3%| MAXIMUMPC | SEP 08 | http://www.maximumpc.com
Intel’s original V8 S5000XVN motherboard was essentially a relabeled
dual-Xeon board pitched as an enthusiast board, which it wasn’t.
Intel took the lessons it learned from the V8 and created the
much improved Skulltrail D5400XS board. Gone are the
eight FB-DIMM slots and SAS features. In are Cross-
Fire support, overclocking features, and a more
traditional, more capable (for most folks) Intel
ICH9R south bridge. The cherry on top is the
D5400XS’s added support for SLI via the
board’s two nForce 100 chips. That makes it
the only platform that will run either CrossFire or
SLI out of the box with public drivers. Awesome, right? It
was until Nvidia decided to not support its latest generation of
cards on Skulltrail. Why? It’s this damned war between Nvidia and Intel.
And frankly, the situation sucks. If the parties involved ever get their
heads out of their butts, the D5400XS will rightly take its place as the
holy grail of platforms.The dimensions of the Blackbird chassis limited
our options for water cooling this year’s Dream
Machine. We opted for a Black Ice Pro2 Xfl ow
radiator, as it’s one of the slimmer two-fan radiators
we’ve tested. The reservoir is the same model from
last year’s Dream Machine, Danger Den’s single-
bay tank.
The entire assembly is outfi tted with half-inch
tubing and fi ttings. A super-powerful DD12V-D
pump ensures a speedy fl ow rate for our fl uid,
Feser One clear UV-reactive coolant. This, in ad-
dition to our two D-TEK FuZion v2 CPU blocks,
ensures that the processors will stay well within a
healthy thermal range as we push this machine to
its outer limits. Two silent Enermax Everest 12cm
fans maintain low coolant temperatures.motherboardmotherboardmotherboardmotherboardmotherboardmotherboardmotherboardmotherboardmotherboardmotherboardmotherboard
coolingcoolingcoolingcooling
Intel D5400XS
The mother of all, um, motherboards
A Custom Water-Cooling Extravaganza!
Our home-brewed cooling kit offers maximum performance and minimal noise
Intel’s original V8 S5000XVN motherboard was essentially a relabeled
dual-Xeon board pitched as an enthusiast board, which it wasn’t.
Intel took the lessons it learned from the V8 and created the
much improved Skulltrail D5400XS board. Gone are the
eight FB-DIMM slots and SAS features. In are Cross-
Fire support, overclocking features, and a more
traditional, more capable (for most folks) Intel
ICH9R south bridge. The cherry on top is thethe only platform that will run either CrossFire or
SLI out of the box with public drivers. Awesome, right? It
was until Nvidia decided to not support its latest generation of
cards on Skulltrail. Why? It’s this damned war between Nvidia and Intel.
And frankly, the situation sucks. If the parties involved ever get their
heads out of their butts, the D5400XS will rightly take its place as themotherboardmotherboardmotherboardmotherboardmotherboardmotherboardmotherboardmotherboardmotherboardmotherboardmotherboardmotherboardmotherboardmotherboardmotherboardmotherboardmotherboardmotherboardmotherboardmotherboard
DREAM MACHINE ’