Suggestions for good overclocking, stable SLI motherboards?

Due to some unforseen circumstances, I may need to replace my current gaming rig rather shortly. I didn't realize until now that the only option for SLI is with an NVIDIA chipset.

The only time I've dealt with an NV chipset was back in the NFORCE-3 days, and that experience left me a bit jaded for various reasons. I won't go into the problems, they were too numerous to deal with. However, I am considering the possibility of letting NV have another chance to get my business.

So... Any ~500FSB capable, nice and stable, LGA-775 Core2Duo socketed, SLI-enabled, dual PCI-E 16x 2.0 motherboards out there that you would like to recommend?

I'm pretty sure you'll find PCI-E 16x 2.0 only on the new 780i chipset boards.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=780i&x=0&y=0

They are rather expensive at the moment though. I believe EVGA's MSRP on their board is only 259, but newegg has it jacked up to 339 currently, same price they're selling the other 780i boards at.

Yeah, I saw the $339 pricetag over at NewEgg. It's not a whole lot better anywhere else... And are those good for ~500FSB speeds?

Wrathre said:

I'm pretty sure you'll find PCI-E 16x 2.0 only on the new 780i chipset boards.

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True but the 680i has 2 PCI 16x slots to run SLI.
The EVGA 680i A1 is the only one to get. Lots of problems with the other versions.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188013

Albuquerque said:

Yeah, I saw the $339 pricetag over at NewEgg. It's not a whole lot better anywhere else... And are those good for ~500FSB speeds?

Click to expand...

Everything I've read about these boards is they can be hard to overclock. Thats one of the reasons I went with a P35 board. And I would rather not buy 2 Video cards. 1 good card can run my 20in monitor fine at 1600 x 900.

GT3mich said:

True but the 680i has 2 PCI 16x slots to run SLI.
The EVGA 680i A1 is the only one to get. Lots of problems with the other versions.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188013

Click to expand...

I've been looking at that one myself. If you're not worried about the 2.0, I'd suggest it as well.

A question I'd like to know though, will the A1 support 45nm?

Wrathre said:

I've been looking at that one myself. If you're not worried about the 2.0, I'd suggest it as well.

A question I'd like to know though, will the A1 support 45nm?

Click to expand...

This quote is from an EVGA moderator at the EVGA message board.
"EVGA 680i users,

The EVGA 680i SLI motherboard will support 45nm Wolfsdale (dual core) CPU's with an upcoming BIOS update. 45nm Yorkfield (quad core) CPU's will be supported on upcoming nForce 700-series SLI motherboards."
There you go.

Well suck; I really don't feel like dropping $340 on a motherboard so that I can use one of the 9xx0 quads later in life but still keep SLI capabilities.

Looks like I'll stick with Intel-based chipsets afterall.

better for overclocking anyways, look into the abit ip35-pro, great board

Was actually considering the Gigabyte X38-DS4, mostly because I want the dual PCIE-2.0 for some dual-video lovin'. Maybe a pair of 3870X2's when they come out? Dunno yet.