Getting a new rig
 

I'm looking around to buy me a new system, but got stuck with a SLI question:

motherboards that have SLI option, usually have 2 BIG PCI-Express slots (16x size). In SLI, they usually work at 8x each.

Now here's my question: when disabling SLI, does only 1 of the 2 slots work? Or do they both work at 16x, but SLI is not possible?



The thing is: I would buy 2 PCI-Express devices, a vid-card and a RAID controller; both very bandwidth consuming. SO I need at least 2 PCIexpress slots that can handle both cards at at least 8x PCI-Express.



Another question: when will the Sempron 939 CPU be available in .BE?

buy yourself a venice, it can oc pritty good if your lucky.

and afaik on the dfi NF4 when sli is disabled only the bottem slot works:)

I am not sure because my DFI with SLI enble the top slot works also. And both slots work with vcard when SLI is set at auto mode. On DFI board, the activation on SLI is further controlled by the another switch in BIOS.

And when you activate SLI, do you really need to install 2 vidcards? :)

2times 8x would be ok as well..

No ;) I use single card.

show me a raid controller which would use more than 1x PCIe :)

A 24-port S-ATA RAID controller ;)


And cache-reads are very fast anyway.

chache? ;p

do you have a produkt link for this SATA controller?

FYI current PCIe graphics card don't even flood AGP 8x / PCIe 4x.. so PCIe 8x is NOT needed:)

I know, but I like to be a little bit future-proof...

Currently only up till 16port (PCI-X goes to 24port):
http://www.areca.com.tw/products/html/pciE-sata.htm



I don't care if my vidcard works at 8x or 16x, I just need to know if I can use both slots at the same time, without SLI'ing vidcards.

btw: produkt? :p

For someone else's rig: what's the minimum of CPU power (AMD) a 6800 should get to get fired up?
Edit: and a 6600(GT)?