Build log: storage-oriented SR-2

[AceNZ]

all of your slots except slot 1 will go through NF if it follows the pattern they used with the classified.

The SR-2 has dual NF200's; in order to support quad-sli, all of the slots go through them. With the tri-sli boards, two x16's go through the NF200 and one goes direct to the IOH.

i will tell you this....i had to get rid of my original classified because of the latency that was introduced into my system by the NF200...i had to go with the non-nf version of my motherboard because the NF will limit your maximum IOPS, plus add a latency hit that is unbelievably bad.

Unfortunately, I'm starting to come to same conclusion.

they just include it because of Nvidias arm twisting to my understanding. "put the chips on there or you dont get SLI on your motherboards" is basically what i have heard.
not trying to be overdramatic here, but seriously it suxors

I didn't find out about the dual-NF200 setup on the SR-2 until after I placed my order. I knew it had a 5520, and with dual-Xeons and all those slots, just couldn't imagine that it would be a single-5520 with dual-NF200's, instead of dual 5520's. If I'd known about the NF200's, I don't think I would have gone this route.

I'm wondering now if it might be possible to overcome some of the NF200 latency by overclocking. I'm doubtful, but it seems worth a try before swapping it out for a server board.

BTW, several people have asked what @Tilt has done to make his system so fast. I'm increasingly convinced that the answer is easy: he's running a server board, with real I/O capability, instead of these hacked sli-focused boards (which includes things like the Asus "Supercomputer", etc).

Didn't the non nf200 have a max config of 16x16x 8x8x or something where as the nf200 version has 16x16x16x8x

Non-NF200 boards with 5520's or X58's are limited to 36 PCIe lanes; often 32 of them are exposed in slots -- so maybe x16x8x8, or x16x8x4x4, or something like that, usually with some kind of switching thrown in for either/or type configs.