Motherboard without chipset

[williamcll]

Here is a thought : Instead of a chipset on the motherboard. You only get PCIe slots as well as whatever the CPU itself could provide. This way you could cut costs and save space from unnecessary I/Os. Any peripherals that you need can be gained from a PCIe card. 

[DoctorNick]

4 minutes ago, williamcll said:

Here is a thought : Instead of a chipset on the motherboard. You only get PCIe slots as well as whatever the CPU itself could provide. This way you could cut costs and save space from unnecessary I/Os. Any peripherals that you need can be gained from a PCIe card. 

This is almost the way newer chipsets work.

[williamcll]

Well the X570 is still pretty far away from being non existent from the AM4

[Automobili3XF]

I talked about this idea a few years ago after i saw a vintage IMSAI 8080 microcomputer for the first time.

It came with the bare basics to classify it as a computer, anything else the user wanted, like a video interface, could be added via S-100 expansion cards.

 

I think this is a great idea, nowadays we could have a platform similar to this, say with an AM4 or LGA 1151 CPU socket, tons of PCI-E or a newer, similar standard, slots for expansion.

One of the main problems i have with my motherboards is that i just don't use a lot of the features i end up paying for, like high quality audio (which i handle externally), wireless network capabilities, USB 2.0 ports, you name it, in a platform such as this, we would be able to choose exactly what we want to integrate in our systems.

The one thing that could and would doom this idea out is the ATX and ITX standardization, a system like this would need a completely redesigned case, with different mounting points and IO plates at the back.

Not only that, all CPUs for this standard would have to be re engineered to work with it, if PCI-E was the chosen standard we would need tons of lanes to make the system work.

[Bombastinator]

28 minutes ago, 1984_C10 said:

I talked about this idea a few years ago after i saw a vintage IMSAI 8080 microcomputer for the first time.

It came with the bare basics to classify it as a computer, anything else the user wanted, like a video interface, could be added via S-100 expansion cards.

 

I think this is a great idea, nowadays we could have a platform similar to this, say with an AM4 or LGA 1151 CPU socket, tons of PCI-E or a newer, similar standard, slots for expansion.

One of the main problems i have with my motherboards is that i just don't use a lot of the features i end up paying for, like high quality audio (which i handle externally), wireless network capabilities, USB 2.0 ports, you name it, in a platform such as this, we would be able to choose exactly what we want to integrate in our systems.

The one thing that could and would doom this idea out is the ATX and ITX standardization, a system like this would need a completely redesigned case, with different mounting points and IO plates at the back.

Not only that, all CPUs for this standard would have to be re engineered to work with it, if PCI-E was the chosen standard we would need tons of lanes to make the system work.

 

1 hour ago, VegetableStu said:

EPYC literally does this. I have a sneaking suspicion that AMD refuses to qualify Threadripper boards without their respective chipsets ._.

And epyc has tons of lanes.  Explains a thing I saw around here mentioning that enterprise users are always desperate for more pcie lanes.

I could see this making consumer CPUs real expensive.

What a chipset mostly seems to do is run a ton of low speed stuff like motherboard housekeeping, USB, and SATA I/0 and port it through a few lanes of pcie.  I could see it as being extremely wasteful of pcie lane bandwidth.  Imagine running motherboard housekeeping like power /reset buttons on a whole pcie lane.