Motherboard & Processor Recomendations - SLi dual 16x out yet?

[sgentry6]

I have been out of the hardware scene for quite awhile now, and was wondering about which mobo and processor combo would suit me best. I already have a decent system (as long as I'm not gaming), but don't want to upgrade it cause it is a crappy dell, and my choices to upgrade are certainly limited anyway. I had to have something fast when my 4 year old desktop bit the dust back in February.

I would like to use that system to load up linux and use it as a firewall for my other PCs. I think that would be a great way to utilize that old system anyhow.

I would like to get an AMD system, and would prefer to get a new dual core processor. The main question I have is whether or not to wait for a motherboard that allows for a full 16x sli configuration. Are there any boards out there on the AMD side that take advantage of this? I read an article from back in August about such motherboards, but wasn't sure if there was one out yet. (Slated release was 2nd half of this year, which we are in).

I won't be jumping straight into a SLI configuration, but that will help extend this system's usefulness. I would however still like that feature, so that I don't have to update the system for awhile. The first computer I built lasted me for 4 strong years, and I would like to get that kind of performance out of this system as well. Are these motherboards going to be coming out soon? Should I wait, or bite the bullet now? Time is not critical, I don't really have any needs for a computer now, but would like to get back into gaming.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

SLI is out already... but I don't think it's a good idea unless you have tons of money to burn and are going to be gaming on a display with very high resolution.

Do you have a budget?

Check out the dozens of threads out there about build configurations to get an idea of nice products.

 

[spiritwalker2223]

I don't rememeber which board but it does exist. A board with 2 true 16x slots, vs 2 8x or whatever.

Check out the reviews of the nforce4 chipset mobo's.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: spiritwalker2223
I don't rememeber which board but it does exist. A board with 2 true 16x slots, vs 2 8x or whatever.

Check out the reviews of the nforce4 chipset mobo's.

Guess I haven't been paying attention, I thought most SLI boards were 2 16x slots already.

Does it matter at all?

 

[sgentry6]

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2493

This is the article I am looking for. I am looking to get a motherboard that supports that feature. I haven't seen any out yet for AMD, and was wondering when one might be coming out, or if there was one out that I was not aware of.

 

[sheElf]

there are only 2 boards with dual pcie 16 that i know of, tyan k8we and supermicro H8DCE and there are not cheap. dual socket 940, k8we has 4 sata + scsi solution while h8dce has 8 sata.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Didn't know they were coming out with faster ones... I don't even think AGP 8x is even really utilized fully yet.

So anyway... looking at the evolution of SLI so far to me it makes more sense to get a nice single card initially and save money on a non-SLI PSU and motherboard. By the time the next generation of videocards comes out, it would probably be better to just get another single card vs adding another last generation card.

I think SLI is nice when you want to get the fastest stuff possible by combining two of the fastest cards out there, but it seems like not such a great idea for an upgrade path.

 

[sgentry6]

Any similar boards that are for single processor machines?

 

[sheElf]

Originally posted by: sgentry6
Any similar boards that are for single processor machines?

At the moment? i dont think so. the reason these boards can have 2 pcie 16 is becasue they have 2 southbridge chips nforce 2200 and 2050. one pcie slot per chip per cpu. that means to enable SLI in this board u need 2 cpus installed otherwise the secondary southbrigde will not be activated do will the 2nb pcie, 2nd GBe nic, extra 4 sata, everything attached to the second chip etc.. etc..

i believe chipmakers are working on multiple pcie 16 in a single chip right now, so it wont be too long.

 

[sgentry6]

Well thanks for the help, I will continually check the motherboards section then and look for a board that will support this.