mATX nForce4 SLI board?

[R3MF]

there are now at least three mATX boards that even enthusiasts are raving over:
> Antec Aria (Aria2?)
> Silverstone SG01
> Aspire Q-pack

so where are the motherboards that enthusiasts who rave over mATX would love to install?

When will the likes of DFI/MSI/Abit/Asus make an nForce4 SLI mATX board?

it would also be handy for Workstation users who want a 3-4 screen setup.

what i am talking about is:

> nForce4 SLI chipset
> 4x Dimm slots
> 4x SATA 2/300MB slots
> 2x PCI-E 16x slots
> 2x PCI-E 1x slots
> vDimm and vCore adjustments
> AMD X2 support

cheers

R3MF

 

[BlingBlingArsch]

http://www.hardocp.com/image.html?image...UxNDYzNGZUVmRnd1Y3M01fMV8xNF9sLmpwZw==
Shuttle SLI-Barebones SN26P...coming soon...maybe

 

[R3MF]

cheers, but not interested. proprietary video cards installed at factory, and no other expansion slots.

what i want is mATX.

 

[Tostada]

That's ridiculous.

SLI boards are like the Dodge Viper. They have an extremely limited market, and even at relatively high prices they aren't practical for companies that are geared towards high volume mass production. They mostly exist as an image boosting performance flagship. They're a niche product, and you're suggesting making an uber-niche version for the fraction of SLI users who would like to cram their system into a tiny case.

Even if that market did exist, how are you going to make it fit? Look at the back of a mATX case. There are four slots. Now look at an SLI board. The PCI-E x16 slots have two empty slots between them, and the cards people use in SLI boards usually take a full two slots by themselves. You would have to remove every slot from the board except the two x16 slots, and then you still have to put them closer together than current SLI boards do. So, you're stuck without expansion, you're using onboard sound forever, and you're going to have major heat/ventilation problems. And then you're saying you want even more features on the board like four memory slots, which is pretty rare on mATX boards.

Are there any mATX cases that can actually deal with that kind of heat?

 

[R3MF]

SLI is coming down in price rapidly due to the advent of crossfire.

does the bridge span over one or two empty slots?

there are very many single-slot cooling solutions for 6800GT's, and i imagine the 7800GT will be the same.

regardless of the above, i could see a use for two PCI-E 16x slots if only to enable a 4 monitor display for workstation purposes.........?

you have to admit tho, a Silverstone SG01 mATX case with 7800GT cards, an ageia PPU, and a CL X-fi soundcard would be ace when teamed up with an A64 X2 4800+?

 

[Tostada]

The bridge comes with the motherboard, so it's made for whatever distance the motherboard has between x16 slots.

I'm sure it'd work fine with 6800GT's ... it's just that you really want it to work with the highest-end cards, or else it becomes extremely impractical. An SLI board that only uses the 2nd-best video card probably isn't going to catch on. Not that it wouldn't be cool.

The whole 4-monitor thing might be nice. I hope they'll start making some x4 video cards for secondary video, because PCI isn't going to last forever. My current system has 3 monitors and I just use a dual-head PCI GeForce 4 for the screens to the left/right of my main one. It doesn't matter to me because I only use the extra screens for text, but it's a little sad that there aren't really any better solutions.

 

[R3MF]

the difference between a 6800GT and a 6800U is not huge, but importantly a 2x 6800GT is quite a bit faster than a single 6800U.

why have a 4x slot that requires a 4x Card when you could just use an SLI board in non-bridged mode? there is no imperative any more to have a set number/type of different expansion slots as PCI-E can be configured any way you want, and the number of SLI boards vastly exceeds the number of boards that ship with a PCI-E 4x slot.

better still, a X16 slot can quite happily operate a 1x/4x/8x/12x card, so the argument for SLI in mATX is pretty compelling as it actually increases the flexibility of a inherently limited system.

 

[imported_Kensai]

~Heat
~Power
~Space

 

[Remedy]

Well, the only I can think of that comes close to mATX is the Albatron K8SLI. Which is 2 293x198 mm. In inches, it's 11.5x7.8. mATX is 9x9.

If you're good at metal & dremel. Design a chassis around the 11.5x7.8

 

[BlingBlingArsch]

Originally posted by: R3MF
what i want is mATX.

find 19999 other ppl who want mAtx&Sli; if u come theyll build it.

