1156 MB USB 3.0/SATA 3 bandwith question again

[AlanHoward]

2nd try:

I’m a bit confused (as usual <g> ). I’ve read that using the H55 1156 motherboards and implementing USB 3.0 and/or SATA 3 that there is a bandwidth problem which affects....what? Would I see any slowdowns anywhere if I have just one video card installed? (Trying to decide between a x58 board or a H55 board.)

 

[hell_storm2004]

I haven't heard of any such thing.

P.S. - The X58 and H55 boards are on a different platform. You cant decide between them. Its either P55/H55/H57/Q55/Q57 or X58.

 

[jaquith]

Ah Yeah, the X58 offers several advantages especially with multi-GPU PCIe X16 lane bandwidth, also {iMC} Tri/Hexa channel DDR3, and MOBO's with SATA3 / USB 3 on the X58 the bandwidth doesn't diminish, etc.

Intel X58 document - http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/prodbrief/x58-product-brief.pdf

 

[AlanHoward]

I haven't heard of any such thing.

P.S. - The X58 and H55 boards are on a different platform. You cant decide between them. Its either P55/H55/H57/Q55/Q57 or X58.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/usb-3.0-sata-6gb,2583.html

RE: PS - Obviously. Trying to decide between platfforms.

 

[EXT64]

The main limitation that I recall for P55 was that on Gigabyte boards you lost 8x of your PCI-E lanes, not a big deal unless you have a 5970 or 6970.

Asus had another solution, which while a little slower, didn't steal PCI-E lanes.

Whether either of these matter to H55 I am not sure - can H55 do SLI/Crossfire (that is when it matters most)?

 

[Lmeow]

If you have a P55 motherboard that has SATA III and USB 3.0 without any type of expansion chips, i.e., all the Gigabyte P55A boards except the UD7, the first PCI-E x16 slot drops to x8, and the second PCI-E slot, whether it's working at x4 PCI-E 1.1 or PCI-E x8 2.0 shared will be disabled. Any Asus P7P55D-E series board that is below the 'Pro' version does not have an expansion chip either and the same thing will happen.

The H55 can do CrossFireX, but if it's at x16 2.0/x4 1.1 then you'd see a relatively large bottleneck. H55 don't support SLI I don't think, based on the fact I doubt any H55 boards split their lanes x8/x8.. Also if you're running a CPU with an integrated graphics chip, the Core i3 or Core i5 600 series, you won't be able to use two graphics cards.

 

[jaquith]

^ Which all brings it back to the X58 as the better choice.

Be careful about Reviews that often either overlook or omit little things; like adding $500 - $1000 add-on's.
See if you can find what's missing here - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/windows-7-ssd-trim,2705-13.html