Intel SLI Motherboards / chipsets

[geno]

I did some searching, but couldn't quite come up with the answer I was looking for. I'm trying to gain my bearings concerning the SLI motherboard scene. I recently bought a GTX280 and am itching to go SLI in the future. Now, a couple of things I'm concerned about are stability and bandwidth between the PCI-E slots.

It looks like the Nvidia chipsets are still suffering growing pains, but there any boards with any alternative chipsets which do the job? Or am I confined to Nvidia's 7x0i based boards? Which boards can do 16x+16x between two PCI-E slots? Will I have to step up to a 780i from a 750i? I'm not overly concerned about Tri-SLI, but if it gives better dual-slot performance, then that's good. I'm doing as much reading as I can, but there's no effective "roundup / comparison" which is laying it out like I'm looking to see it.

What would be my best bet with my GTX280 and a Q9300 @ 3.0Ghz?

 

[MegaWorks]

I got the 790i Ultra, I've hear that it's the best of all nVidia chipsets in term of stability.

 

[PCTC2]

The 780i is a 680i with a NF200 chip for 3x 16x PCIe 2.0 . The 790i has native PCIe 2.0. The 790i however uses DDR3.

As for SLI for the Skt775, you're either going to want a 790i if you can shell out for DDR3 (not too expensive since the release of Core i7/X58) or a 750i, however, the 750i may be a slight bottleneck for the GTX 280. It's edging on that territory, but I doubt it should be too noticeable. If you can, go for an eVGA 790i FTW or the eVGA 750i FTW.

 

[geno]

Will a 790i do dual dual-SLI at 16x each slot while the 750i will not?

 

[MegaWorks]

Originally posted by: geno
Will a 790i do dual dual-SLI at 16x each slot while the 750i will not?

Well the Evga 750i FTW has two full 16x PCI-E. I was considering it but the board only had 4 sata ports for me that's not enough.

790i has three 16x slots.

 

[PCTC2]

Originally posted by: MegaWorks

Originally posted by: geno
Will a 790i do dual dual-SLI at 16x each slot while the 750i will not?

Well the Evga 750i FTW has two full 16x PCI-E. I was considering it but the board only had 4 sata ports for me that's not enough.

790i has three 16x slots.

Ahhh. I was thinking of the 650i. Yes. Both will do SLI 16x2 on PCIe 2.0 slots.

 

[nenforcer]

I would get an 790i and take the hit of having to purchase DDR3 now.

Then, sometime in the future, you could upgrade to an X58 which now has SLI and reuse the RAM you bought.

Not the most cost friendly but I'd go for it.

 

[MegaWorks]

Originally posted by: nenforcer
I would get an 790i and take the hit of having to purchase DDR3 now.

Then, sometime in the future, you could upgrade to an X58 which now has SLI and reuse the RAM you bought.

Not the most cost friendly but I'd go for it.

I did exactly that!

 

[GiganticPanda]

I have an eVGA 750i, overclocked to the moon with two 8800gts 512's in it. Honestly this has been the best motherboard I have ever owned. I updated the bios when I got it, and it has never crashed on me or given me any issues otherwise. In terms of stability and performance, I really couldn't ask for more. My only gripe is that, as MegaWorks pointed out, it only has four sata ports which is more of a pain than I expected, but overall its still an awesome board. The 780i is very similar, but it has one additional pci express slot, more sata ports, and dual gigabit ethernet. The 790i is basically identical to the 780, except that it uses DDR3, so unless you want to make that upgrade now, I would go for a 750/780 and be done with it.

 

[geno]

Are the EVGA / XFX boards much better in any way than the lower-cost Asus and MSI boards?

 

[pugh]

Originally posted by: GiganticPanda
I have an eVGA 750i, overclocked to the moon with two 8800gts 512's in it. Honestly this has been the best motherboard I have ever owned. I updated the bios when I got it, and it has never crashed on me or given me any issues otherwise. In terms of stability and performance, I really couldn't ask for more. My only gripe is that, as MegaWorks pointed out, it only has four sata ports which is more of a pain than I expected, but overall its still an awesome board. The 780i is very similar, but it has one additional pci express slot, more sata ports, and dual gigabit ethernet. The 790i is basically identical to the 780, except that it uses DDR3, so unless you want to make that upgrade now, I would go for a 750/780 and be done with it.

+1

 

[Aenslead]

Nonesense, says I.

All the PC's I've owned have had an NV chipset and I've never had no corruption/stability issues whatsoever.

If you already have a bunch of DDR2 memory modules, then go for 780i; if you're buying reference design, just buy another chipset cooler... the one included is *noisy*.

Happy shopping.

P.S.: What CPU you have?
Edit1: As for the XFX/EVGA mobos, those are the reference designs. They work pretty much ok and are tested by NVIDIA themselves (built by Foxconn).

 

[PCTC2]

Originally posted by: Aenslead
Nonesense, says I.

All the PC's I've owned have had an NV chipset and I've never had no corruption/stability issues whatsoever.

If you already have a bunch of DDR2 memory modules, then go for 780i; if you're buying reference design, just buy another chipset cooler... the one included is *noisy*.

Happy shopping.

P.S.: What CPU you have?
Edit1: As for the XFX/EVGA mobos, those are the reference designs. They work pretty much ok and are tested by NVIDIA themselves (built by Foxconn).

eVGA has amazing customer service and warranty terms. And their FTW line is just as good as any other enthusiast board. XFX has a similar warranty but I have not heard of their CS. From eVGA's lifetime warrantly, i have had a GTX 260 Core216 SuperClocked 55nm, a 7950GT KO, and 2 eVGA 680i's die on me and they replace them as long as there's no physical damage.

As for corruption, I have had problems with the 680i killing memory at stock SPD and corruption on the original BIOS but there's no problems now.
Go with a 790i FTW or 750i FTW from eVGA.

 

[geno]

Originally posted by: Aenslead
Nonesense, says I.

All the PC's I've owned have had an NV chipset and I've never had no corruption/stability issues whatsoever.

If you already have a bunch of DDR2 memory modules, then go for 780i; if you're buying reference design, just buy another chipset cooler... the one included is *noisy*.

Happy shopping.

P.S.: What CPU you have?
Edit1: As for the XFX/EVGA mobos, those are the reference designs. They work pretty much ok and are tested by NVIDIA themselves (built by Foxconn).

I have a Q9300 @ 3.0 right now on my P35 board. I'm pretty sure I'm pulling the tigger on the EVGA 750i FTW board very very soon

I've heard comments against the reference design, citing BIOS and stability issues...any truth to that? I want the FTW board because it's one of the few which will do full 2x16 on the PCI-E slots in its price range, but I need stability.

 

[geno]

Originally posted by: MegaWorks

Originally posted by: geno
Will a 790i do dual dual-SLI at 16x each slot while the 750i will not?

Well the Evga 750i FTW has two full 16x PCI-E. I was considering it but the board only had 4 sata ports for me that's not enough.

790i has three 16x slots.

The 750i manual says the following :

These two PCI Express x16 slots are reserved for graphics or video cards. The design of this motherboard
supports two PCI-Express graphics cards with x8 bandwith using NVIDIA?s SLI technology.

WTF? Or is their manual wrong? Everything else I've read says true 2x16 is possible with this board.