John Russell wrote:

I see PCI Express as more of a "stuck with" than a "must have". I
think we
would all have been better served if they had instead of PCI Express
put PCI-X in their chipsets as a standard feature. But that
wouldn't have forced one to upgrade any other components in order to
replace a motherboard.

It's interesting when the "industry" thinks it in control and control
what people buy. Some company "breaks rank" and offers users an
alternative. There was Nvidia thinking that Intel users wanting SLI
would have to get Nforce5. Now gigabyte have produced SLI on a
single card requring a normal PCI-e motherboard, and Intel users can
continue to use Intel chipsets and have SLI! I doubt many people
could afford to buy a twin card SLI as a complete PC solution, even
if the system builders offer it. So for most SLI would be something
to progress towards, and gigabyte have offered an alaternative way of
doing that!

You gotta love the free market system...

dvus