Can SLI PCI-E x16 ports be used for other hardware?

M

m0unds

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jun 1, 2002
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I've been out of the loop as far as next-gen stuff is concerned for a couple years; I'm looking at building a new system to replace the P4 box i'm using now, but my concern with the NF4 boards with SLI PCI-e x16 ports is that you cannot use them for anything but nvidia graphics cards. I've HEARD this, but it doesn't make much sense. can anyone shed some light on it?

Do the SLI boards require the x16 ports to be used w/graphics cards, or if there is compatible hardware that can be used in their stead, does that work?


Thanks :D
 
There's nothing other than video cards that would need that bandwidth over, say, PCI-X or PCI-e 1x/4x.

If a component was made in the 16x spec, then it would run with no problem in the PCI-e 16x slot on an nF4 board. Just don't count on it ever existing.
 
robberbaron said:
There's nothing other than video cards that would need that bandwidth over, say, PCI-X or PCI-e 1x/4x.
Click to expand...

Right, and the world will never need more than five computers. :D

However for a personal computer, with today's system building considerations and for at least the next few years, it's EXTREMELY unlikely that you'll actually need that much bandwidth for anything that could possibly go in it.
 
robberbaron said:
There's nothing other than video cards that would need that bandwidth over, say, PCI-X or PCI-e 1x/4x.

If a component was made in the 16x spec, then it would run with no problem in the PCI-e 16x slot on an nF4 board. Just don't count on it ever existing.
Click to expand...

http://www.tekram.com/raidcrde.html

This is pci-e 8x, not 16x, but the storage guys will always find ways to use lots of I/O. In the consumer space, it'll be video cards for the near future, but in the enterprise space I imagine you'll see some high-end storage, multi-head 10G NICs, etc. using x16 slots..
 
robberbaron said:
There's nothing other than video cards that would need that bandwidth over, say, PCI-X or PCI-e 1x/4x.

If a component was made in the 16x spec, then it would run with no problem in the PCI-e 16x slot on an nF4 board. Just don't count on it ever existing.
Click to expand...

There are 20gbit Infiniband clustering nics that run in 8x.

Wouldn't surprise me if they eventually went to 16x pci-e for more bandwidth.

Crazy clustering guys :cool:
 
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