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Gigabyte shows X58 mobo with seven PCIe 2.0 x16 slots
Gigabyte has launched a new motherboard that begs the question, who needs PCI slots anyway? Built around Intel's flagship X58 chipset, the GA-X58A-UD9 is home to seven PCIe 2.0 x16 slots, but not one PCI, PCIe x1 or any other expansion slot for that matter.
Powering the slots is two Nvidia nF200 chips, which deliver support for four-way SLI or CrossFire setups. The XL-ATX motherboard is also fitted with six DIMM slots ready to tackle DDR3 2200+ RAM, 12 SATA ports (two of which support 6Gb/s), two USB 3.0 ports, and dual gigabit Ethernet.
Additionally, the GA-X58A-UD9 boasts a 24-phase power design with "mutual back-up to each 12 phase," an onboard debug LED for simplified troubleshooting as well as power, reset, and clear CMOS buttons. Overclocking features include dual BIOS ROMs, hardware overvoltage control IC, an overvoltage and temperature reminder, and more.
We haven't spotted a price for Gigabyte's new board, but somewhere beyond $350 seems plausible, as the company's GA-X58A-UD7 already runs that territory.
Powering the slots is two Nvidia nF200 chips, which deliver support for four-way SLI or CrossFire setups. The XL-ATX motherboard is also fitted with six DIMM slots ready to tackle DDR3 2200+ RAM, 12 SATA ports (two of which support 6Gb/s), two USB 3.0 ports, and dual gigabit Ethernet.
Additionally, the GA-X58A-UD9 boasts a 24-phase power design with "mutual back-up to each 12 phase," an onboard debug LED for simplified troubleshooting as well as power, reset, and clear CMOS buttons. Overclocking features include dual BIOS ROMs, hardware overvoltage control IC, an overvoltage and temperature reminder, and more.
We haven't spotted a price for Gigabyte's new board, but somewhere beyond $350 seems plausible, as the company's GA-X58A-UD7 already runs that territory.
User Comments (23)
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princeton on May 13, 2010 4:24 PM |
Can I have it? |
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TomSEA on May 13, 2010 4:33 PM |
Wow... I mean just WOW. |
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ikesmasher on May 13, 2010 4:34 PM |
lol, with those things, you could run crysis, MW2, and portal at the same time... |
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slh28 on May 13, 2010 4:50 PM |
So what's the point of having 7 slots and only space for 4 cards? Also a lot of sounds cards are PCI or PCIe X1. p.s. is that a FLOPPY DRIVE connector I see on this top of the range board?! |
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Matthew on May 13, 2010 4:54 PM |
You can place PCIe x1 cards into x16 slots, and I reckon if someone is going to blow ~$400 on a motherboard, they probably wouldn't mind buying a new sound card if they currently have a PCI model. There are tons of PCIe sound cards around. |
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cyrusjumpjet on May 13, 2010 5:15 PM |
yeah, those headers on the bottom of the board look really accessible... ;p /sarcasm impressive, if only just for the heck of it. |
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Guest on May 13, 2010 5:21 PM |
This is old hat. EVGA and ASUS already have these boards out. Exact same config with the exception of the EVGA one which is slightly larger than the ASUS and this one. I have the ASUS one. Pretty neat but the dual NF200 chips get a little warm. Heat sink does a great job at keepin it cool though. I hear its the same with all versions. |
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dividebyzero on May 13, 2010 7:25 PM |
So what's the point of having 7 slots and only space for 4 cards? http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=816Not all cards are dual slot Anyone who can benefit from GPGPU computation would be more than happy with the board layout - including the extra lanes afforded by the nF200 chips. |
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Lurker101 on May 13, 2010 8:06 PM |
Silly question time. How much heat would be generated by running four graphics cards in such close proximity? |
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red1776 on May 13, 2010 8:49 PM |
Lurker101 said: Not silly at all, if you run enclosed tunnel cards that vent the hot air out of the back of the case it makes little difference. I you run cards that vent the hot air into the case you need to have good case ventilation, the trick is to get the heat away from the GPU heatsink and let the case fans carry it out. I run 4 GPU's in crossfire that vent inside the case and they top out in the the low 60'sC.Silly question time. How much heat would be generated by running four graphics cards in such close proximity? |
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Guest on May 13, 2010 9:11 PM |
@red1776 Can I has your system when you're done with it next year? |
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maestromasada on May 13, 2010 10:24 PM |
That!!!! That??? That's cool!!! |
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Guest on May 13, 2010 11:40 PM |
I think a little bit of wee come out. |
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Guest on May 14, 2010 2:42 AM |
sucks when the gigabyte MOBO takes a massive crash load and never powers up again ..... what do ? |
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BlindObject on May 14, 2010 7:28 AM |
Oh my gawd. I can only imagine how heavy this machine would be. |
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Tomorrow_Rains on May 14, 2010 7:52 AM |
LOOL!! Does this run Crysis?!?! if it does then i want it.. |
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yukka on May 14, 2010 7:58 AM |
Its been a long time since I have seen a techie picture that made me want to touch myself.. |
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LinkedKube on May 14, 2010 11:13 AM |
And I paid 450 for 3 slots, I've been bamboozled. |
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Guest on May 14, 2010 12:15 PM |
You can run a PCI-E 1x card in a PCI-E 8x or 16x. I have a 1x TV tuner card running in an 8x slot. I would have to lose my PCI soundblaster X-FI card though. |
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Guest on May 15, 2010 9:27 PM |
with the onboard sound you dont really need a sound card anymore the quality coming from the onboard is more then acceptable |
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Badfinger on May 16, 2010 6:44 PM |
I saw picture of this when I looked up: overkill |
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kakarot27 on May 16, 2010 9:11 PM |
imagine a system with 4 5970S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thats 8 gpus 8) |
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burty117 on May 17, 2010 3:18 PM |
Guest said: Well, it depends, if you have a good sound system (say a bose or B&W for example) the onboard sound isn't very good at all compared to a dedicated sound card, plus you may get a few frames extra in games as the sound proccessing gets moved directly to the sound card.
with the onboard sound you dont really need a sound card anymore the quality coming from the onboard is more then acceptable |
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