 

[R3MF]

that is the whole point of this thread, there are now at least enthusiast level mATX cases which i have mentioned above, but when said enthusiasts search around for an enthusiast level motherboard to install they find themselves limited to a multitude of mediocre Via chipsets, and crippled nForce3/4 chipsets.

give us an ENTHUSIAST board!

 

[rktmn247]

I agree! I'm getting real tired of hearing the same argument about heat and power ... blah... blah... blah. When we talk about mATX people need to think beyond the typical SFF/Shuttle. I have a mATX tower case that takes a full size power supply, can hold four 3.5 hard drives internal, two 3.5 external, two external 5.25, came with one case fan in the rear, and has a duct in the side for the cpu cooler. Motherboard makers need to get busy and give us what we want; an ENTHUSIAST mATX board! I really do not want to go back to a ATX tower. I do not expect to pay a budget price for a full featured mATX board and I'm sure others that are looking for this kind of board will agree.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Originally posted by: rktmn247
I agree! I'm getting real tired of hearing the same argument about heat and power ... blah... blah... blah. When we talk about mATX people need to think beyond the typical SFF/Shuttle. I have a mATX tower case that takes a full size power supply, can hold four 3.5 hard drives internal, two 3.5 external, two external 5.25, came with one case fan in the rear, and has a duct in the side for the cpu cooler. Motherboard makers need to get busy and give us what we want; an ENTHUSIAST mATX board! I really do not want to go back to a ATX tower. I do not expect to pay a budget price for a full featured mATX board and I'm sure others that are looking for this kind of board will agree.

I have a good idea. Start your own company and design one for us. Unless you get around 50,000+ people to petition a company to make one, chances are that they're not going to make one.

 

[BlingBlingArsch]

yep, even shuttle only sells about 400.000 sff units per year. but still R3MF is requesting somethin obvious, i mean theres all kind of sh1t getting produced but why no sff sli boards? thats a legitimate question, especially when companies like shuttle claim to offer sff for gamers. if i was a rich fukc i would want one of these.

 

[Tostada]

Originally posted by: R3MF
that is the whole point of this thread, there are now at least enthusiast level mATX cases which i have mentioned above, but when said enthusiasts search around for an enthusiast level motherboard to install they find themselves limited to a multitude of mediocre Via chipsets, and crippled nForce3/4 chipsets.

give us an ENTHUSIAST board!

"Enthusiast" is a rather vague term. Someone like myself can be an ehthusiast and not even play many games and therefore have absolutely no interest in an SLI board.

Are the cases you mentioned entusiast cases? Maybe yes, maybe no, but they sure as hell aren't cases that you would want to stick an SLI board in, even if a mATX one did exist. They're just well made good looking mATX cases. The Aria has a 300W PSU. It's not even a 24-pin ATX 2.0 PSU. It's a good case and a good PSU, but it's not suitable for the best CPU and best video card in it, and certainly not SLI.

 

[Tostada]

Originally posted by: rktmn247
I agree! I'm getting real tired of hearing the same argument about heat and power ... blah... blah... blah. When we talk about mATX people need to think beyond the typical SFF/Shuttle. I have a mATX tower case that takes a full size power supply, can hold four 3.5 hard drives internal, two 3.5 external, two external 5.25, came with one case fan in the rear, and has a duct in the side for the cpu cooler. Motherboard makers need to get busy and give us what we want; an ENTHUSIAST mATX board! I really do not want to go back to a ATX tower. I do not expect to pay a budget price for a full featured mATX board and I'm sure others that are looking for this kind of board will agree.

SFF Shuttles are not mATX. They're smaller than that. It's not a valid comparison.

There are plenty decent mATX boards. There are some Socket 939 NF4 mATX boards, and there is an absolute ton of Intel PCI-X mATX boards.

The real problem is that high-end video cards are huge and generate more heat than the CPU. The entire idea of taking something more complex than your CPU and sticking it on an expansion card is pretty bad. You're suggesting using mATX boards with high-end video cards, which is pretty ridiculous because mATX is almost identical to ATX except it cuts down on the space given to the expansion slots, and that area is already a major problem as far as heat and airflow are concerned.

