Mobo for C2D w/8800GT SLI ?

[hrbngr]

Hello,

I will be building a couple of budget systems w/the ABIT IP35 or similar , but I was wondering what the preferred mobo of choice is for ppl wanting to SLI (2) 8800GT cards for a basic gaming system--my 3rd build.

I am not looking for the absolute fastest solution, but mainly a reliable, stable motherboard. DDR2 is fine for memory, unless the X38 Mobos w/DD3 are recommended. XP Pro SP2, and a E4500 or comparable cpu round out the basic components.

I will pair this w/a 24" Soyo panel, a couple of Sata drives and burner and that's about it. I would only be doing headphones or stereo audio so an aftermarket sound card is not desired unless it makes a performance difference.

Oh, the power supply would either be a Antec true power trio 550 or 650, or Corsair 620HX --650/750TX.

Thanks!

 

[disastinator]

Not sure if the same problem exists with the IP35 but the Antec TP3 PSU does not work with the IP35 Pro. Wouldn't boot. Switched to a Corsair PSU and everything was fine.

 

[felang]

The only boards that do SLI are NVIDIA chipset boards. Best option right now is 680i SLI, but the 780i will be coming out soon. 680i boards seem to be sort of hard to come by at the moment, and they are ussually a bit more expensive than the Intel equivalent. Also, they don't seem to overclock quads as well as the P35 but with a dual core you should be fine.

If you go with a P35 or X38 boards you will only be able to do Crossfire, a pair of 3870's should be quite fast. For a 24 inch monitor you might even be able to get away with a pair of 3850's. Supposedly AMD's current AA performance is pretty bad, but new drivers should improve this substantially.

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: disastinator
Not sure if the same problem exists with the IP35 but the Antec TP3 PSU does not work with the IP35 Pro. Wouldn't boot. Switched to a Corsair PSU and everything was fine.

Maybe the PSU was faulty.

 

[Narse]

You can't run SLI on Intel chipsets only crossfire.

 

[hrbngr]

yep, preliminary research indicated that a 650i or 680i mobo is the best bet--but there are plenty of problems or issues when running that chipset--the Asus P5 mobo being the best bet, I guess. So, the real question is can I live w/a single 8800GT on a P35 mobo? That card seems to run everything but Crysis at 1920x1080 (res of the Soyo 24" panel) reasonably well. By the time a I find a solid crossfire solution, there might be a better singular graphics card from Nvidia solving that problem.

I was looking into SLI b/c somehow I picked up a 8800GT card from BBuy for about $200, so i was tempted to buy one more to do SLI.

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: hrbngr
yep, preliminary research indicated that a 650i or 680i mobo is the best bet--but there are plenty of problems or issues when running that chipset--the Asus P5 mobo being the best bet, I guess. So, the real question is can I live w/a single 8800GT on a P35 mobo? That card seems to run everything but Crysis at 1920x1080 (res of the Soyo 24" panel) reasonably well. By the time a I find a solid crossfire solution, there might be a better singular graphics card from Nvidia solving that problem.

I was looking into SLI b/c somehow I picked up a 8800GT card from BBuy for about $200, so i was tempted to buy one more to do SLI.

I'm running an 8800GT SLI with that 24 inch Soyo panel and I honestly could use a bit more performance in newer games with the settings that I like to run. Things start getting a bit rough at 1920x1200 with all settings maxed.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: hrbngr
I was looking into SLI b/c somehow I picked up a 8800GT card from BBuy for about $200, so i was tempted to buy one more to do SLI.

Buy one more, but don't do SLI. Sell it for a profit. That's what all the retailers do.

 

[disastinator]

Originally posted by: error8

Originally posted by: disastinator
Not sure if the same problem exists with the IP35 but the Antec TP3 PSU does not work with the IP35 Pro. Wouldn't boot. Switched to a Corsair PSU and everything was fine.

Maybe the PSU was faulty.

The TP3 powered my old mobo just fine. I learned later that the IP35 Pro is a little finicky when it comes to PSUs (see comments in the IP35 Pro review here). So the TP3 is happily powering up the old box.

 

[hrbngr]

Yep, I got lucky w/the pricing on that 8800GT, no doubt. aka1nas, thanks for the reply, that is excellent info considering you have a setup similar to the one i would consider. If your setup isn't fast enough to run everything at 19x12, then I doubt I would be happy trying to run SLI as well. I will need to settle on a lower resolution and most likely go for a DDR2/P35 combo, as that appears to be the best bang for the buck choice at the moment.