Skulltrail water only?

I was looking at the spec's of the Intel 5400DX (skulltrail) and for the extreme proc's, Intel says to use a recomended water cooling setup.
I am a big air cooling fanboy and have never used water cooling and I'm wondering if water is the only way.
It was a couple of days ago when I read the spec's so I can't remember which proc I was looking at I think it was the Q9550 or Q9560.
Are the thermal requirements that much that water is the only wat to go?
We are thinking of starting an Extreme line of computers to offer on our site, and the Skulltrail would be at or near the top of our lineup.
We don't want to sell the same old computers that J.S. would buy.
We would like any suggestions on what to offer, as the 5400 is getting long in the tooth...in other words, what would you like to see in a comercialy available system.
Thks,
Doc

I've looked at that type of setup for a longtime now just out of messing around and have seen people using 2xUltra chill-tec's even when they came out. And the Ultras pretty much aren't very good for cooling compared to much these days.

I've one I dont use anymore, heh.

Looks a pretty serious MOBO for someone doing video editing etc, but not sure a viable setup for a gaming seller.

Got me, but I've seen pictures of em using air no problem.

I'm sure water would be better of course, good luck with the venture With the I-7's developing more in the future I'd be doubtful the price of putting a good skull trail computer together to compete these days might be viable, but then again I might be clueless.



Build it and they may come I guess

Honestly though, they've been out awhile now, I think someone would have been using em by now if they were really commercially practical. I imagine there are some nice one's out there but for the money anyone wanting something that far out would do it themselves I'd think.

A high-end air-cooler (well...2 of them) would be plenty for Skulltrail...assuming you can fit them on the board. Skulltrial is 771 so neither the Q9550 or the Q9650 would work. You need the QX9770...2 of them. QX9770 is based on the older stepping, and the newer E0-stepping Q9650 OC's much better, runs cooler w/ less voltage, and is a LOT cheaper.

There is also a server line of 771 CPU's that are a lot cheaper than the extreme QX9770, but they are still not worth it.

Skulltrail is old now and super expensive compared to a good i7 setup. A single CPU i7 920 system would murder it for a LOT less money.

I haven't looked into it, but I know i7 supports Quickpath (Inter-CPU connection), so I'm sure there are boards out there that support 2 or more I7 CPU's. That's what you need to look at if you're going to offer an extreme product like this.

Having more CPUs isn't going to help gaming at all, though.

A high-end air-cooler (well...2 of them) would be plenty for Skulltrail...assuming you can fit them on the board. Skulltrial is 771 so neither the Q9550 or the Q9650 would work. You need the QX9770...2 of them. QX9770 is based on the older stepping, and the newer E0-stepping Q9650 OC's much better, runs cooler w/ less voltage, and is a LOT cheaper.

There is also a server line of 771 CPU's that are a lot cheaper than the extreme QX9770, but they are still not worth it.

Skulltrail is old now and super expensive compared to a good i7 setup. A single CPU i7 920 system would murder it for a LOT less money.

I haven't looked into it, but I know i7 supports Quickpath (Inter-CPU connection), so I'm sure there are boards out there that support 2 or more I7 CPU's. That's what you need to look at if you're going to offer an extreme product like this.

Having more CPUs isn't going to help gaming at all, though.

Here's what I'm looking at in a dual socket workstation: Air cooled of course

No guarantee of an overclock solution like the Skulltrail but I'm sure someone will figure out one eventually. Also two i7s at stock might equal or exceed an overclocked pair of C2Q chips.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131378

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131374

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134944

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ption=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=

WOW, them is some pricey meatballs...that mem is way high compared to ddr2 that is near the same bandwidth.

jason4207 said:

I haven't looked into it, but I know i7 supports Quickpath (Inter-CPU connection), so I'm sure there are boards out there that support 2 or more I7 CPU's. That's what you need to look at if you're going to offer an extreme product like this.

Click to expand...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813151201

18 DDR3 slots and can support up to 144GB of RAM! It only works with Xeon processors though.

MarkS said:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813151201

18 DDR3 slots and can support up to 144GB of RAM! It only works with Xeon processors though.

Click to expand...

The cpu sockets are very close together... how would you fit heatsinks to them...?