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Question about the new P55 Mobos

Zensal

Zensal

Senior member
In the pictures, it shows that there is a "northbridge" heatsink and a "southbridge" heatsink. I though that Lynnfield did away with the Northbridge and just had a southbridge.

So I guess my question is why are there 2 large heatsinks when there should only be one chip?
 
I guess it'll just makes me feel like I'm actually buying something on the motherboard.

These P55s should be pretty cheap considering there's not that much to them.
 
Originally posted by: Zensal
Article

The 9th picture down. The one that says it supports Lynnfield.
Click to expand...

It looks like Gigabyte added a Southbridge to add more PCIe 16X lanes and other options not provided by P55 itself.

If you actually look closely at all three of the Gigabyte boards, you'll start to see a couple of odd things...

GA-EP55-UD5 - what are those 4 chips next to RAM slots? It looks like RAM on the motherboard PCB... Is Gigabyte introducing some cache on their motherboards?

GA-EP55-UD3R and GA-EP55-UD4P - what is that little blue slot between the RAM slots and IDE connector.
 
Maybe they got an nVid NF200 chip to split the x16 lanes. The mem config on the first of those P55 boards is really strange as well.
But p55 has a traditional southbridge, its the actual P55 chip.
 
Originally posted by: ilkhan
Maybe they got an nVid NF200 chip to split the x16 lanes. The mem config on the first of those P55 boards is really strange as well.
But p55 has a traditional southbridge, its the actual P55 chip.
Click to expand...

The thing is that P55 doesn't really have enough PCIe lanes to merit splitting them up beyond two PEG slots, which would already run at 8x/8x. The Gigabyte high end and mid range boards both have three PEG slots total, which would have to run at a paltry 8x/4x/4x configuration. IMO, Gigabyte added more lanes or they are just wasting space on the motherboard with the extra PEG slot.
 
Originally posted by: nitromullet
If you actually look closely at all three of the Gigabyte boards, you'll start to see a couple of odd things...

GA-EP55-UD5 - what are those 4 chips next to RAM slots? It looks like RAM on the motherboard PCB... Is Gigabyte introducing some cache on their motherboards?

GA-EP55-UD3R and GA-EP55-UD4P - what is that little blue slot between the RAM slots and IDE connector.
Click to expand...

Answered my own question if anyone else is interested. http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=18721 I'm guessing that the GA-EP55-UD5 has Braidwood integrated into the motherboard already, which would explain the four chips and lack of slot.
 
Originally posted by: lopri
The new ICH (or PCH) supports up to 8 x PCIe 2.0 lanes.
Click to expand...

I thought that the 16 PCIe 2.0 lanes for the gpu were provided by the cpu itself, and not the PCH. However, it was possible to add more lanes to the system via an ICH (third party?) that connected to the PCH.

edit: or are you saying that the CPU provides 16 lanes, and the PCH provides an additional 8?
 
IIRC, the Lynnfield CPU is directly linked to 3 things.

The GPU, via 16 PCI-E 2.0 lanes.
The memory, via dual channel controller.
And lastly the PCH, which has a 2.0 GB/s DMI link. Equivalent to 4x PCI-E.

So it would be impossible to add more lanes beyond the extra 4x that is built in. And it would have to be shared with the HDD, USB, etc.
 
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