Which motherboard ???

[Cain]

This one??

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813188025


or this one ??

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813188024

[Duke{CLR}]

I guess you would need to figure out what kind of memory you would want to run. The 790 and the DDR3 will both be more expensive but may be a bit more future proof.

[juneau]

So your definitely going SLI Cain? I really don't think you should. If you have your heart set though, i'd go for the 790i. No point in getting an older board. I'd also go for the DDR2 version. DDR3 really doesn't add any advancement over DDR2.

[Cain]

Say that again Juneau ?? Your two statements conflicted.....

[CarbonFire]

Say that again Juneau ?? Your two statements conflicted.....

Perhaps he meant the 780i?

Stick with the 780i and high-speed DDR2. It'll probably be at least a year before DDR3 truly becomes "worth it". Or you could save a bundle and just get a high-speed non-SLI P35 board, as Juneau suggests. I'd say if you care at all about SLI and high memory timings though, that 780i looks mighty fine

[BenKenobi]

I'd say get the 780i. I never really planned on getting SLI, but it's always a nice option to have. If you get a 9800gtx and then those drop in price sometime soon you can always stick another one in there and get a large performance boost.

Buy eVGA! it rox!

[BenKenobi]

BTW I have the 780i

[Cain]

I'd say get the 780i. I never really planned on getting SLI, but it's always a nice option to have. If you get a 9800gtx and then those drop in price sometime soon you can always stick another one in there and get a large performance boost.

Buy eVGA! it rox!

That's my plan ....

[DougBob]

I'd say get the 780i. I never really planned on getting SLI, but it's always a nice option to have. If you get a 9800gtx and then those drop in price sometime soon you can always stick another one in there and get a large performance boost.

Buy eVGA! it rox!

Agree

[juneau]

Perhaps he meant the 780i?

Stick with the 780i and high-speed DDR2. It'll probably be at least a year before DDR3 truly becomes "worth it". Or you could save a bundle and just get a high-speed non-SLI P35 board, as Juneau suggests. I'd say if you care at all about SLI and high memory timings though, that 780i looks mighty fine

I did. But i also misread something on OcUk that made it seem like EVGA did two flavours of the 790i. One with DDR2, one with DDR3. I need to email them about that. It's confusing.

I'm kinda out of the loop with SLI motherboards right now. No need to guess why that is.

[Duke{CLR}]

I used the option of SLI when I first built my rig and it worked well. I have also toyed with the idea of getting another GTS 640 just to see what happens. The only game I play now that I need more HP for is Crysis and I don't think it would help that much.

Don't forget that ESA works on the 780/790 boards. Who knows if it will take off but its fun if you like to see what all your parts are doing.

[CarbonFire]

I did. But i also misread something on OcUk that made it seem like EVGA did two flavours of the 790i. One with DDR2, one with DDR3. I need to email them about that. It's confusing.

I'm kinda out of the loop with SLI motherboards right now. No need to guess why that is.

I think at one time they were planning on offering it both ways, they just dropped the DDR2 support it seems in the final build.

[juneau]

I think at one time they were planning on offering it both ways, they just dropped the DDR2 support it seems in the final build.

Bad idea to drop it imo. With how cheap DDR2 is right now it's stupid for anyone to buy into DDR3.

Going to try this one more time.

Why SLI is bad

Motherboards:

Price. An never was it more obvious then during the Intel LGA775 era. The 780i's on release were almost if not more than double the price of P35 boards, and this is now the same for the 790i range. And for what? SLI capable PCI-E ports? Are Nvidia making them from gold or something? If you ask anybody to recommend you a board without knowing anything else they'll almost certainly spec you a P35 board. Not just because they're cheaper but because the P35 range contains LGA775's best manufacturered/designed boards.

Abit IP35 Pro
Asus PK5
Gigabyte P35-DS3R

The above is the top 3 in my opinion, and the opinion of a lot of others too.

Graphics cards:

SLI has bugs. These bugs are becoming less and less but they're still there.
Not all games are SLI coded. I'd hate to find that the latest and greatest game wasn't SLI capable if i was using the technology. $350 paper weight FTW.

Now here's the main points as to why i really dislike SLI or Crossfire.

You buy 1 card. You get to use 100% of it's power. You add a second card but only recieve 50-60% of it's power. This is the biggest flaw in Dual Card setups if you ask me, and leads me onto my next point.
You buy a second identical card at 100% of it's price yet only recieve 50-60% of it's power depending on which game. Now if they sold 'SLI/Crossfire packs' where it would be 50-60% cheaper than buying the two cards seperately i would probably go for it myself. But as it's stands you have one card sitting there twiddling it's thumbs just because it's got a 'friend' to play with.

This is probably a bad analogy but here we go...

Imagine you bought two brand spanking new identical 42" HDTV's. You take them home and simultaneously hook them up to the same HD source. You turn on TV1. A stunning 42" 1080p picture is displayed. You then turn on TV2 aswell. But even though the screen is 42" you only see a 32" image with black borders all around.

You won't hear anymore from me on the subject now.

[ThisElfRocksHard]

You buy 1 card. You get to use 100% of it's power. You add a second card but only recieve 50-60% of it's power. This is the biggest flaw in Dual Card setups if you ask me, and leads me onto my next point.
You buy a second identical card at 100% of it's price yet only recieve 50-60% of it's power depending on which game. Now if they sold 'SLI/Crossfire packs' where it would be 50-60% cheaper than buying the two cards seperately i would probably go for it myself. But as it's stands you have one card sitting there twiddling it's thumbs just because it's got a 'friend' to play with.

This is probably a bad analogy but here we go...

Imagine you bought two brand spanking new identical 42" HDTV's. You take them home and simultaneously hook them up to the same HD source. You turn on TV1. A stunning 42" 1080p picture is displayed. You then turn on TV2 aswell. But even though the screen is 42" you only see a 32" image with black borders all around.

You won't hear anymore from me on the subject now.

I can't +1 this enough. And your analogy is perfect. If I have to pay a lot of money for one GPU with 1 gig of ram, and I have to pay that amount AGAIN for the exact same card with 1 gig of ram THAT WILL NEVER BE USED??!!

[WalkinTarget]

That Abit IP35 board is also available as yet another mid range model known as the Dark Raider.
http://www.overclockersclub.com/revi...35_darkraider/

The price is also nice with rebate, so I think either board is an exceptional choice. I love my 650i, but its supposed Yorkfield/Penryn support is quickly becoming false advertising, as the MSI CPU support page lists the chips as compatible, but only one guy has supposedly gotten it working.

I don't need to upgrade, but my short list would start with some flavor of the Abit IP35 board. Its price is so low compared to other boards that the feature set of that higher priced board would HAVE to give me something to warrant its price increase, or else its wasted money.