"As chipsets go, the Intel P45 Express is largely identical to the P35 Express which preceded it, so if you're familiar with that platform the P45 will be a comfortable fit from the first boot up. The main difference is PCI Express 2.0 compliance, and to that end Biostar have equipped the TPower I45 with a pair of PCI Express x16 slots. Electrically that means a single videocard, either ATI or nVidia, will runs with 16 PCIe lanes (x16) of data bandwidth, while two ATI videocards operating in Crossfire will receive 8 PCIe lanes each (x8/x8). The second PCI Express x16 slot is disabled unless it's being used for Crossfire, but both slots are PCI Express 2.0 compliant."