Is this a stupod idea, or what?

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
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I am omnipresent
Hm...

Well, is it stupid? Asus tried something similar a while back, with a board that could handle a slot 1, socket 7 or socket 8 CPU. I worked on one of those once. That didn't seem completely stupid at the time.

As this is implemented, it looks moronic. But mostly because switching to the other CPU disables the Intel chip. That's what's stupid about it.

We finally have the bandwidth to get CPU expansion on a card and THIS is what they do with it? Bleh.

What would be cool is someone taking one of those SLI-capable boards with an 16x and an 8x PCIe slot and offering CPU/RAM setups on cards for those. Run a second OS on the same machine. Toss some extra cycles at video processing. Carry around a dedicated server for your favorite game. Whatever.

But the way ECS is doing it just seems lame.

I do understand that ECS is in the process of rebranding itself as "the people who only used to suck." I have a feeling they're going to go for more boutique weirdness like this thing as part of that process.
 

tazwegion

Learning Storage Performance
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Jul 29, 2005
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207
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Victoria, Australia
Hmmm... PCstats reviewed that board in August ->here ;)

Flexibility is a wonderful thing to factor into a motherboard design, anyone recall the slocket? however due to differing processor requirements, it would be an expensive proposition swaping over to an A64 from the Intel chip... considering DDR2 -> DDR, however I like the dualBIOS support ;)

Stupid? maybe... flexibility? definitely... would I buy one? No, in one word because the more complicated the technology, the more possibility of disaster :p

I DO have to admit though, ECS boards are certainly looking more colourful with better surface component orientation :aok:
 

mubs

Storage? I am Storage!
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Nov 22, 2002
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Somewhere in time.
Maybe..

But with this Feng Shui Motherboard, your system will never crash...

feng_shui.jpg


I've lost the original link, but here are the details:
Beijing, China - Fengtek released their first motherboard based on the ancient Chinese philosophy of Feng Shui. Many interior designers use the principles of Feng Shui to arrange furniture in rooms, so the areas have positive energy. Fengtek is the first company to move these principles to motherboard design.

Charles Huang, CEO of Fengtek, said he had been "looking for a way to combine modern technology with traditional Asian wisdom. My father had a motherboard company, so why not start there?"

Vincent Xiang, lead designer at Fengtek, explained how positioning the components away from traditional locations brought peace to the motherboard, "We put the CPU in the center, because that is the chi, or life force for the entire board. A centered chi provides better performance."

"We didn't rely on reference boards or schematics from chip manufacturers. Those designs had too many straight lines and sharp corners, which are unnatural and direct poison arrows at our soul. Instead, we tilted the memory slots and added an extra expansion slot at an angle to direct those negative energies away from the user," continued Xiang.

Xiang also said the angled slot also slows down the chi as it enters the CPU so it lessens the harm from any sha or negative chi. Placing the RAM in the bagua area of knowledge and wisdom should also increase performance.

Fengtek also released a specially designed case to house the motherboard, which provides "a positive path for airflow spirits."

Reviewers at several websites were unable to get the motherboard to power up in any configuration. Fengtek technical support said this would allow more time for meditation.............
 
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