Joined: 3-Feb-2004 Posts: 584
From: Lincoln, England
@Eric_S
NVidia are set to include PCI-Express in there NForce 4 chipset but this is an AMD64 specific Northbridge so we can't use it. Via have PCI-Express 2x on their upcoming VT8251 southbridge which gives a pathetic 0.5gbs bandwith, nothing compaerd to AGP and it's locked to Via Northbridges with their propraitry V-Link connection SiS Southbridges only have PCI-Express 1x and are locked to SiS Northbridges with a propriatry connection protocol ALi Southbridges don't do PCI-Express ATI's website doesn't seem to want to tell me about any of their upcoming products, infact it doesn't even mention chipsets unless you search, I suspect that PCI-Express will be in their AMD or Intel specific Northbridges
Joined: 30-Sep-2003 Posts: 8111
From: Minneapolis, MN, USA
@Eric_S
You are correct the momentum motherboard only has an AGP port and a PCI-Express isn't an option at this time. The work to add PCI-Express would probably be too much so we'll have to stay with AGP.
@digitaldisaster
Sorry, I mispoke the Gigabit ethernet, not USB, are taking up a PCI-X interface. I'd rather see the extra PCI-X ports and someone add in Gigabit ethernet on a PCI-X card if they feel the need for it.
Something to think about is how you could use the $4,500 system and perhaps save some money. * Kingston 1GB DDR2 memory = $300 * CD-ROM = $25 * 400W power supply = $70 * 40GB WD 8MB Cache HD = $55 * Add some for shipping Seems that you could put together the $6,000 system for ~$5,000. Might be a bit easier getting $1K less contributions and may be able to roll the project a bit quicker.
Joined: 3-Feb-2004 Posts: 584
From: Lincoln, England
@Eric_S
It certainly is better to have these on high end boards, especaily thsoe that cost quite a bit as we could buy the chips in relativly large quantities and wouldn't ahve to use things such as PCI backplanes etc. Unfortuantly, as you say, for now now non of these solutions are viable as the parts simply don't exist. Ideally what we need is for a second revision of the board to feature a different southbridge, connecting using the same 1.2ghz Hypertransport bus and featuring the SATA II, Gigabit Ethernet and Firewire 800 that the current one lacks, as well as more USB 2.0 ports. Then we could use the 4 PCI-X ports for expansion as well as two or three PCI-Express ports (One 16x or even 32x - the maximum allowed by the current revision of the PCI-Epxress protocol allowiung a whopping 6gbps of data in each direction if my memory serves me correctly) from the southbridge. Until such a chip exists though we will have to make do with what we have.
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