Motherboard 64bit PCI / PCI X confusions

[MaxBurn]

I am looking for a new motherboard and I have a couple of 64bit 66MHZ PCI cards, namely:

3Ware 7500-8
3Com Gigabit Server NIC 710024

Under the 3ware hardware compatability they list boards with PCI-X but they don't list PCI-X for the interface on the card capabilities, PCI-X does both?


Will really welcome recomendations on a motherboard with the following:

ATX form factor (have a case with plenty of room, big boards not a problem)
Able to use the above cards at 64bit - 66MHz
AGP port
P4 Socket 478 (if we throw out this requirement open to anything, just have a 2.4b available here)

 

[Mercutio]

All the motherboards I'm familiar with that have 64-bit PCI slots are Serverworks or Intel server boards. I'm not aware of any that offer AGP *and* 64-bit PCI.

Might be worthwhile to upgrade to PCI express peripherals if you really need that level of performance.

 

[sechs]

PCI-X is backwards compatible to 64bit/66MHz, as well as all the way to 32/33

 

[.Nut]

This is your only real choice. It has PCI-X slots, plenty of SATA ports, an AGP 8x slot, dual-GbE, and more. You can use either the last-generation 130 nm P4 (Northwood) or the newer 90 nm P4 (Prescott) Pin Grid Array processor packages...

• 
  
  
  
  The Supermicro P4SCT+II
  
  
  
  
  
  Key Features
  
  1. Intel® Pentium® 4 Support up to 3.4 GHz, Celeron® up to 2.8 GHz
  
  2. Intel® 875P Chipset
  
  3. Up to 4GB DDR 400/333/266 SDRAM
  
  4. 1 x Intel® 82547GI CSA, 1 x Intel® 82541 Gigabit Ethernet Controller
  
  5. Intel® 6300ESB Serial ATA Controller
  
  6. Marvell® Serial ATA Controller
  
  7. 3 x 64-bit 66MHz PCI-X (3.3V), 2 x 32-bit 33MHz PCI (5V) slots
  
  8. 1 x AGP Pro 8x 1.5V
  
  
  
  http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/P4/875/P4SCT+II.cfm

 

[.Nut]

8. 1 x AGP Pro 8x 1.5V

Actually, number 8 -- above -- should be number 9 (the 8x AGP slot).

 

[MaxBurn]

Thanks .nut I will definately look into that. My desktop is I875 and I like it. Imediate question on my mind is the Gigabit ethernet on the CSA like my desktop board or is this something else? Will definately researgh that one though, thanks again.

 

[MaxBurn]

It is CSA, one of them at least. Looks like the one.

 

[MaxBurn]

Can you tell me why there is one PCI slot that is blue? The users manual mentions nothing of this.

 

[Will Rickards]

This is from a review of another board (tyan) but I think it may apply somehow.

The beige colored 64-bit PCI slot is a standard one that can handle both 3.3v and 5.0v (standard PCI) cards. The green one below it, however, only accepts 3.3v cards. This green PCI slot also offers the Thunder K7X users another great feature: Adaptec Zero Channel Raid. This technology allows you to buy a relatively cheap Adaptec 0 Channel card (about $250) and plug it in this green slot. This card then uses the on-board Adaptec SCSI controller to make it a RAID controller. Many users are used to paying thousands of dollars for a SCSI/RAID configuration – but the Adaptec Zero Channel Raid slot makes it quite affordable and easy.

 

[MaxBurn]

I was leaning more along the way that the blue one was it's own channel and not effected by a slower card inserted in the other channels and clocking the whole bus down. The manual makes no mention that these are on different busses though so I will stear clear of them when inserting other regular 33mhz 32bit cards.

Or perhaps this would be the first slot that the BIOS looks at for a boot device?

Will email their tech support on this.

 

[Explorer]

Thanks .nut I will definately look into that. My desktop is I875 and I like it. Imediate question on my mind is the Gigabit ethernet on the CSA like my desktop board or is this something else? Will definately researgh that one though, thanks again.

Well, since you can ONLY have one CSA Ethernet port in this day and age of x86 iron, that means the other Ethernet port is a PCI-connected onboard chipset.

I was leaning more along the way that the blue one was it's own channel and not effected by a slower card inserted in the other channels and clocking the whole bus down...

Yes, that GREEN PCI expansion slot is on its own PCI-X channel.

By the way, I've used 2 of these P4SCT+II mobos so far (3.0 GHz / 800 MHz FSB P4, 2 GB Corsair RAM, SCSI, etc.). In the typical Supermicro way, they have worked flawlessly and are fast. There is one other mobo out there that is very similar to this (P4 with PCI-X slots), and from what I hear, it's fraught with gremlins and now impossible to find (i.e. -- the problems).

 

[MaxBurn]

Well I called it blue/green in my email to tech support, heh. The reply came back fast but doesn't make much sense, the RAID is on board for this motherboard.

The second gigabit controller is clearly stated in the manual and it is on the 32bit PCI bus. Not an issue for me as I ordered the version without the second gigabit controller or on board Marvel RAID.

Another quibble is that the manual doesn't really make it clear that it is ok to use a 20 pin ATX power connector as the board has the 24 pin power connector. Tech support says that is fine though, but the +12V 4 pin connector is required.

On the P4SCT+ and P4SCT+ II there is a green slot which always
identifies Zero Channel RAID logic (use of a Zero Channel RAID card), in
this case for SATA.  The memory blue slot identifies 2-way memory
interleave.



RJP

-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Jalbert 
Sent: Monday, October 11, 2004 11:43 AM
To: Technical Support
Subject: Blue PCIX slot? Why?

Name: Scott Jalbert
E-mail: 
Model: P4SCT
Question or Comment: 
Why is the blue/green PCIX slot a different color than the rest that are
the standard white?

Does this signify boot order for add on cards? Or perhaps a seperate bus
that is not slowed down by slower cards in the other PCIX slots? Is
there a voltage difference I have to watch out for?

It would be helpful if this was mentioned in the manual, but I do not
see a section that talks about the PCIX slots.

 

[Pradeep]

Well I called it blue/green in my email to tech support, heh. The reply came back fast but doesn't make much sense, the RAID is on board for this motherboard.]

Zero-channel means that with the addition of the appropriate controller the onboard channels will be converted to RAID capability. I didn't know they had zero-channel for SATA tho.

 

[MaxBurn]

It already has RAID capability from the Marvel 88SX5041 on board adaptor. It does 0 and 1 levels with four drives, but no RAID 5.

The two aditional SATA channels on the Intel Hanse Rapids 6300ESB southbridge don't get RAID at all to my knowledge unlike the ICH5R.

I think tech support got confused here.