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Mobo recs for potential SLI--680i only option?

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Mysphyt

Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2002
Location
Elsewhere
Hey, all. I've been poking around the threads for a few days now and I keep seeing threads about the new eVGA 680i as pretty much the best currently available option for SLI. Problem is, I'm towards the top of my budget as it is, so I was hoping for a slightly cheaper motherboard, esp. given the fact that at build time, this won't be an SLI system. I'd like to leave SLI open as an option in the future--in a year or so when I can pick up another 8800GTS on the cheap--but that may never happen. So I'm torn. Is there another, slightly cheaper, board where SLI would be an option? My primary goals for this board are a solid (>3.0) OC on air (preferably stock), so if it's between that and SLI, I'll take that, but I'd like to leave the option open.

E6300
eVGA 8800GTS
2x1G OCZ SOE DDR2 800 (camo)
Corsair HX520w PSU

Thoughts?
 
Personaly.. with that gear and your going to be waiting for up to a year.. the Asus P5B-Deluxe would be the top performer for that CPU (I would spend the extra $40 for the E6400, the ram you picked out will have a hard time clocking high enough to max out your CPU under high end air and it could very well have compatbity issues with a i680 mobo anyway)
The DDR2 800 Ballistix at ZZF would be cheaper of the SLI certified ram sets (for the extra options in the i680 bios and tested compatiblity)
there should be i650 motherboards thats SLI capable fairly soon for quite a bit less, probibly less performance.

ok ok.. just caught that you want to stick with the stock CPU cooler? 3.0GHz would be a streach.
 
I know this is an older thread, but to bump the issue...
From what I have read, a single 8800 GTS will be severely bottlenecked by any current CPU except overclocked top of the line models. If you are thinking of two 8800's in SLI, I think the second would be wasted unless you also upgraded to an X6800 Core 2 Extreme.

Why stick with stock air? For the money you put into this rig, you should get a nice cooler.
 
I don't think the X6800 would help THAT much over a E6600 if the motherboard has the FSB in it to overclock the E6600.
Even a E6400 clocked REALLY well would be a decent chip with the right motherboard and ram (like the Asus P5B-Deluxe with some Micron D9 ram) for a 8800 series card IMHO.
I would go high end air at the least and overclock the snot out of it however.
 
650i is an option for SLI, but instead of x16, x16, x8 PCIe lanes, it supports x16 and x8 only.

650i is availible for a good price, Newegg has an Asus 650i board for $130.
 
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