X58 Multiple PCI slots

[dazzerd]

I know all the rage is for all new mobos to have multiple pci express slots. However I want to upgarde to x58 but have 3 pci cards, a good soundcard, a good pci tuner and a wireless card. As such I need a board which has 3 accesible pci slots and can acommodate a double width grahpics cards.

I don't hold out much luck I know. I have looked at the as rock supercomputer mobo, it has 3 slots but one of them would be obscured by a graphics cards. SO does anybody no of any please?

And in general why is is that the mobo manufacturers are concentrating on addining pointless slots to their boards which nobody ever need!?

Surely the minority of people use dual graphics cards, meaning other slots on these boards are superfluos.

How many people even use the pcix 1 or 4 slots? Old PCi is more than adequate for all solutions apart from raid cards. But how many people use dedicated raid cards?

Seems to me the mobo manufacturers are just putting all this crap on boards for marketing purposes rather than looking at what the majority of users actually use.

Sorry for the rant, but the lack of a board like this is stoppeing me from upgrading that sound card, wireless card, and tv tuner cost about 175 and I dont want to throw them away..

 

[JonJ678]

Sound cards, wireless cards and tv tuners all exist in pci-e forms. PCI-E is faster than PCI and more general purpose, since any pci-e card can be used in a x16 slot.

These aren't pointless slots. You'll find many more people with three graphics cards than with three pci cards these days. I think the ATX form factor is rarely justified anymore, mtx tends to have more than enough. However, two graphics cards and a raid card are 3 pci-e slots gone and hardly unreasonable. If you want a sas controller, that's got to be pci-e. For the x1 slots, they're a replacement for pci. Sound cards and wireless cards are pci-e x1. I'm going to put a sound card in one when I get around to it, and will probably use a second for a tv tuner. If my board didn't have multiple ethernet ports there would be a lan card in another. I'm expecting to end up with a dedicated sata 3 card, and its not impossible I'll have a usb 3 one as well. I'm expecting these to be pci-e, as pci can't offer the bandwidth needed

I'm annoyed at floppy connectors disappearing personally, I flash bios' using them and don't want to have to use dos4usb or the other replacements. I'm certain they're not doing it for marketing purposes, this is what most people want. Few people with x58 boards want loads of pci cards, you may have more luck with P45 or P55

 

[dazzerd]

Yep I agree soundcards wirless cards and tv cards are available in the pci x factor, however I expect most people still have these in legacy pci, and no soundcard, tv card or wireless card as far as I know is going to be limited by pci bandwidth. I cant see this happening in the future either unless you happen to be using a satellite or cable tv card which is picking up hd content.

Its also a fact that pci x has been out for ages but most retailers still stock more standard pci add on cards than pci x ones. I take the point however that the ability for pci 16 slots to take all other size cards is a plus.

The point I was trying to make about was in general, most poeple wont use a sas controller, most people wouldnt buy a generation 3 sata or usb controller card they would just wait and buy a new mobo for these extras.

Anyway ill guess I'll just wait and see what turns up, may have better options with p55 or a new amd chipset..

Would be an interesting vote to see who uses 3 pci cards in their system against people who use 3 graphics cards