Which motherboard? Crossfire or not?

[Skaar]

Hey everyone, I'm building a pc soon and I'm finally ready to actually buy parts! (I was waiting for new ati cards to come out)

Here is a rough estimate of what will be on my PC, I still need to do research on a few components.

CPU: E8400
Power: Around 650W..depends on if i decide on crossfire
Video: HD4850 or HD4870 (was thinking of grabbing another later for crossfire..possibly)
HD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 750Gb
Case: Not sure yet (full tower)
Memory: 2 x 2GB DDR2-1066..probably mushkin/corsair
Monitor: 24" 1920 x 1200

So my biggest obstacle is deciding if its worth it to buy a motherboard that supports crossfire mode, and if it is..which one: x16/x16 (expensive x38/x48), x8/x8(p45), or x16/x4(p35).

All the x38's/x48's I've seen are $200+ and i was hoping to spend $75-$150 on a mobo.
I was wondering how the P35's/P45's fare on crossfire but haven't seen many reviews (cept the one on tweaktown)...where it shows P45 doing worse on some games but sometimes keeping up. I think P35's x16/x4 crossfire is worse than x8/x8 so I probably wouldn't get P35 for crossfire.

P35/P45 crossfire I believe is a lot cheaper to get and I think I would go with P45 if it won't make a big difference in crossfire performance.

I could just ditch the whole crossfire thing as well..and go with a cheap P35 (definitely would get a 4870 then).

Thanks a lot!

EDIT: I calculated the power consumption on extreme power...and it says i only need about 350Watts (i put in 3870 X2 in crossfire)...so even if i get hd 4870 do you think it would be good getting 500-550W power supply?

 

[BurnItDwn]

I don't know much about the Intel Chipsets, and my 939 is still hanging on at an acceptable level, so I probably won't be biting the bullet until fall, so I can't answer about the P35 vs P45. I'd guess that the 4x for the second card on the p35 would be enough of a chokepoint to really hurt the performance, so p45 sounds like the way to go.

As far as power consumption is concerned, the components you listed above, you would probably be fine with any quality 500-550 watt power supply.
If you were to jump up to a pair of 4870s in SLI, it would probably still deliver adequate power.

That said, it might be "close" and it may not leave you room for potential future upgrades down the road. For example, If you wanted to upgrade to the latest and greatest quad core CPU in a year or two, you would probably need to replace the power supply. Or if eventually you decide you need to have 11 hard drives, you may not have enough juice. Or if you decide you want to upgrade your video card in a year or two, new cards may require more power.....


Depending on what your future upgrade path looks like, and if you plan to keep your power supply around for several generations of hardware, or if you just want whatever it will take for the current build, you may want to go with something more powerful.

I bought a 465 watt Enermax power supply years and years ago, when everybody else was buying 300 watt or 350 watt power supplies. The power supply has lasted through several platform changes (socket A to Socket 754 to Socket 939.) When I bought it, I would have been fine with a good 300 watt PS.

I guess if you upgrade/replace your system every year or two, you can buy a new Power Supply every time, or you can just go a bit overkill at first, and use the same PS until it no longer is compatible with new hardware.

 

[iBPJohn]

This P45 looks pretty good

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813131299

The price difference for crossfire or not doesn't seem to be too big, so even if you're thinking about it, just go ahead and go for it.

 

[Skaar]

Thanks for the responses!

Hmm, if I decide to go with Crossfire board + 4870 I might bump up the power supply just a bit..maybe 650W/750W, I think corsair sells one thats $100.

@iBPJohn
Well its not crossfire vs not-crossfire I'm debating about, its p45 vs x38/x48 since the price difference is pretty big there (all x38's/x48's are above $200 except the dfi board which is tempting @ $185) - the main problem being the speed(bandwidth?) of the pci-e ports with p45 only being x8/x8 vs. x38/x48 being x16/x16.

I think I may have convinced myself to go with the DFI board to guarantee crossfire at x16/x16 speeds, unless anyone has any suggestions

 

[Sylvanas]

Originally posted by: Skaar
Thanks for the responses!

Hmm, if I decide to go with Crossfire board + 4870 I might bump up the power supply just a bit..maybe 650W/750W, I think corsair sells one thats $100.

@iBPJohn
Well its not crossfire vs not-crossfire I'm debating about, its p45 vs x38/x48 since the price difference is pretty big there (all x38's/x48's are above $200 except the dfi board which is tempting @ $185) - the main problem being the speed(bandwidth?) of the pci-e ports with p45 only being x8/x8 vs. x38/x48 being x16/x16.

I think I may have convinced myself to go with the DFI board to guarantee crossfire at x16/x16 speeds, unless anyone has any suggestions

P45 vs X48 Crossfire review bottom line, for these new cards and Crossfire you ideally want an X38/48 board.

 

[Skaar]

Yeah I read that review and its what made me lean towards X38/X48..I'm trying to find more comparisons between P45 and x38/x48 because I don't like to reply on just one site.

If anyone's seen any more comparisons please post!

Also,

Anyone know how good these boards are?

ABIT IX38 Quad GT LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard

DFI LANPARTY DK X38-T2R LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard

Also there is a FOXCONN and ECS one:

ECS X48T-A (1.0) LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard
Foxconn X38A LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard

but I've never heard of these brands and don't really know if they're good.

I'm trying to find the cheapest board i can get that is still good (I don't want open box).

 

[Mustanggt]

I dont run at 2560x1600 as high as i go is 1650x1050 so if i look at those nunbers i am just a few frames down from the X board except n crysis, so the real question is is it worth paying $100++ more for the X board, If i had a 30Inch Monitor i guess i would have to get the X board but for most people that dont have one a P45 will due just fine.

 

[Sylvanas]

Yeah I read that review and its what made me lean towards X38/X48..I'm trying to find more comparisons between P45 and x38/x48 because I don't like to reply on just one site.

Yeah I don't blame you, but it appear Tweaktown are the only 'professional' site to do such a comparison that's why the article was all around the Video forum recently. It has been known for a while however, from various users experiences, that Crossfire/SLI increases the traffic over the PCI-E bus in which case the PCI-E bus itself can become the bottleneck very quickly.

Also,

Anyone know how good these boards are?

ABIT IX38 Quad GT LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard

DFI LANPARTY DK X38-T2R LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard

Also there is a FOXCONN and ECS one:

ECS X48T-A (1.0) LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard
Foxconn X38A LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard

The Abit is a solid board/OC'er for the X38 plenty of info in a Google search. DFI and generally considered the bee-knees for enthusiasts and they make excellent board, albeit require a little tweaking (not for the beginner). I have no experience with ECS, they usually stick to building budget boards. Foxconn are the largest manufacturer in the world and pretty much make everyone's stuff, chances are you've used a computer that is produced by Foxconn- they are only recently breaking into the enthusiast market and I haven't seen any complaints about their boards, in general very good.