ECS mobo that supports both Intel and AMD CPUs

[Admiral]

Here at CeBIT 2005, you see innovation galore, but at the ECS stand they have something truly special that stands out as being one of the hottest products of the show. HEXUS brings you the ECS PF88, the first mainboard to support both Intel P4 AND AMD Athlon 64 processors.

hexus.net

[DGhost]

what really disturbs me, and also underscores my absolute hatred of Hexus, is the fact that they get so goddamn retarded over that board. interesting idea, but there is a 99% chance that it is going to suck hard and be too expensive at the same time. so why the hell is Hexus getting so freaking excited about it?

[schmosef]

For those who truly cannot decide...

ECS are attempting to remove the cost problem inherent in switching between an Intel or AMD machine.

I didn't realise that this was such an industry problem. Usually, people choose one platform or the other, then decide again when it's time for a new computer.

I guess it could be viable for OEMs who want to steamline their manufacturing process, but the cost of going AMD would be higher because they'd still have to pay for the Intel chipset, even if it's disabled.

As far as innovation goes, this is up there... Reminds me of some PCI cards I heard about a long time ago. They allowed you to upgrade a Pentium PC to a higher speed Celeron. Am I remembering that correctly?

[schmosef]

what really disturbs me, and also underscores my absolute hatred of Hexus, is the fact that they get so goddamn retarded over that board. interesting idea, but there is a 99% chance that it is going to suck hard and be too expensive at the same time. so why the hell is Hexus getting so freaking excited about it?

Reminds me of the expression: "Jack of all trades, master of none!'

[DGhost]

exactly. you know, if they really were concerned about it they could have simply moved the northbridge onto the processor card and make it use that - kinda like the old backplane/single board computer systems.

shit, why has someone not taken advantage of the Hypertransport link to make one for the Athlon 64 - drop an nForce chipset on the backplane and then you have processor cards for Socket 754, 939, 940 and possibly even a dual one. ****ing way too easy.

oh well.

[Technoid]

Mutant motherboard from hell

The design is stupid

On the other hand, DGhosts idea is intriguing

[G400SG16mb]

they'd do better selling a Socket 7 motherboard than that thing.

[Chrono_Wanderer]

they'd do better selling a Socket 7 motherboard than that thing.

ROFLMAO

[Kurt]

Mutant motherboard from hell

The design is stupid

On the other hand, DGhosts idea is intriguing

If product lifecycles were longer, it could be viable. Alas, technologies change all the time...and you just WANT all the new features...

[DGhost]

If product lifecycles were longer, it could be viable. Alas, technologies change all the time...and you just WANT all the new features...

so? the rest of the motherboard features (aside from the processor and memory) would be determined by the backplane - and without the processor socket and memory slots to worry about, the boards would be inherently cheaper and easier to produce. you would easily be able to transition your system from, say, AGP to PCIe without replacing the processor or memory. hell, you wouldn't even need to unmount your heatsink and fan.

[Kurt]

the thing is, when a new socket comes out, you also find all sorts of new technologies. you'd be selling to the upgrade market, which is a small part of the retail market, which is about 10% of the global market.

it sure is an interesting product, it probably deserves to see the light of day, but it requires vison from a company and we just don't get much of that in the PC industry (justlook at the design...) what drives this industry is cost, not ppl believing into interesting products (apart from eventual technical difficulties).

ECS and ASRock seem to be into daughter-cards right now...send them an e-mail, who knows?

[RichL]

exactly. you know, if they really were concerned about it they could have simply moved the northbridge onto the processor card and make it use that - kinda like the old backplane/single board computer systems.

shit, why has someone not taken advantage of the Hypertransport link to make one for the Athlon 64 - drop an nForce chipset on the backplane and then you have processor cards for Socket 754, 939, 940 and possibly even a dual one. ****ing way too easy.

oh well.

I'd imagine it's all a question of economics. I'm sure theres a bigger profit margin selling a complete integrated motherboard than there would be selling you a Processor only board and a backplane that would last until it wore out.
Not forgetting that aside from us enthusiasts, most home and business users arent interested in upgrading desktop workstations peicemeal. If you have a hundred computers that are too slow, it's quicker and cheaper to buy a complete new set of computers and write the old ones off than it is to buy a handfull of components and pay your tech staff to go around upgrading them on overtime.

[Marshmallowman]

exactly. you know, if they really were concerned about it they could have simply moved the northbridge onto the processor card and make it use that - kinda like the old backplane/single board computer systems.

shit, why has someone not taken advantage of the Hypertransport link to make one for the Athlon 64 - drop an nForce chipset on the backplane and then you have processor cards for Socket 754, 939, 940 and possibly even a dual one. ****ing way too easy.

oh well.

As I recall sun make a board wher you can add another CPU like that, quite proprietry as it uses a connector on the side of the mobo.(actuall it may have been dual to quad)

and I think asrock made a few a few boards that were upgradable from socket A to 754/939 and a socket 754 board that is upgradable to 939(includes 4 dimms sockets)

[Kurt]

SUN = dual to quad

ASRock: they have 4 boards with the optional S754/939 card + 1 board with both sockets

http://www.asrockamerica.com/Products.htm