- May 11, 2008
- 25
- 0
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Hi folks, I am a pilot and flight simulation experimentalist building an advanced set-up for student training. Last year I bought a Gigabyte Quad Royal motherboard which was (and still is to my knowledge) the only "monsterboard" to date that has had 4 PCE-E slots (two 8x slots, and two x16 slots) Unfortunately when using 4 video cards in this (all non SLI) they run at 8x bandwidth each. Furthermore I can only use "skinny" cards like 7800 or 7900 GTX 256mb due to space constraints between the 4 video card slots for airflow.
Because of poor framerates I eventually had to drop back to just 2 more powerful 7900 GTX 512mb video cards and retained 4 monitor outputs (3 widescreen LCD's for aircraft instrumentation an a overhead projector for my main view) This is all done via Nvidia "dual view" settings at the max allowable resolution for each device. (card 1 supports 2 LCD's, and card 2 supports 1 LCD and 1 projector)
I now use slots 1 & 3 on the motherboard which again only yields an 8x bandwidth for each video card. If I was to use the center #2 & #3 x16 slots then both of these massive heat-pipe cooled cards would be sandwiched right against one another and thus the #2 slotted card would get no airflow and would most likely become damaged at some point. Water cooling has been a thought for some time but I am not really ready for the mess or large expense to do what would be necessary for my simulator station and at the same time I really do not know if I would even get the full use of the 16x bandwidth in non SLI mode if using the two center x16 slots as i don't know about my video card capability to use that much headroom. However I do want to make a system that will use it both in PCI-E capability as well as video card capability. ( I want to see frost on the wingtips man !!!!!)
To get to the meat and potatoes of this post I am looking for any ample motherboard (and most likely last years socket 775 and 680i and or any Nforce 4 chipset board for cost savings) for which must have at least 2 (and preferrably 3) widely spaced PCI-E slots that will each truly function at x16 bandwidth in NON SLI MODE as again I am looking to output 4 or even 5 monitor views using 2 or 3 video cards. If there happens to be any motherboard that does support 4 or more independant monitor outputs while in SLI mode (or non SLI) at full 16x then I don't know of it and are there any available that will support even 3 PCI-E video cards at full 16x bandwidth? (again either at 16x in non SLI or 16x with the SLI bridge.)
Therefore I would also like some SLI bandwidth use clarification here (as I'm sure many of us still do) on what exactly are the video bandwidth limitations of both SLI and non SLI use? Ideally I want each video card to have access to the full x16 bandwidth whenever needed and how it gets up there is the big question! (Again, while I demand high framerates I also don't want to spend senseless money on things that may only help " a little bit")
For instance lets say Im using just one 7900gtx video card in an x16 slot. Does the card then run at 16x bandwidth with one monitor? If I add a second monitor to that card is each monitor effectively using only 8x each? OR can I only get the bandwith increase by adding the second video card to another x16 slot, connect and enable SLI, and just use one monitor output over the two cards?
I know there are some new "X32" motherboards out there (Abit, Fatality, Asus Extreme) that are supposed to provide full 16x bandwidth to the video cards in SLI mode but would this also be true for my plan of 2 cards /4 monitors in a non SLI configuration, or are there any motherboards that will run 3 cards with 4-6 independant monitors via nvidia dual view settings and with the SLI enabled too? Again this all has to be geared for the simulator purpose I have in mind!
At the end of the day I am truly looking for any motherboard with three (3) PCI-E x16 slots that will each run at full 16x in non SLI (or even SLI if able) so that 2 video cards will support 4 monitors for displaying my aircraft flight instruments and a third video card that will just feed my overhead projector which displays my main exterior view. Thus this 3rd card with only one monitor should have 16x all to itself as it will constantly display the most 3-D extertior view data.
Once I have built this new system I will soon build a duplicate machine to run another 4 monitors for the added exterior left/right 45/90 degree side views. So whatever motherboard I choose now really needs to be THE RIGHT ONE! Im also not quite ready to go with the newest quad supported 780i motherboards such as the Dq6 for example as I am looking to still use my existing P-D chip, (or a core2duo perhaps) my existing DDR-2 ram, and 7900gtx video cards for now. I know there are some motherbaords from this past year that could fit the bill at a right price point but I just don't know which ones to look for.
So after reading all this please help answer my SLI / bandwidth/x16 support questions first and secondly please direct me to ANY motherboards out there (last years models or this years...) that will fit the bill for my 3 video card /5 monitor project.
--And if you really don't know your facts on the SLI/x16 subject PLEASE don't speculate here. I'm looking for professional answers and real facts here as this is not just some gaming rig, but is going to be built for actual professional training useage and is therefore very important that I build this system the right way from taxi to rollout.
Thanks in advance people!!!!
OUR CURRENT FLIGHT RIG :
MOBO -- Gigabyte Quad Royal
TWR -- Thermaltake Xaser III
PSU -- BFG 1,000 watt
CHIP -- Pentium D 3.4ghz/800 emt 64 enabled
O.S. -- Windows XP (x64 professional) --works like a dream!
RAM -- 4 gigs DDR2 (4x 1024) OCZ Gold 667
HDD -- 2 x 250 MAXTOR in RAID STRIPE (two heads are better than one!)
HDD - 1 x 350 back-up storage/media drive
V-CARDS -- 2 x BFG 7900gtx 512mb (running at 8x each in non SLI)
LCD's -- 3 Benq 20" widescreen (and a projector)
FS Platform -- Flight Sim 2004 , and FS-X.
