected by running at x8. In your case though this might be different, that few percent less performance could be the difference between 100+ and 100-.
 
Ah, good I´m getting the only p55 mobo that has 2 16x then ;-)

THats the magic of the plx chip. Besides, I think I pasted earlier in this thread that actually 8x is faster in sli, at least according to hardocp and someone else pasted also link claiming the same. Thanks for your input though coffee. Funny thing about anandtech is that whenever I read a hardware review ( I dont really do that often ) I´m wanting in most of the cases unless its a hardware review. I guess there´s a reason there has been such a great response to this thread, which I really appreciate. Thanks for all your input guys. Im gonna post some pics when I have my badboy up and running.
 
ps: I have a 2.6 i5 running at 3.7 so either way, with 2 x 480s im gonna be 100fps + 🙂 I´m pretty close even now, its just, well my hobby and I want perfect stuff . I used to be top notch in fps (q1 and then later, to some degree q3) and if I decide to become good, I´m really gonna go for it 🙂
 
I read the manual and you were right. Some review fooled me. THe pci-e ports do operate at 8x when running sli/cf. Not that it matters for me.
 
Well, if you want to be good at modern fps my advice is: put all settings to low and make sure not to use anti-aliasing. But set anisotrophic filtering to 16x. This will make it easier to spot enemies and saves a lot of money as well. But I guess that's not an option.

Lynnfield cpu's have a built in pci-e controller with 16 pci-e lanes. No amount of multiplexing chips can change this. If you're close already with 1 gtx480 it shouldn't be an issue though. A second card will definately show good scaling even though it only has 8 lanes to operate on. The Hardocp test refers to 2 cards, 1 in a x16 slot and 1 in a x8 slot. Apparently it's better than x16/x16.

My advice on the mobo would be GA-P55A-UD4. Has everything you need.
 
coffeejunkee said:
Well, if you want to be good at modern fps my advice is: put all settings to low and make sure not to use anti-aliasing. But set anisotrophic filtering to 16x. This will make it easier to spot enemies and saves a lot of money as well. But I guess that's not an option.

Lynnfield cpu's have a built in pci-e controller with 16 pci-e lanes. No amount of multiplexing chips can change this. If you're close already with 1 gtx480 it shouldn't be an issue though. A second card will definately show good scaling even though it only has 8 lanes to operate on. The Hardocp test refers to 2 cards, 1 in a x16 slot and 1 in a x8 slot. Apparently it's better than x16/x16.

My advice on the mobo would be GA-P55A-UD4. Has everything you need.
Click to expand...

As always I cherish your advise. The ud4 however doesnt have room for 480´s in sli and my asus essence stx pci-e soundcard.

Besides, that asus board seems good value for the money. Ofc you are right and those motherboards might be better than this, but it also comes down to money. Thats another cpu (?), ram (?) and about 400euros+. Like you said, the performance boost I will have will be quite sufficient.
 
Ok I went ahead and did it.

Now the proud owner of a p7p55d-e pro, a p183, 6 gigs of ram, asus essence stx, 2 badboys named asus 480 gtx 1, and gigabyte 480 gtx 2 and up and running. Just wanted to say "Thank you!" to all who pitched in, I appreciate your advice a lot!
 
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