Intel’s latest top of the line motherboard, the Intel D5400XS, is the only desktop motherboard that I can say can perform as a gaming rig as well as performing the duties of a 24/7 server. It might be a pointless,stupid and unnecessary idea to do so because this would boost the price tremendously so no one will be able buy this board but that is just what Intel is all about.., to be able to balance extreme reliability and extreme performance. I dubbed it as the first ever retail "Overclocked Server" even though it is not a common thing to overclock servers. c(”,).

I am an avid fan of ATI and AMD as gaming platforms but since I work as a Systems Administrator, Software Developer, Web Developer and a hardcore Gaming enthusiast, I will always prefer a motherboard and a processor that can handle such tasks that pertain in each category, power, reliability, speed, efficiency and have good support. Based on my experience maintaining AMD class workstations (use, udpating bios, installing, formatting, bios/OS optimizations etc..), AMD is just not cut out to do this, AMD will always be for extreme graphics games and light computer processing. This is due to some motherboards that support the AMD platform, I will probably write a future article on why this is so. This motherboard however is a supports of all of the above. I was so amazed seeing this board when it first came out in February of 2008. Back then I was expecting if there was ever going to be a Pentium 5. Intel also does not support overclocking in their boards but this board is in the Extreme Series so it can do overclocking as well.

Intel® Desktop Board D5400XS (Retail Edition)

As a Server and Workstation

The Intel D5400XS can support 8 cores and is based on a Xeon supporting motherboard, Intel’s Xeon supporting motherboards are the best there is when it comes to reliability, as an example, Xeon class motherboards are used by IBM in its servers. I as a Systems Administrator have dealt with IBM Servers, they are very reliable and can be left on for months without slowing down and in my experience as an Intel user I too know how Intel boards are well built. My previous computer has Pentium 3 motherboard D815EEA2, it lasted me 5 years formatting only twice in that span. Dual booting with Windows 98 and Windows XP, it ran for at least 5-8 hours a days because my sister also uses it in the evening for her school assignments and other online activities, plus I leave it running to do downloads and uploads. I do not even hesitate or get scared in updating Intel’s motherboard BIOS, it’s just that reliable. It was the opposite back then when I still had a motherboard with a VIA chipset running S3… >_<

As a Gaming Platform

Let me just say one thing. Triple-crossfire support I do not know about Quadfire, looking at the board I do not think it will fit. Too bad for NVIDIA though it can only support 2 SLI and not triple. c(”,)

/hmm: It is a bit weird thought though, ATI is owned by AMD but Intel supports ATI over NVIDIA…

All in All

It’s an extremely good board! A bit expensive though but if you need a well balanced computer that will last you a long time, let us say 5 years or more, This motherboard or perhaps any Intel motherboard would be the best way to go.