X58 16x3 crossfire?

Fledge · 23 Jan 2009 at 22:18

I need a mobo for £250 tops that can support:
-Core i7
-Tri-channel RAM at least 6gb
-Three gfx cards in crossfire running ALL at their full 16x potential

Also, what case would you recommend for this mobo?
Antec 900-2 or 1200 would be nice, I haven't a clue about their dimensions though

Thanks!

willy · 23 Jan 2009 at 22:40

Gigabyte

I would go for 900-2

thevet · 24 Jan 2009 at 00:05

i think the only boards to run in true 16x3 is the asus ws professional and the asus revolution...but i looked at hardforum and kyle bennet did a test 16x8x8....16x16x16....the 16x8x8 came out faster believe it or not..go over there and see for yourself....true 16x3 boards have the new n200 chip on them to allow for higher bandwidth in all 3 lanes

Fledge · 24 Jan 2009 at 14:32

Thanks for the advice, and for replying

Shame about the prices but what did I expect? xD

willy · 24 Jan 2009 at 15:14

Unless just do x16 x16 x8 with Gigabyte or DFI both are great board and if you planning 3 gfx then i would get either one of them not P6T as for 3 gfx lack of space

Fledge · 26 Jan 2009 at 16:07

I'm a little concerned that a 900-2 won't have room for 3 chunky cards, imagine that i have 3 4870 x2's, would they all fit?

jambus · 26 Jan 2009 at 16:18

well, you wouldn't have three 4870x2's in so you can rule that off straight away

I have a GA-X58-UD4P and that could fit 3x280 GTX's in my silverstone TJ07 if that's any help

reflux · 26 Jan 2009 at 16:20

Do you really need three cards.....?

jambus · 26 Jan 2009 at 16:29

Three cards is awesome, if they're three Nvidia cards and you get a semi at the idea of playing crysis at high resolutions. Otherwise no, you dont

Fledge · 26 Jan 2009 at 17:22

Thanks for not answering my question

DeathTyrant · 26 Jan 2009 at 19:18

Will they fit? The 900 is a pretty big case, so it's not too far fetched.

However, as he said, you won't be able to use 3x ATI 4870X2 cards. You can only use two.
You can use 3 4870s though.

JediFragger · 26 Jan 2009 at 19:19

X58 only has a total of 36 PCI-Express lanes, so 3x16 is a no-no anyhow

w3bbo · 26 Jan 2009 at 20:24

JediFragger said:
X58 only has a total of 36 PCI-Express lanes, so 3x16 is a no-no anyhow

....unless the board incorporates the nf200 bridge chip (as with the P6T6 WS Revolution) which increase the amount of PCIe lanes significantly

.

jambus · 26 Jan 2009 at 21:15

Fledge said:
Thanks for not answering my question

I passively did

I said, my UD4P, which is X58 (supports I7 and therefore triple channel memory) is able to support triple SLI and it all fits nicely in my Silverstone Tj07

read between the lines friend

jambus · 26 Jan 2009 at 21:17

Also, with regards to all running at 16x, it really doesn't matter, 16x2 and 8x1 runs just as well from what I've heard. Someone around here even claimed it ran better!

w3bbo · 26 Jan 2009 at 21:25

The confusion stems from PCIe 1.x and 2.0. PCIe 1.x 16x is aproximately equal to PCIe2.0 8x. Most cards do not saturate the 8 lanes of PCIe 2.0 at present nevermind 16 lanes.

JediFragger · 26 Jan 2009 at 23:43

w3bbo said:
....unless the board incorporates the nf200 bridge chip (as with the P6T6 WS Revolution) which increase the amount of PCIe lanes significantly .

Yeah, you can keep the bridge-chip thanks

rikesh · 27 Jan 2009 at 20:16

there is that bloodrage foxconn
that has 4 pci e slots at x16 look it up