MSI K8N SLI or GIGABYTE K8NXP-SLI

[November Wolf]

Hello, I am almost ready to build my pc except that the MSI K8N SLI motherboard is nowhere to be found. Seems like every week it keeps getting delayed. I am getting tired of waiting and have been looking at the Gigabyte board which is available now. Can you guys give me some advantages and disadvantages of these two boards. I dont want to make a mistake and be sorry later.

By the way this is my first posting here but I have been reading the forum for about 2 months now. I have learned more from this place than any where else. You guys know your stuff. I wish I knew about this forum when I built my first pc in 2002.

Thanks

Anthony

 

[barkeley]

Two excellent boards and stable. You won't be gambling with an unfinished BIOS.

The main difference is Giga has only two PCI slots: one for the WiFi, one for decent sound and you have none left. Actually with SLI one PCI could be too close to the GC fan. One PCI really accessible that's not much!!
For the MSI, no PCI-E 1x!!

If you don't intend to use SLI, then you get 2 real PCI for the Giga, and one extra PCI-E (the unused GC slot) for the MSI.
So all is about what you think you'll need as extra boards.

 

[FastEddie]

MSI SLI = Creative 24bit onbourd sound. Pitfall = no space between the PCI-E ports.

Gigabyte = $$$$$$$$.

 

[barkeley]

Since last week Giga price dropped drastically, I imagine because MSI SLI is now in shops.

 

[FastEddie]

Probably a plus with the Gigabyte is that you may be able to get a pair of their dual gpu 6600GT's to run on the board in SLI. That would be interesting.

 

[November Wolf]

Thanks guys. The Gigabyte looks tempting. ZZF has it for $219 now. Right now I have a MSI 6600gt and I plan to SLI down the road but will it work in a Gigabyte board? ( I would think so). 2 pci slots is not much since I have a pci modem and soundblaster audigy 2 zs card that would max out the giga board but hopefully DSL will be available here sometime this year. So tempting what should I do....

 

[November Wolf]

Just found the Gigabyte board on MWAVE for $199 plus shipping - $10 coupon. I think I might go for it..

 

[asmielia]

Do it! I did. Mine should be here on Monday. For me it was a no brainer. I wasn't going to buy a board that was £20 more expensive (here in the UK) when it had pretty much the same features but no PCI-e x1 slots. The only advantage I can see for the MSI is the onboard Creative Sound. But you have an Audigy 2 anyway! So just buy the Gigabyte. I've hardly seen any complaints about it and it sounds like it overclocks really well.

It was still £20 more than the Asus SLI board, but it came with a Wireless NIC and plus there was no way I was buying that insanely buggy Asus board. I've never seen a motherboard with so many complaints. Asus obviously rushed to market with this one.

 

[FastEddie]

Originally posted by: November Wolf
Just found the Gigabyte board on MWAVE for $199 plus shipping - $10 coupon. I think I might go for it..

That's an excellent price for that board, if it's the full retail package.

 

[hafa]

Originally posted by: FastEddie

Originally posted by: November Wolf
Just found the Gigabyte board on MWAVE for $199 plus shipping - $10 coupon. I think I might go for it..

That's an excellent price for that board, if it's the full retail package.

I've purchased about 50 boards from Mwave and have never gotten a board from them that was not full retail.

 

[November Wolf]

As far as I can tell it is retail. I havent seen many posts on this board so I assume there must be very little issues with it unlike the Asus. Unless not many peps have the Giagaybte board. What ram would you all recommend under $200? I am putting a winchester 3200+ in it and would like to overclock lightly. Also does this board support an FX cpu so maybe down the road I can upgrade to FX-55? Thanks guys for the help.

 

[kindest]

Originally posted by: November Wolf
As far as I can tell it is retail. I havent seen many posts on this board so I assume there must be very little issues with it unlike the Asus. Unless not many peps have the Giagaybte board. What ram would you all recommend under $200? I am putting a winchester 3200+ in it and would like to overclock lightly. Also does this board support an FX cpu so maybe down the road I can upgrade to FX-55? Thanks guys for the help.

GIGABYTE "GA-K8NXP-SLI" NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 939 CPU -RETAIL
Supported CPU: Socket 939 AMD Athlon 64FX/64
fx supported yes

 

[amol]

wow Gigabyte SLI for $200?

an 4x for $135?

Where's Ultra??

That's the one I want . . .

 

[November Wolf]

I just ordered the Gigabyte board on MWAVE sun night for $200. Now its back up to $229. Finally something working out in my favor. Hopefully its more stable than the Asus sli board.