Motherboard advice

General Forums Off-topic Chat
#1

The LIGHT has had a job for a few weeks now, and plans to build a custom powerhouse PC with his cash. :wink:
Building it will be simple, but selecting parts is killing me! At first I had plans of using two or three graphics cards in SLI mode, so I picked out this nice EVGA 780i board at Newegg.com. However, after thinking it over, I really doubt if I’ll ever have more than one video card. Plus, someone said SLI doesn’t work with Dual monitors, which might be rather cool to have. (That’ll probably never happen either, but…)

So, I ask two things of you. First, is that a good board for a powerhouse PC, even if I never get around to using double or triple SLI?
Secondly, if it’s not worth it, can you suggest a good motherboard? I don’t necessarily dislike AMD, but I think I’m going to go with an Intel Core 2 Quad q6600. Specifically, THIS ONE.

Thank you for reading this, and for any advice you may bestow. :slight_smile:

#2

If you go for stability, lownoise and powersave i´d avoid nvidia chipsets and go with intel chipsets… low power consumption and rock solid.

Triple SLI is a waste of money, as is dual, simply buy a X2 card if you really need it.

Compared to the fact you intend to buy a SLI board the Q6600 is rather an outdated choice… i´d go with a Q9550 or grab one of the last q9450 (intel stopped production to change to Ci7 Prod)
The give you way more render performance due to the huge cache and are easier to cool due to 45nm production.

And last but not least, nVidia just released a driver which makes multimonitoring possible when turned SLI on. After the last BigBangDriver which allowed SLI this is called BigBangDriver again by nvidia because it allows multiple SLI on multiple screens :smiley:

hth

#3

Do you mean one of the Nvidia Quadro X2s? Or a Geforce GX2?

Thanks very much for all the advice! I looked through all of the Core 2 quad processors before, and did notice the smaller manufacture footprint on the 9xxx series, but apparently I missed the larger cache. I may still end up going with the Q6600 just because of the price (I’m building a powerhouse PC on a budget. I know, it doesn’t make much sense, does it? :p) However, if the others don’t cost too much more…

As for the Nvidia VS Intel chipset… Yeah, I had noticed that and it was another thing I wasn’t sure about. It should work ok with Linux (There’s about an 80% chance that I’ll use Ubuntu or OpenSUSE), but I wasn’t sure about the power usage or stability.

And last but not least, nVidia just released a driver which makes multimonitoring possible when turned SLI on. After the last BigBangDriver which allowed SLI this is called BigBangDriver again by nvidia because it allows multiple SLI on multiple screens :smiley:

Yay! That’s great news! Thanks for letting me know. :smiley:

#4

NOO! no quadro :smiley: quadros are a ripoff :slight_smile:
Basically and down to the point, the quadro simply contains a ID chip, that tells the quadro driver that it actually is a quadro… I´ve got a thread somewhere explaining all that, i think it was in news under quadro performance or something…
The quadro´s magic is in the driver.

I mean a GX2 if you don´t plan to play (microlags) you will have more than enough GLpower.
I am not sure if the GX2 needs a SLI board, maybe someone can fill me in… i like it more with 2 cards, so i can turn off one if i dont need the power.

Yeah, as for the intel 6x and 9x, the 9x is discontinued and i guess intel will try to swarm the market with Ci7 before xmas… so its a pretty save bet you will see the 9x series as well as the 6x series having a pricedrop again… like it was for the C2D and the 6x when the 9x series was released and available.

I´d actually wait a bit…
-> Pocessor Pricedrop
-> USB3 in November
-> Ci7
-> DDR3

And then you can decide if you want to buy the latest of the tech, or the last generation, which will drop in price quite noticeable.

–edit
Ah, i forgot, the nVidia Beta180.xx that is… the sli multimonitoring is still buggy… it only supports some resolutions and atm only clone screen… but the big bang is supposed to happen when 180 goes WHQL.
As for the linux drivers i am not sure yet which version will have the bang.

#5

I didn’t think you meant the Quadros, but I wasn’t sure. :o

You’re right about the price drop. It’ll be around Christmas before I can afford this stuff anyway, most likely. Maybe some of the stuff will have dropped by then. That’d be a nice Christmas present, too. :eyebrowlift:

I’ve been looking for Intel chipset based Motherboards that support SLI (just in case), but so far I can only find Crossfire ones! I still may end up going with that EVGA Motherboard, as the price is pretty good, and EVGA’s lifetime warranty sounds nice. If I do that, I may get a Geforce GTX 260 for now, and then maybe a second one at a later date. We’ll see…

Bah. So many options!

Thanks again for your help.

#6

Well, there are no intel chipsets that support SLI… for now…
so i play the newsticker here a bit more :smiley:

nVidia started licensing SLI. till now, board manufacturers had to buy a nvidia chipset and build it on their board in order to enable SLI. SLI per se is available on ALL boards its just not activated, similar to the quadro<>driver stuff.

now nVidia licenses SLI to the MB manufacturers… so there will be SLI available soon on non nForce chipsets as well…
IMO a great development…

#7

Yay! The core I7s are out… and with them, the X58 chipset. The first Intel chipset to support SLI! :smiley:

I’m considering shelling out some extra money: http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=132-BL-E758-A1&family=Motherboard%20Family

SLI or no, Core I7/X58 look worth it, and EVGA is awesome. :slight_smile:

#8

There so many version of motherboard now so just choose the latest…

#9

The only thing keeping me from instantly deciding on EVGA x58 + Core I7 is the Ram.
Core I7 only supports DDR3, and not only is it a fortune, but I keep reading something about it wanting Triple Channel (3 GB, 6 GB, 12 GB, etc…). The EVGA motherboard says it’ll support Dual as well, and that should work, though it has me wondering about performance and whatever. Plus, I read something about the I7s possibly being ruined if using more than 1.65 volt Ram… Or something like that… :confused: It all confuses poor little me!

Hopefully there’ll be better documentation/prices when I actually have the money to afford this stuff, in a month or two.