Does the Intel 5100 Chipset Support Crossfire?

[DaleF]

Hello, I was wondering if anyone here knows if the 5100 (San Clemente) Xeon chipset supports Crossfire? I've got my eye on a nice dual Xeon board, and I'd like to stick a pair of 4870X2s on it when they come out.
I know the 5400 (Seaburg, a la Skulltrail) does, but can't seem to get an answer on the 5100.

[bojangles]

You'll have to look at some motherboards at the manufacturers' website because I have no idea. It should say there.

EDIT: So I took a look and it looks like it's only a memory controller hub. This will not support crossfire. I looked at some of the pics of some motherboards and they usually (99%) only have ONE PCI-E slot.

[b1lk1]

Skulltrail is the only enthusiast based dual CPU board even on the market.

[DaleF]

Originally Posted by bojangles

EDIT: So I took a look and it looks like it's only a memory controller hub. This will not support crossfire. I looked at some of the pics of some motherboards and they usually (99%) only have ONE PCI-E slot.

Are you sure? Because most server and workstation board I've seen have more than one PCIe slot.

As for an enthusiast board, I'm actually looking at a workstation board. Cheaper and uses normal ECC RAM rather than FB RAM.

[Tazer-[X]]

Originally Posted by DaleF

Are you sure? Because most server and workstation board I've seen have more than one PCIe slot.

As for an enthusiast board, I'm actually looking at a workstation board. Cheaper and uses normal ECC RAM rather than FB RAM.

Thos slots your looking at on server mobos,arent meant to carry digital video data. They are meant for installing a real raid card, or maybe two really high end adaptec raid cards, or maybe even an fiber optic modem to connect your network to like a T3 fiber line, OR! all of the above!

[DaleF]

What's the difference matter to the motherboard if it's moving data around versus data? Not much.

[Cptn Vortex]

PCIe is PCIe is PCIe....it doesnt matter what you put in there bud....

[Tazer-[X]]

Originally Posted by Cptn Vortex

PCIe is PCIe is PCIe....it doesnt matter what you put in there bud....

Hmm, thats a trivial thing eh? Last time I looked, those server PCI slots, are like 64 BIt. And might be only PCI 8X. They arent PCI-x or whatever the newest standard is called for graphics accelerators. Might as well just go back to AGP 8X if using anything other than the 5400 chipset.

[Cptn Vortex]

You are talking about PCI-X. PCIe or Express is a standard bus. Yes, some are only 8X slots, but realistically even the top of the line videocards we have today will not saturate that bus. Look at most SLI or crossfire boards, they are mostly 8x 8x electrical, even though they are the same size as X16 slots.

[DaleF]

Originally Posted by Tazer-[X]

Hmm, thats a trivial thing eh? Last time I looked, those server PCI slots, are like 64 BIt.

When was the last time you saw a video card that was PCI and supports Crossfire? There aren't any. They're only supported in PCIe slots.