Socket 939 SLI mobo reccomendations

[zybch]

Greetings everyone, I've decided its time to upgrade my current motherboard (MSI K8N Neo2) and CPU (Athlon 64 3500+) to a SLI board.
I've got a few in mind and was wondering if anyone has had any experience with any of them.

On my short list are the following boards:
MSI K8N Diamond
MSI K8N SLI Platinum
Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLi
Gigabyte GA-K8NULTRA-SLi
Asus A8N-SLI-Deluxe

The features all seem similar, and price isn't really an issue (for once). However I don't want to spend more than neccesary, a couple of 6600 video cards will take care of the rest :)
The onboard sound of the MSI Diamond is really nice, but I have a better PCI card which I'll be using. Why do they even bother with onboard sound on the dedicated enthusiast boards anyway?

[willywonka]

heres one to add to the list.
DFI LANPARTY NF4SLI-DR

[zybch]

Now that IS expensive, and only has 2 PCI slots which makes it somewhat unsuitable for my needs. One will be filled immediatley with my sound card, the other will be taken up with a video card cooler, that leaves me nowhere to put my HDTV card. That leaves me no additional expansion except PCI-x which at the moment seems to only be video cards and there'd only be one of them left anyway :(

[BipolarBill]

Are you going to forestall because of a girlie video card cooler? What if you get SLI? Are you going to install 2 coolers?

Dump that wimpy cooler and move on! :D

[pandaz3]

http://www.dfi.com.tw/Product/xx_product_spec_details_r_us.jsp?PRODUCT_ID=3449&CATEGORY_TYPE=LP&SITE=NA

Okay it is still the DFI....I only have on cheapie DFI board, but it is solid, they are reommended by many and look at the capacitors in my link.


Here is another not on your list... EPoX

http://www.epox.com/USA/product.asp?id=EP-9NPAplusSLI

now between Gigabyte and ASUS I'd go with ASUS.

[AllGamer]

i'll suggest either the GigaByte ones or the Asus one

:t

[Midknyte]

Originally posted by zybch
That leaves me no additional expansion except PCI-x which at the moment seems to only be video cards and there'd only be one of them left anyway :(

Don't confuse PCI-X with PCIe. They are two different things. Video cards are in PCIe.

[zybch]

I know what I mean, its just too easy to get the terminology wrong after you've seen many people use 'x' instead of 'e'.

As for cooling, don't many of the 6600 cards require dual slot coolers? Even if the cards I'm getting use single clot coolers, that'd still leave me with no PCI slots available :(

What about the DFI LanParty UT nF4 Ultra D? Its significantly cheaper and I can get the old version that lets you 'pencil-mod' it to NF4-SLi.

[zybch]

Looks like I might be springing for one of those DFI boards. The latest SLI board comparison at Hothardware.com doesn't leave much doubt (won all but 2 of the 20 odd benchmarks). More expensive than the others, but I guess you get what you pay for.
I'll just have to get a USB HDTV thingy instead of my current PCI one.

[BipolarBill]

USB stinks for streaming video. If you're smart, you'll use Firewire.

[zybch]

Ever tried to get a Firewire HDTV unit? All the easily available ones are USB and they seem to work well enough (even though they use up quite a lot of CPU time).
Thats one of the reasons I wanted more than just 2 PCI slots, so I can use my existing card.

[BipolarBill]

Do you really see yourself getting a second SLI card before the motherboard is obsolete? Maybe you should consided a single PCIe card mainboard and keep your PCI slots.

[pandaz3]

In that case I would be quick to add

http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/techspec.php?categories=1&model=259

And a top end

http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/products.php?categories=1&model=262

Good value with the ltest features like SATA II

http://www.epox.com/USA/product.asp?id=EP-9NPAplusULTRA


And the crowd favorite

http://www.dfi.com.tw/Product/xx_product_spec_details_r_us.jsp?PRODUCT_ID=3471&CATEGORY_TYPE=LP%20UT&SITE=NA

[zybch]

Originally posted by BipolarBill
Do you really see yourself getting a second SLI card before the motherboard is obsolete? Maybe you should consided a single PCIe card mainboard and keep your PCI slots.

I have the 2 video cards virtually bought allready. No way can I afford a 6800ultra thingy, but I can afford a couple of 6600GTs. After all, why pay heaps for a 6800 when a pair of 6600s costing less outperform it (not by a lot in some cases but by a significant ammount in others)?
I'm getting a paid of these (possibly the 256Mb versions).
http://www.leadtek.com.tw/eng/3d_graphic/overview.asp?lineid=1&pronameid=162

[Midknyte]

before you commit to SLI, check out this thread:

http://www.sysopt.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=178192

there are also articles in the best of video sticky.

there are no 256mb 6600GTs. they are all 128s. there are 256mb 6600s.

there are still driver issues with SLI and you need to at least create profiles for each game, if they don't natively support SLI.

[Midknyte]

you should look up some reviews for the X850XT also. it is very competitive with the 6600GT SLI with less configuration headaches.

[zybch]

In my neck of the woods, the X850XT and even a 6800 cost a huge ammount more than two 6600 cards. Even the X800s are still prohibitivley expensive in comparison with 2x6600GTs, and I'd prefer not to buy them from o'seas because of potential warranty issues.
A pair of 128Mb cards will do me fine, I had a feeling there were no GTs that had 256Mb, but hoped that there might be some by now :(
The games I play are all suppoted by the nVidia software and with each driver release NV seem to be adding heaps of games, even if they aren't, making profiles for older games doesn't look like rocket science.

The MSI 128MB NX6600GT-TDs look quite nice too, and are still well within my budget, it will also let me use the ramsinks I bought a while ago for the ram, esp if I decide to overclock :)

[zybch]

http://www.tcmagazine.info/articles.php?action=show&showarticle=121

Comparison between normal and SLi 6600GTs and 6800 cards. The end result is quite clear.

[zybch]

Originally posted by Midknyte
you should look up some reviews for the X850XT also. it is very competitive with the 6600GT SLI with less configuration headaches.

Any opinions on the X800 XL? Looks like quite a good card and will give me a bit of time to save up for a 6800Ultra or X850XT while still letting me play new games at full detail levels.

[fishybawb]

The X800 XL performs on a similar level to the 6800GT, but with ATI's traditionally weaker OpenGL support. I'm not sure what the prices are like there, but the ATI seems to be a fair bit cheaper over here - it looks like a pretty good deal.

[Andrew_Carr]

xl's can usually be found for around 280-300$. Monarch had some going for 250$ about a week ago. Might want to check on that, as it'd be cheaper than two 6600gt's, and wouldn't cause nearly as many headaches.

[zybch]

I snagged an XL a couple of days ago on ebay for about $500 (australian) which is pretty good (the rrp is closer to $600).
Now I just have to wait for my new PCI-e board to show up and a nice new thermaltake Soprano case and I'm in business.