945/955 boards showing up at vendors

Tokyo retailers are showing off the first 945 and 955 boards

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/akiba/hotline/20050416/image/n4553.jpg

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/akiba/hotline/20050416/image/n4551.jpg

I still wonder what exactly is the purpose of the second socket PCI-E graphics socket on 955 boards?

- some sort of SLi similar Intel propriety solution?
- SLi licensed by nVidia for usage with Intel chipsets?

 

Never seen a female molex on a motherboard before.

Spot to plug in a splitter to power graphics cards from?

 

Female molex is not new, I have it also on my current board.

 

So whats it for?

Cable neatness or something?

 

I never use it. They call it "Auxiliary" Power supply. It's obviously for heavy duty fans that come with a molex instead of the 3-pob connector. Don't forget: Most Intel boards are bought by system integrators / OEM. They see a few things "differently".

Intel boards also have have this here, called "Alernate Power Connector" and that is really convinient, in case you don't have a 24 pin main power cable:

 

Thanks chainy.

Anyway, back on topic, the new boards look good.

I always like dhow intel used massive passive sinks on their NB's rather than a screaming chipset fan.

I look forward to your inevitable review.

 

ROFL, inevitable and unavoidable - that's a threat!

 

we used a D925XCV in a file server for one of our clients.
we put it into an aopen H700 and we used the female molex for something in the case.
i'm pretty sure it was to power the 3 colour LED that is in the power button on the front of the case.

i'm sure we could have used a normal molex, but why waste one?

 

It has been long rumoured that Intel will include SLi capability in their chipsets. Why would they leave their own chipsets disadvantaged especially in the wake of their new "overclocking approved" stance?

 

i just really hope that they keep long term the "overclocking approved" stance , then i would go back to buying intel mobo's which IMHO have always been great with a near perfect finish

 

Tokyo .... geek hardware paradise yummmmmmm

could be SLI as the extra molex on board could be like Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe and other NF4 SLI boards to provide additional power to 2nd PCI-E slot

 

Because right now it's not Intel's choice - NVIDIA have to add support for i955 in their SLI driver.

 

Remember nVidia didn't pay anything to Intel on the deal.

 

Don't think it is explicitly so as the 925X and the 925XE Intel boards have both the same molexes on the board.

 

They signed a patent cross-license agreement. What that agreement covered is anyone's guess, it could be SLI, it could be tech for Intel's future integrated video chipsets, it could be a number of other things. They also supplied Intel customers with a competitive chipset for the flagship gaming market.

 

Well obviously, nVidia won't bully Intel and decide midway to cutoff SLi support for 955x. I'm sure they covered Sli on the deal - otherwise, Intel won't shove two PEG slots on the board.

 

Why not? Every other manufacturer is doing it, even without SLI support.

 

huh????????

 

VIA PT894Pro, SIS 756FX, ATI RD400, NVIDIA NF4Ultra - they all support two PCIE graphics slots, but not SLI. Intel may simply be matching the featureset of their competition.

 

"support"

so does any other PCI-E board then - like 925x's..etc they "support" two graphics slots.

nVidia won't leave Intel in the dark. And there's simply no market for people using quad monitors that need the power of 2x6800U's