3 Way SLI LGA 1155 Without drops from 16bit

[marnusnieuwoudt]

Hi Guys,

Ok to start off with, I'm not building a machine for gaming so please don't say I dont need such high specs! 😛

Im looking to build a media server that is going to be used in the entertainment industry. Plan on running 6 large scale projectors to make one big image for animation/video mapping against big buildings etc. The projectors get 'mapped' to only display on certain parts of a building and also to be one seamless image.

I can get 3x SAPPHIRE HD 5970 2GB GDDR5 PCIE cards at a bargain second hand (each card would run 2x projectors)

The software Im gonna be using demands a bit of resources, but nothing major, a nice i7 with 16 gb mem should do the trick.
Now I need to run 3 graphics cards and needed advice on a MOBO for my application, I need to run all 3 cards at 16x without drops to 8x or anything like that. Then i also need one small card slot or onboard graphics just for a monitor for preview and GUI

I also need to add a WIFI card and a capturing card etc so i need a few pci slots

Is this at all possible or do I need to use a server board and xeon processing for this?

Also budget wise it would be nice to keep costs down, but I know a machine like this is gonna be pricey anyways and im prepared to pay.

Im not the smartest guy with the latest specs and not much of a gamer or PC enthusiast at all, I just know what i need to know so im not to clued up about the limits of LGA1155 boards so,,,

Any help would be appreciated! 😀

 

[Xttony]

First I think it will be cheaper for you to get two hd 7770 sapphire flex edition cards for about $150 each.
Motherboards with 3 pcie x16 are very expensive and you wanna stick to the x8 slots as they are pretty fast too also since you are not gaming there will not be a bandwidth bottleneck issue.
Motherboard
ASRock z77 extreme 4 for two pcie x8 cards
ASUS Maximus three pcie slots

 

[marnusnieuwoudt]

First I think it will be cheaper for you to get two hd 7770 sapphire flex edition cards for about $150 each.
Motherboards with 3 pcie x16 are very expensive and you wanna stick to the x8 slots as they are pretty fast too also since you are not gaming there will not be a bandwidth bottleneck issue.
Motherboard
ASRock z77 extreme 4 for two pcie x8 cards
ASUS Maximus three pcie slots

Im getting the HD 5970's at quite a bargain and Im gonna be running Hi-res animations and a few layers of HD video and also gonna be using a capture card to send 4k video to different LED Screens aswell (Making the machine for a few purposes) so I think im gonna get those cards (Paying around $200 per card)

Are there motherboards available that do offer 3 pcie x16 slots? I just want to look at all the options

Thanks for the advise though! Ill check those out so long

 

[Xttony]

The motherboard I know of is ASUS rampage IV X79 LGA2011 and $430. Your cards will run fine in pcie x8 3.0. For that get http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157287

 

[maestro0428]

Not sure if I am picturing exactly what you are planning, but you will need to look at X79 boards and Xeon chips to get that many lanes. No 680 or 7970 saturates even a 2.0 bus, let alone a 3.0. That being so, you can get away with 3x8 lanes of 3.0. Also for 200 bucks a card you could get some 570GTXs which would be faster. You could stay with an 1155 board like this one as it has what you needs -8x pci 3.0 slots. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157322

 

[marnusnieuwoudt]

Not sure if I am picturing exactly what you are planning, but you will need to look at X79 boards and Xeon chips to get that many lanes. No 680 or 7970 saturates even a 2.0 bus, let alone a 3.0. That being so, you can get away with 3x8 lanes of 3.0. Also for 200 bucks a card you could get some 570GTXs which would be faster. You could stay with an 1155 board like this one as it has what you needs -8x pci 3.0 slots. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157322

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IICGkOtJ9E&noredirect=1 <-- thats pretty much the type of thing we planning on doing!

Thanks for all the advise guys Think i'm gonna go for ASRock Z77