Confused: Abit ix38 QuadGC - What is the 3rd PCI-E slot for?

[harmattan]

I was lucky enough to get in on the NewEgg deal for the Abit ix38 QuadGT for $139 after MIR. I have the below parts in the mail for my new rig. This board is one of the only x38s I know of that has a 3 PCI-E slots (slots 1 & 3 are x16; 2 is x4 bandwidth). Can I use this 3rd PC-E slot for triple-Crossfire (e.g., 3x 3870)? If not, what the heck is it there for? Surely not Physx...

Xeon x3350 (q9450)
2x2GB G. Skill DDR2 F2-8000
2x WD SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB (for RAID 0)
2x WD SE16 WD3200AAKS 320GB (for backups)
Antec TruePower Quattro 1000W

 

[dagger]

I was lucky enough to get in on the NewEgg deal for the Abit ix38 QuadGT for $139 after MIR. I have the below parts in the mail for my new rig. This board is one of the only x38s I know of that has a 3 PCI-E slots (slots 1 & 3 are x16; 2 is x4 bandwidth). Can I use this 3rd PC-E slot for triple-Crossfire (e.g., 3x 3870)? If not, what the heck is it there for? Surely not Physx...

Xeon x3350 (q9450)
2x2GB G. Skill DDR2 F2-8000
2x WD SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB (for RAID 0)
2x WD SE16 WD3200AAKS 320GB (for backups)
Antec TruePower Quattro 1000W

There might be a physx card coming out for pcie. They've been saying that for a long time now. The x4 pcie isn't useful for graphics card.

As for the build, 1000watt is overkill. You don't need it.

 

[GeoMan]

That and if you have a newer 8 or 9 series nVidia card you won’t need a PhysX card since nVidia bought PhysX and ported the api to CUDA so they'll soon have PhysX drivers for their graphics cards, no idea what it'll do to the frame rates though.

As for the 3rd PCIE slot i don’t think it'll handle a graphics card in triple crossfire, i think only the two 16X PCIE lanes can be bridged for corssfire setups, but check the board manual for that. I guess its for some graphics card that's not connected for corssfire if you want lots of multiple monitors.... actually i'm not even sure if that would work, so i guess it's only for if you want some insane 6 monitor setup for ridiculous Flight Simulator X action, and if you do that you may just be able to justify that 1000W PSU... says me with an underutilised 1000W PSU, but hey, at least i know i'll never run low on juice for my rig (;

 

[harmattan]

There might be a physx card coming out for pcie. They've been saying that for a long time now. The x4 pcie isn't useful for graphics card.

As for the build, 1000watt is overkill. You don't need it.

Ah, yes the elusive Physx rev. 2 card they've been saying will come out for 2 years now. Looks like the third slot will be dead weight for me. Ah well, can't complain at the price I paid for an x38.

Agreed that 1000W is overkill for just those parts. However, I've got a CoolIT Freezone which I'll be using to cool the x3350 and a separate SwiftTech kit I hope to loop in a pair of Crossfired 4870 X2's on once they're out and have blocks. I figure with 2x pumps, 2x video cards, and 4x HDDs, 1000W should be just about right.

From experience, I've realized it's always better to have more power than needed for upgrades. I went through 3 different PSU setups on my current rig due to multiple upgrades...