150 custom modified aircraft.
2 seat multi-engine simulator station.
80+ addtional tactile cockpit controls.
1 large coffemaker.
Cost.... (alot !)
Because of poor framerates I eventually had to drop back to just 2 more powerful 7900 GTX 512mb video cards and retained 4 monitor outputs (3 widescreen LCD's for aircraft instrumentation an a overhead projector for my main view) This is all done via Nvidia "dual view" settings at the max allowable resolution for each device. (card 1 supports 2 LCD's, and card 2 supports 1 LCD and 1 projector)
I now use slots 1 & 3 on the motherboard which again only yields an 8x bandwidth for each video card. If I was to use the center #2 & #3 x16 slots then both of these massive heat-pipe cooled cards would be sandwiched right against one another and thus the #2 slotted card would get no airflow and would most likely become damaged at some point. Water cooling has been a thought for some time but I am not really ready for the mess or large expense to do what would be necessary for my simulator station and at the same time I really do not know if I would even get the full use of the 16x bandwidth in non SLI mode if using the two center x16 slots as i don't know about my video card capability to use that much headroom. However I do want to make a system that will use it both in PCI-E capability as well as video card capability. ( I want to see frost on the wingtips man !!!!!)
To get to the meat and potatoes of this post I am looking for any ample motherboard (and most likely last years socket 775 and 680i and or any Nforce 4 chipset board for cost savings) for which must have at least 2 (and preferrably 3) widely spaced PCI-E slots that will each truly function at x16 bandwidth in NON SLI MODE as again I am looking to output 4 or even 5 monitor views using 2 or 3 video cards. If there happens to be any motherboard that does support 4 or more independant monitor outputs while in SLI mode (or non SLI) at full 16x then I don't know of it and are there any available that will support even 3 PCI-E video cards at full 16x bandwidth? (again either at 16x in non SLI or 16x with the SLI bridge.)
Therefore I would also like some SLI bandwidth use clarification here (as I'm sure many of us still do) on what exactly are the video bandwidth limitations of both SLI and non SLI use? Ideally I want each video card to have access to the full x16 bandwidth whenever needed and how it gets up there is the big question! (Again, while I demand high framerates I also don't want to spend senseless money on things that may only help " a little bit")
For instance lets say Im using just one 7900gtx video card in an x16 slot. Does the card then run at 16x bandwidth with one monitor? If I add a second monitor to that card is each monitor effectively using only 8x each? OR can I only get the bandwith increase by adding the second video card to another x16 slot, connect and enable SLI, and just use one monitor output over the two cards?
I know there are some new "X32" motherboards out there (Abit, Fatality, Asus Extreme) that are supposed to provide full 16x bandwidth to the video cards in SLI mode but would this also be true for my plan of 2 cards /4 monitors in a non SLI configuration, or are there any motherboards that will run 3 cards with 4-6 independant monitors via nvidia dual view settings and with the SLI enabled too? Again this all has to be geared for the simulator purpose I have in mind!
At the end of the day I am truly looking for any motherboard with three (3) PCI-E x16 slots that will each run at full 16x in non SLI (or even SLI if able) so that 2 video cards will support 4 monitors for displaying my aircraft flight instruments and a third video card that will just feed my overhead projector which displays my main exterior view. Thus this 3rd card with only one monitor should have 16x all to itself as it will constantly display the most 3-D extertior view data.
Once I have built this new system I will soon build a duplicate machine to run another 4 monitors for the added exterior left/right 45/90 degree side views. So whatever motherboard I choose now really needs to be THE RIGHT ONE! Im also not quite ready to go with the newest quad supported 780i motherboards such as the Dq6 for example as I am looking to still use my existing P-D chip, (or a core2duo perhaps) my existing DDR-2 ram, and 7900gtx video cards for now. I know there are some motherbaords from this past year that could fit the bill at a right price point but I just don't know which ones to look for.
So after reading all this please help answer my SLI / bandwidth/x16 support questions first and secondly please direct me to ANY motherboards out there (last years models or this years...) that will fit the bill for my 3 video card /5 monitor project.
--And if you really don't know your facts on the SLI/x16 subject PLEASE don't speculate here. I'm looking for professional answers and real facts here as this is not just some gaming rig, but is going to be built for actual professional training useage and is therefore very important that I build this system the right way from taxi to rollout.
Thanks in advance people!!!!
OUR CURRENT FLIGHT RIG :
MOBO -- Gigabyte Quad Royal
TWR -- Thermaltake Xaser III
PSU -- BFG 1,000 watt
CHIP -- Pentium D 3.4ghz/800 emt 64 enabled
O.S. -- Windows XP (x64 professional) --works like a dream!
RAM -- 4 gigs DDR2 (4x 1024) OCZ Gold 667
HDD -- 2 x 250 MAXTOR in RAID STRIPE (two heads are better than one!)
HDD - 1 x 350 back-up storage/media drive
V-CARDS -- 2 x BFG 7900gtx 512mb (running at 8x each in non SLI)
LCD's -- 3 Benq 20" widescreen (and a projector)
FS Platform -- Flight Sim 2004 , and FS-X.
150 custom modified aircraft.
2 seat multi-engine simulator station.
80+ addtional tactile cockpit controls.
1 large coffemaker.
Cost.... (alot !)