Seriously. Think about it. An SLI board is the absolute last thing you would want to make into a mATX board. You shouldn't be trying to cram two 6800 Ultras into a 2-inch space.

 

[rktmn247]

I agree that SFF/Shuttles are not mATX. My point was that mATX does not have the same cooling and power issues, illistrated by the description of my case and it's features. I also believe that SLI in mATX is probably pushing the limit due to the lack of space for expansion slots. By enthusiast I mean overclocking options and full features for example:

sata II, firewire, gig lan, 4 dimm slots capable of 4 gig, 3 fan headers

Those are some things I would be looking for. I have the Jetway mATX 939 board and Asus mATX 478 board in my current systems. Have also tried 3 other 478 mATX boards that were not very good. Still looking though!

 

[Tostada]

Originally posted by: rktmn247
By enthusiast I mean overclocking options and full features for example:

sata II, firewire, gig lan, 4 dimm slots capable of 4 gig, 3 fan headers

In that case, I definitely do agree with you. If there were mATX versions of the LanParty line, my main PC would be mATX. Since modern $50 DVD burners have finally gotten to the point that they are actaully suitable rip DVDs at a good speed and are also decent CD rippers/burners, there's just no reason for me to have a case with more than two 5.25" bays, and hard drives are big enough that I don't have 4 hard drives in my system just for more capacity.

 

[REMF]

it would be nice to have an SLI board if only to use in a multi-monitor workstation setup, i.e. merely two videocards rather than two SLI'ed videocards.

i personally wouldn't touch the the Aria or the Xpack, but i would love a high-end mATX board to stick in a Silverstone SG01.

imagine the fun:
a 7800GT powering a Dell 2405screen
and
a passively cooled 7600 running two Dell 1905FP in flanking positions either side of the main widescreen.
how cool would that be?

and while i agree you would not sensibly put two 6800U cards in a SG01, i should think the case would cope admirably with two 7800GT's........?

i quite like the Foxconn nForce4 motherboard, but where is the Gig-E and hardware firewall? where is my NCQ and SATA 300?

sort it out DFI/Abit/Asus/MSI!

 

[Remedy]

Originally posted by: REMF
it would be nice to have an SLI board if only to use in a multi-monitor workstation setup, i.e. merely two videocards rather than two SLI'ed videocards.

i personally wouldn't touch the the Aria or the Xpack, but i would love a high-end mATX board to stick in a Silverstone SG01.

imagine the fun:
a 7800GT powering a Dell 2405screen
and
a passively cooled 7600 running two Dell 1905FP in flanking positions either side of the main widescreen.
how cool would that be?

and while i agree you would not sensibly put two 6800U cards in a SG01, i should think the case would cope admirably with two 7800GT's........?

i quite like the Foxconn nForce4 motherboard, but where is the Gig-E and hardware firewall? where is my NCQ and SATA 300?

sort it out DFI/Abit/Asus/MSI!

SG01. Twice the cost of Chenming 118, less cooling or options for cooling(the 120mm PSU is the only hope). Less drive capacity. Height restricted to heatsinks that's ~75mm.

It's a nice case esthically. But, other than that. It's dismal in features.

 

[R3MF]

yeah, maybe i'm getting picky in my old age. my current Shuttle SN25P/Dell 2005FPW/Altec Lansing 5100 speakers look sexy as hell sat on my desk right now. i could never again own something as ugly as a beige ATX tower or Aspire/Chenming thing.

 

[Treyshadow]

Good luck, but I would not expect to see something of this caliber this early in the life of SLI. Maybe in generation2 or 3.

And also most current water blocks would not allow the room to watercool 2 PCI-E cards in SLI. It would be space limited as they tried to cram in 1 1x slot.

Good luck with this one. I think a Dell 2405FPW with 2 2001FP's on the sides would be a nice combination with an SLI setup.

For now I'll stick to my SN25P

 

[R3MF]

the heat output needn't be a problem. 6800U's are not suitable to be used in SFF, especially in tandem due to the monstrous heat output, whereas 7800GT's should be very doable. is all it requires is a little common sense and a suppresion of latent cretinism.

and at the end of the day, there is no reason why a user could not stick a PCI-E 1x/4x card in the spare 16x slot.

having two 16x slots would actually increase the flexibility of a SFF PC.