mini-itx with PCI Express

simeli · Post by **simeli** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 5:26 am

Anyone know of a mini itx board that has a PCIe slot and supports anything else (speak raid controller 4x or 8x card) besides video cards in that slot?

The MSI 945GT Speedster would support 4x PCIe cards, but i'd love to find something in the mini-itx ballpark...

nzimmers · Post by **nzimmers** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 3:12 pm

usually mini-itx only supports 1 expansion slot, none that I know of have a 4x PCIe slot, although I think there's a version or two that have PCIe x8 or x16

I bought the MSI 945GT speedster, overall a very nice board.

depending on what you need, there is an Abit motherboard that is socketM that has HDMI out built in for HTPC type application

I liked the MSI board because it has 4xSATA, so I can do raid without needing an extra raid card (though I run software raid)

simeli · Post by **simeli** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 12:32 am

yeah, I was also looking at the Speedster. Might be an option if I cannot find a mini itx board. One with a 8x or 16x slot that accepts raid controllers would also be fine. I was just planning on a mini cube server with 4 2.5" sas disks.

So in case you remember one with a 8x or 16x slot, that would be great.

btw, i've read various things about the stability of the 945 Speedster. What are your experiences?

Vanseb · Post by **Vanseb** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 1:14 am

Hi !
You got this :
http://de.kontron.com/index.php?id=226& ... uctid=1336

A review, in german :
http://www.minitechnet.de/kontron_986lcd-m.html

Love this card, but very expensive, and hard to find.

simeli · Post by **simeli** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 1:26 am

I have found something:

GlobalAmerica lists a Yonah board and advertises the PCIe slot as being 4x compatible on the website.
http://www.globalamericaninc.com/new_sp ... php?id=664
However in the manual it only says 16x and 1x mode. I am waiting for a reply still.

http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/std ... ck_package
They seem to use that exact mainboard.

simeli · Post by **simeli** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 2:01 am

Vanseb wrote:Hi !
You got this :
http://de.kontron.com/index.php?id=226& ... uctid=1336

A review, in german :
http://www.minitechnet.de/kontron_986lcd-m.html

Love this card, but very expensive, and hard to find.

yeah, i read about the kontron. would be just what i want, but i cannot find any info whether it supports anything but video cards in its 16x slot... you wouldn't by any chance have a raid card or something to test that?

Vanseb · Post by **Vanseb** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 2:05 am

Don't have this card yet

I'm waiting ti buy it, maybe. But you can contact Kontron, they answer very fast.

In the test they used a 6600GT. I think some recent card like 7600GS/GT will work, but that's an hypothese.

simeli · Post by **simeli** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 2:18 am

Vanseb wrote:In the test they used a 6600GT. I think some recent card like 7600GS/GT will work, but that's an hypothese.

I guess that any PEG (PCIe Graphics Card) would work. However, lots of mainboards only support 16x graphics cards in that slot. 4x or 8x RAID controller often do not work.

I would like to use such a controller, hence I was wondering about that particular feature.

Vanseb · Post by **Vanseb** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 2:27 am

Oh, I didn't understand, excuse me

I dont' have the answer, I'm not familiar with RAID controler.

simeli · Post by **simeli** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 2:31 am

Vanseb wrote:Oh, I didn't understand, excuse me .

no worries

nzimmers · Post by **nzimmers** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 2:31 pm

simeli wrote:btw, i've read various things about the stability of the 945 Speedster. What are your experiences?

with a bios update and Ram that runs at 1.8v......Very stable, very nice, very happy with the msi 945gt speedster

mini-itx with PCI Express

mini-itx with PCI Express

as far as i know