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Whats a decent crossfire board?

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Well you will need a X38 board for CrossFire. Brands can include Abit, ASUS or Gigabyte. Among others that don't cost an arm and leg you might consider

Abit IX38 quad
ASUS P5E plus several variations using the chipset
Gigabyte GA-X38-DS4

WRONG: Certainly the P35 chipset boards are cheaper but then you can't do CrossFire.
 
Last edited:
deeppow said:
Well you will need a X38 board for CrossFire. Brands can include Abit, ASUS or Gigabyte. Among others that don't cost an arm and leg you might consider

Abit IX38 quad
ASUS P5E plus several variations using the chipset
Gigabyte GA-X38-DS4

Certainly the P35 chipset boards are cheaper but then you can't do CrossFire.
Click to expand...


The P35-chipset should be fully able to run crossfire if it has 2 physical PCI-E x16 ports.
 
I've read a few reviews that show the 16x/4x of the P35 has very little real world impact when compared against 8x/8x (975X) and 16x/16x (X38).
 
crossfire if it has 2 physical PCI-E x16 ports.
Click to expand...
wrong 1x16 +1x4

p35-733.jpg


see also Intel Chipset Refresh: P35 and G33 Now, X38 and G35 Later
X38 has 2x16 & these are PCI-E 2 slots.

There's probably not so much difference in ocing performance but if you want 2x16 go X38

The Gigabyte GA X38 DQ6 is also worth a look.there is a cheaper Gigabyte GA-X38-DS5 available.

luck:)
 
ok then SS,then how come you can run CF on a number of board with P35 chipset?

cause if you look at the config the boards have PCI slots with only one or two PCIE 1x slots. the rest of what should be 1x slots got combined to make 4x electrical for the second PCIE 16x slot. My IP35-PRO can run X-fire, so its only 16x/4x it isnt that much slower then 8x/8x. there is a Asus board p35 that when running xfire is 8x/8x, not sure how they did it,but i think they rerouted some of the PCIE lanes from the NB with the SB to get 8x on the second slot.

http://www.dvhardware.net/article18717.html
http://www.beyond3d.com/content/news/118

http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=2990
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2007/10/12/crossfire_comparison_intel_x38_versus_p35/1

*edit*
if you read he said 2 physical PCIE 16x slots,nothing about th electrical side of PCIE.
 
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Never said you can't erun crossfire just saying x38 = 2x16 pci-e p35 = 16x/4x
Your getting confused
deeppow
Well you will need a X38 board for CrossFire
Click to expand...

my post was in response to
sk1llz
The P35-chipset should be fully able to run crossfire if it has 2 physical PCI-E x16 ports
Click to expand...

luck:)
 
Yeah, the other PCI express is always at x4 on p35, but i meant that the other pci express port is supporting x16 cards, making you able to run crossfire with x16 on one port and x4 on the other!

My point was anyhow that you Can run xf on p35! :)
 
P35 has a good selection of Crossfire boards. I've chosen the ASUS P5K-E located here.

It was between that or the ABIT IX-38 QuadGT. I couldn't justify $100.00 more just for x16/x16 vs x16/x4 Crossfire. I've seen some reviews that show slight differences in benchmarks, but none that would translate to any notable real-world differences.

Otherwise you still get all the great RAID features and the P35 boards will accept the upcoming Wolfdale and Yorkfield. If you're made of money and have to have the absolute best benching hardware, go X38. Otherwise to me it seems the $100.00 would be better going towards a second graphics card, rather than a higher bus for a second graphics card.
 
Yeah, i agree with your opinion shadin!

As i don't see the need for a X38-board when there really is no big nor small difference at all, my motherboard supports all the new CPU's from intel already for ex and it has the same OC-abillity and so on, that's why i bought my board too.

Didn't see where the extra $100 would be good for :) Thou i'd by a x38-board if i had the money, just because! hehe.
 
Heh, well, I'd get one too if I had the money laying around. :) Others might disagree, but I'd rather save the $100.00 for either another card or an E8400 when they launch, either one seems a better upgrade choice since I'm building on a tighter budget than I'd perhaps like.
 
Supershanks said:
wrong 1x16 +1x4

p35-733.jpg


see also Intel Chipset Refresh: P35 and G33 Now, X38 and G35 Later
X38 has 2x16 & these are PCI-E 2 slots.

There's probably not so much difference in ocing performance but if you want 2x16 go X38

The Gigabyte GA X38 DQ6 is also worth a look.there is a cheaper Gigabyte GA-X38-DS5 available.

luck:)
Click to expand...

Here's the block diagram for the p35-ds4 for ex. and it looks like this:

BlockDiagram.jpg


shadin: yeah i was in the same thought's as i had only $675 for a whole computer exkl the monitor.
 
My plans are to get either a Q6600 or a E8400 on launch. As Shadin said, im not sure if i can lay down the cash for a X38. Im just going to be swapping out my current mobo/cpu. And then i'll probably have some money for a seconed 3870. So it looks like IF i can't get the x38 (though i want one..) ill go for the P5K-E? I saw someone with a 3.6ghz q6600 and a P5K-E crossfired 3870's get 17.5k in 3dmark06. My only conceren is i dont want the x4 speed to be a big bottleneck, and it seems it shouldn't be much of one. I may have around $350 for a cpu/mobo as its looking, but if something changes i'll get a x38.. just got to have a "backup plan" :soda:

Atleast i got something in my head to think about now, thanks. :)
 
You should be fine running a Q6600 @ 3.6Ghz (presuming that your Q6600 doesn't has a low FSB-wall or such) on a p35 board togheter with crossfire (it shouldn't bottleneck with the x4) and i asume that you're gonna use your 700W OCZ PSU with that.

I'd recomend any of these: abit ip35-pro, asus p5k-e, giga p35-ds4 or dq6
 
I dunno, there are several games (even old ones) that benefit from the extra bandwidth in the link you provided. And it appears to me that, the more stress on the video system, the more it helps -- such as at 2560x1920. The only places where I saw it really not doing much was also where the framerate was pretty much in the dirt to begin with.

I think my next motherboard purchase will be the Gigabyte GA-X38-DS4, simply because it does include a full pair of 16x speed PCIE 2.0 connections.
 
Yeah i see that too. I just dont think im going to have enough for a x38, if something happens and i do, great! But as its looking now i may be going for the p5k-e, i just dont want it to be a huge performance hit. When i sell my current motherboard/cpu ill probably buy a seconed 3870..
 
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