MSI K9N Platinum -> SLi?

[996GT2]

I was wondering if the MSI K9N Platinum could be modded to do SLi like the DFI Ultra-D boards. The board has TWO PCIe X16 type slots, but the second slot runs at PCIe X1 speed. Anybody know if there is a way to mod the chipset to allow the board to do X8/X8 SLi? Or is the second slot stuck at X1 speeds?

Board layout:
http://www.legionhardware.com/Pics/MSI_K9N_Platinum/Image_05.jpg

Chipset:
http://www.legionhardware.com/Pics/MSI_K9N_Platinum/Image_01.jpg

 

[996GT2]

bump

 

[acegazda]

I was wondering the same thing. I think I saw somewhere that the bottom pci-e slot (yellow) is actually a pci-e x1 slot. I don't know why they would do that... I don't think it's like the dfi ultra-d, but I could be mistaken. That would be cool.

 

[Lord Evermore]

The second slot is physically x16, but is only x1 electrically. It's moderately more useful than just having an extra x1 slot, because it means you can plug in any card up to an x16 and it will usually work. PCIe cards are supposed to be able to negotiate lanes with the chipset, so the chipset will notify any card that it only has 1 lane of bandwidth, and the card's chip disables all its extra lanes. It makes it easier to upgrade and get rid of PCI cards, because you're not limited to only cards with a physical x1 design. You can buy a card with an x4, x8 or x16 connector and use it, and simply be running at the lower x1 bandwidth.

You can plug a video card into the slot, and it ought to negotiate down to the x1 bandwidth (which is equal to about AGP2X), but performance will suffer. MSI lists cards which they have tested in the manual.

The 570Ultra probably is just a modification of the SLI, to disable the extra x8 lanes, but nvidia probably learned their lesson about sending out chipsets which can be modded just by bridging a contact or putting in a resistor.