Little Thought Given To Motherboard Manufacturing

[Excalabur50]

Is it just me or are motherboard manufactures giving little thought to the designs of their products? Take Asus for example their GTX 580 cards take up three slots on a board so if you want to run two in Sli thats six slots taken, where then do you put your you beaut pcie soundcard and pcie solidstate drive on say an Asus Sandybridge MB. If you want to go all Asus and keep everything stock? I do understand that Graphics cards do need really good cooling nowadays but wouldn't you think it would be taken into consideration when designing things that their high end products are going to work together properly with the latest technology that is out there. And yes I know someone will say but most high end people watercool so it don't take up as much space but what of those that want high end on air? or just don't want to water cool or are too scared to? Just my two cents worth, does anyone else find this?

 

[dugdiamond]

i agree - those bottom-edge expansion ports (for external on/off, usb and audio, etc.) need to be at 90degrees, just like they have done with the sata ports.

if you put a chunky GPU in the last PCIE slot on most mobos, you cannot get those cables in

 

[S_I_N]

agreed but in thier defense that would make mobos longer thereby needing specialized cases. I think they should make better choices on cooling those beasts other than making 3 slot cards. theres gotta be a way to beat the heat without making it so farkin huge. Then nothing looks sexier than seeing 2 of those big arse 3 slot cards in ur rig smashing everything ya throw at it.

 

[Excalabur50]

agreed but in thier defense that would make mobos longer thereby needing specialized cases. I think they should make better choices on cooling those beasts other than making 3 slot cards. theres gotta be a way to beat the heat without making it so farkin huge. Then nothing looks sexier than seeing 2 of those big arse 3 slot cards in ur rig smashing everything ya throw at it.

It's probably true what you say about the cases but there are some big cases out there designed for larger motherboards so it shouldn't be that hard to find a case to fit, so why not make the boards E-ATX instead of ATX? or just think obout their product a little more?

 

[Excalabur50]

Just to clarify I don't think all motherboards need to be this way just thier top end boards like the MSI Big Bang Marshal seems to have considered this where as Asus, Gigabyte and others don't seem to have.

 

[S_I_N]

It's probably true what you say about the cases but there are some big cases out there designed for larger motherboards so it shouldn't be that hard to find a case to fit, so why not make the boards E-ATX instead of ATX? or just think obout their product a little more?

dont get me wrong I agree with ya but for clarification e-atx is just wider I think ur referring to xl-atx which is like 2-3 slots longer than the atx format. But again to play devil's advocate if they made thier top end boards all this way it would limit those who purchased them as there are those (daff I know) that want the extreme in a small package. Not many ppl can afford a 300$ mobo and a 200-300 case to house it. So the mobo manufactures have to play all the angles to get the most for each end user. But oh well I doubt they'd listen to us anyways lol

 

[Excalabur50]

dont get me wrong I agree with ya but for clarification e-atx is just wider I think ur referring to xl-atx which is like 2-3 slots longer than the atx format. But again to play devil's advocate if they made thier top end boards all this way it would limit those who purchased them as there are those (daff I know) that want the extreme in a small package. Not many ppl can afford a 300$ mobo and a 200-300 case to house it. So the mobo manufactures have to play all the angles to get the most for each end user. But oh well I doubt they'd listen to us anyways lol

Ah ok thanks for the clarification on xl-atx but if you can afford the best then it should be the best and I know you agree!!

 

[S_I_N]

totally

 

[yggdrasil]

I made a post about this last week on here and agree, If Asus decide to make big coolers on their video cards them make motherboards to support it, You can fit 3 cards in a 7PCI slot mobo if its in a extended ATX case.

I want to build a mini ATX system with sli. it this rate Ill be getting XFX video cards but is no mobo from asus to suit these cards or the gigabyte cards that also take up 3 slots.

Here is a asus extreme gene mobo and it ain't fit 2 (gigabyte has a board that will fit on)

Here is the top end Asus rampage 3 Extreme Black ond only fits 2 cards if you want 3 way SLI

But here is the old Asus Maximus 3 Extreme and it dose fit 3 cards on it

Sucked in if you are a Asus fan boy and like air cooling

Wait thats me :'(

My next system is looking like it will be Gigabyte or MSI based

 

[Luger718]

anything bigger then a dual slot is stupid imho my card is a dual slot and doesnt go higher then 70 degrees

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

anything bigger then a dual slot is stupid imho my card is a dual slot and doesnt go higher then 70 degrees

Nail on the head right there.

One slot for the heatsink, one slot for the fan. What on earth do they need the third slot for?

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

What i think should be changed on mobos is the USB/audio plug at the bottom of the mobo should be pushed to the right side at 90 degrees next to the sata connectors. The 8pin power should as close as possible to the 24pin, the NB should be as close to the mosfets as possible such as the msi 890fxa-gd70 thus adding additional room for another pci lane which can be used as a sound card. [font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]





[/font]

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

What i think should be changed on mobos is the USB/audio plug at the bottom of the mobo should be pushed to the right side at 90 degrees next to the sata connectors. The 8pin power should as close as possible to the 24pin, the NB should be as close to the mosfets as possible such as the msi 890fxa-gd70 thus adding additional room for another pci lane which can be used as a sound card. [font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]





[/font]

They should also include a cheap soundcard and stop wasting space with onboard audio, allowing for yet another pci lane

 

[bleddyn]

They should also include a cheap soundcard and stop wasting space with onboard audio, allowing for yet another pci lane

I Second that motion.

 

[Sapsh]

Not on mATX though, there is little space there already, and you wouldn't be able to fit the soundcard on it with SLI/Crossfire

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

Not on mATX though, there is little space there already, and you wouldn't be able to fit the soundcard on it with SLI/Crossfire

They should put a right angle soundcard (low profile one) over the southbridge heatsink, then it won't conflict with crossfire/ sli while at the same time being upgradable - basicly put a upwards right angle pci lane for soundcards under the southbridge. With the very little space though, they'd need to make specialy flat soundcards to go along with it to actually fit in between a graphics card and the heatsink but then again why would someone be using crossfire or sli on an mAtx rig in the first place?

 

[Sapsh]

If nobody would be, then mATX board would have only one lane, imo. Actually I am planning to build a mATX rig in a couple of months time, and thinking about buying one GPU initially , but then add a second one in a year or so.

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

If nobody would be, then mATX board would have only one lane, imo. Actually I am planning to build a mATX rig in a couple of months time, and thinking about buying one GPU initially , but then add a second one in a year or so.

If you're going to be using applications demanding enough to need crossfire or sli then surely you'll be wanting the horsepower of an Atx or EAtx motherboard? You'll get bottlenecks with huge gpu horsepower on a Matx chipset

 

[Sapsh]

If you're going to be using applications demanding enough ...

No, its just for gaming

Simply don't want a massive chassis, but do want a potential upgrade option.

I dont quite understand why Z68, for example, would give bottlenecks on mATX and not ATX?

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

No, its just for gaming

Simply don't want a massive chassis, but do want a potential upgrade option.

I dont quite understand why Z68, for example, would give bottlenecks on mATX and not ATX?

I would've at least thought they'd clock the chipsets lower to put minimal strain on the cheap power supplies OEMs like to use. But that wouldn't make too much difference - I just mean if it's a chipset specifically for media PCs and not for gaming, it might affect performance.

Are you trying to build a beefed up console replacement in console form factor?