[Solved] Biostar T5 XE CFX/SLI P67 LGA 1156

[koshia]

Hello Fellas,

 

Long time lurker, first time poster.  I've been waiting for the right time to start building and getting into the unRAID scene and I finally have some money saved up.

 

I'm looking to maximize storage by upgrading the case later on, so right now i'm looking at boards and CPU.  Primarily I will be using it for Media Streaming and storage.

 

What do you guys, or gals think about this board for starting and expansion?

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138162

 

It's at a decent price and has plenty of lanes for expand-ability.  Especially with 2xPCI-Ex1 and 2xPCI-Ex16.

[daniel.boone]

DL nic should work. Not so sure those x16 slots will work with 2 hbas. Motherboard is listed as a xfire sli card. My experience with video slots tell me you'd probably get only one working. You might get lucky though.

 

If your looking for a cheap MB I'd go with a recommendation from Greenleaf.

[koshia]

Thanks for replying daniel.boone.

 

According to the manual, which can be found here: http://www.biostar.com.tw/upload/Manual/IP55C-AHT%20&%20IP55D-AHT_090922_B.zip

 

PEX16_1: PCI-Express Gen2 x16 (x16/CrossFireX x8, SLI x8 Speed) Slot

- PCI-Express 2.0 compliant.

- Maximum theoretical realized bandwidth of 8GB/s (4GB/s CrossFireX/SLI)

simultaneously per direction, for an aggregate of 16GB/s(8GB/s

CrossFireX/SLI) totally.

 

- PEX16_1 & PEX16_2 slots are reserved for graphic or video cards. The

design of this motherboard supports dual PCI-Express graphics cards using

CrossFireX/SLI technology with multiple displays. When CrossFireX/SLI is

activated, these slots run with x8 speed.

PEX16_2: PCI-Express Gen2 x8 (x8/CrossFireX x8, SLI x8 Speed) Slot

- PCI-Express 2.0 compliant.

- Maximum theoretical realized bandwidth of 4GB/s (4GB/s CrossFireX/SLI)

simultaneously per direction, for an aggregate of 8GB/s(8GB/s

CrossFireX/SLI) totally.

 

Note:

SLI function is for T5XE CFX-SLI only

PEX1_1/PEX1_2: PCI-Express Gen 2x1 Slots

- PCI-Express 2.0 compliant.

- Data transfer bandwidth up to 500MB/s per direction; 1GB/s in total.

- PCI-Express supports a raw bit-rate of 2.5Gb/s on the data pins.

- 2X bandwidth over the PCI architecture.

 

 

With that -- i'm assuming you'd get the full lane on both x16.  If you can't, no biggie you can use one and you'd still have 2x PCI-E x1 and 2 x pci (although slower).

 

The only thing I wish it had was a LGA 1155 so I can buy lower wattage CPU.  I'm thinking of pulling the trigger and getting a Core-i5 760 Lynnfield.  Should be plenty of power to process/transcode blu-rays.

 

With this I can re-use my old case (holds 8 drives) and upgrade to the Norco 4224 later and would only have to buy the case and accessories.

[daniel.boone]

Yeah those x16 are video only. It's mentioned in the manual.  I would look elsewhere for a MB.

 

You can chance it if you want but there is no recourse if it doesn't work.

[koshia]

Rather not take my chances.  Thanks for the double checking. I'll look for another one.