Looking for dual cpu Motherboard for i7 920

[revRazor]

I was looking at some mobos made by Intel (recommended?) that had the lga1366 socket and it said "up to Intel Xeon 3500" or "5500". Are those CPUs better than the i7 920? would the board be limiting i7 capacity?

also if you have any recommendations for a dual cpu, sli, raid compatible mobo...
or specific mobo manufacturers to stay away from...

Thanks

[Midknyte]

There are very few dual socket 1366 boards. I've seen previews, but I'm not sure if any are in production. Since they are for servers/workstations, those boards won't support SLI either.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/asu...oard,7211.html

The motherboard is based on Intel's 5500+ICH10R chipset, and can support all 1366 processors, including the upcoming Xeon 5500s. Supported memory includes up to 48 GB of RDIMM or 24 GB of UDIMM, with ECC support. The one shortcoming of this board is the lack of PCIe 2.0 x16 slots. With only one on the Z8NA-D6, you can forget about any sort of SLI or Crossfire setup.

They don't take standard DDR3 either. You will be paying big bucks for ram.

Why do you need dual i7s? Even if you got a quad core CPU, that's more than most apps can handle.

[Dave_B]

There are very few dual socket 1366 boards. I've seen previews, but I'm not sure if any are in production. Since they are for servers/workstations, those boards won't support SLI either.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/asu...oard,7211.html


They don't take standard DDR3 either. You will be paying big bucks for ram.

Why do you need dual i7s? Even if you got a quad core CPU, that's more than most apps can handle.

You misinformed, both dual 1366 motherboard chipsets (5500 and 5520) support both registered and unregistered DDR3 (that's what UDIMM means). They just can use double the total capacity with RDIMM over UDIMM. And many 5520 chipset motherboards (as opposed to the 5500 chipset used by the Z8NA-D6) have three PCI x16 2.0 slots. They will run at x8 vs. x16 though in a crossfire setup.

Your question as to why the need for dual 1366 CPUs is valid though, as the regular Core i7 with 8 virtual cores is more than anyone could need except for very specific applications.

[revRazor]

The dual i7 and sli is my way of giving room for a future upgrade with the same mobo. I'll be starting off using just one cpu and gpu.

What does a server/workstation mobo mean? Im getting a quadro (workstation) gpu for 3D CAD and rendering software that I'm building the pc for. Its not for games.

I don't understand chipsets much. Dont I need x58, ICH10R chipset?
Will the 5520 work for the i7?
What does x8 or x16 mean, and does it apply to nVidia as well?

[Midknyte]

Ah, I guess I'm a bit behind on the chipsets. Thanks, Dave.

The dual i7 and sli is my way of giving room for a future upgrade with the same mobo. I'll be starting off using just one cpu and gpu.

Still I can't see a real need for a dual i7 setup. By the time you actually need the extra power, Intel will be on their next generation of CPUs. As I said, there aren't a lot of apps that would support so many cores. Check your software's cpu support before you commit.

x8 and x16 refer to the PCIe slot lanes. That applies to both ATI and Nvidia cards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express

You'd probably need a PSU with EPS support for a workstation board.

Workstation boards generally use ECC registered DIMMs. I was under the impression that ECC was required, but I guess the 5520 can support both.

The X58 doesn't support dual sockets.

[johngalt47]

Years ago I had a dual cpu motherboard using two AMD Athlon cpus. Maybe it was due to a superior design, but I experienced less hour glasses or delays that with any dual core chip I have used since.