Intel D5400XS Motherboard

One glance at the Intel D5400XS motherboard with its dual-CPU sockets and active chipset cooling is enough to tell you that this isn't your normal PC motherboard. Code named Skulltrail, the Intel D5400XS represents Intel's ultimate PC motherboard platform. Regular motherboards only have a single CPU socket, two PCI Express slots, and support for only one of the two competing dual-GPU formats. In comparison, the Skulltrail has two processor sockets, four x16 PCI Express video card slots, and built-in support for both SLI and CrossFire. If you set two Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9775 processors in the board, you have an 8-core monster ready to run.
The Skulltrail code name follows the pirate-naming theme started with the "Bonetrail" code name for Intel's X38 motherboard. Intel was able to supercharge the board by making a couple of aggressive design decisions. Engineers built the board around the Intel 5400 workstation chipset instead of using its standard X38 or P35 desktop chipset. The chipset choice gives Skulltrail advanced features not available on normal desktop motherboards, such as dual-CPU support, but it also brings new requirements, including a new CPU socket, LGA771, and DDR2 FBDIMM memory. We aren't thrilled with the FBDIMM requirement, but the modules aren't too difficult to find and don't cost much more than unbuffered DIMMS.