Expensive And Large - Intel D5400XS Motherboard, Continued
For its on-board sound chip, Intel chose the Sigmatel STAC9274 also found on several other Intel motherboards. This chip is considered one of the best on-board sound solutions. The D5400XS also features an optical digital output.
Sigmatel on-board sound chip
In addition to the power and reset switches, the motherboard also sports a Port-80 diagnostic display, a system speaker and a blue HDD-LED.
Speaker and reset button
Port 80 Display
eSATA Ports
| D5400XS Motherboard Feature Table | ||
|---|---|---|
| Component | On Board | I/O-Shield |
| PCI | 2 | none |
| PCIe 16x | 4 | none |
| PCIe 4x | none | none |
| SATA | 6 | none |
| eSATA | none | 2 |
| LPT | none | none |
| COM | none | none |
| Firewire 1394a | 1 | 1 |
| USB 2.0 | 4 | 6 |
| Fan (PWM) | 3 | none |
| Fan | 5 | none |
Board - No Room For High-End Graphics Cards
Four x16 PEG slots
Intel's D5400XS motherboard features four PCI-Express x16 slots for graphics cards. Thus, buyers can create multi-card configurations using either Nvidia's SLI or ATI's Crossfire. Sadly, the spacing between the ports was poorly chosen, accommodating either up to three dual-slot cards or four single-slot cards. This is quite disappointing for a motherboard from the high-end price bracket. While it is true that neither graphics chip company currently offers support for four-card configurations today, the Skulltrail represents the ideal performance basis for just such a setup - and the same should hold true for the expandability and upgrade options. Sadly, this does not hold true for the current design.