Planning for q QX9770...what mobo to get?

Hi folks

I need some advice. I'm planning my next build. I'd like to jump on the QX9770 with goals of o/c'ing a stable daily-use setp in the 3.8-4.0ghz range.

If cost were not an issue but you still didn't want to "throw money away", but were willing to pay for stability and power and oc/ing flexibility, what mobo would you get to best compliment a QX9770 sporting dual nvidia 280 SLI video?

What is the best mobo that you guys can recommend to provide the most o/c'ing flexibility and daily stability under gaming conditions?

I would like to use dual-nvidia 280 video boards, running SLI.

My research and readings have led me to believe that:
-there are not many stable offerings for the LGA775
-for stability I really should be looking at x48 boards, but then I'd be forced to use ATI video (right?) to maintain that stability.
-given the point above, I need to focus on 790i mobos

If the above points or true, or close to it, then what 790i mobo is the most stable with the qx9770?

The Asus P5N64 WS Pro Wifi seems like a favorite around the community.
The Asus Striker II Extreme seems to also be a fav. And the Striker Formula seems to the mobo of choice from the 780i series.

But each of these boards have frighteningly frequent instability reports. Both in retailer reviews and in community (forum) reviews. Am I just misinterpreting base rate, or are the instability and problems I read about with Asus board real? Asus used to be the best, but the reviews I read give me pause. And if not Asus, then what? Gigabyte?


Thanks in advance!

oh man, with a QX9770, I wouldn't run that think anything slower than 4.5ghz 24/7. Well the 790i isn't as good a clocker as the P45/X38/P35/X48 chipsets. Since you got the money to dish out, I'd probably get a 4870X2 (which is much better than the GTX280), and get another one later on. The beauty of Xfire, is that you can go tri or quad SLI with 2 cards. So a 4870 + 4870X2 or 2x 4870X2. If you have your heart set on a 7xxi series (again, i strongly advise against), I'd pick up that Striker formula.

If i were you?
Rampage formula + 2 x 4870X2 or 1 4870X2 + 4870 (depending on budget). Btw what sort of monitor are you running? all of this is a waste if your max res is 1680x1050

Thx very much for the feedback. It has been sinking in that I may need to consider ATI just to get the best mobo/Cpu combo. I've run nvidia for so long..I don't even know what ATI boards are up to. More homework I guess.


I have two monitor setups. A Dell 30"


And a dual projector (Pana AE1000U) display


It's all still a work in progress, but all very functional. I am running more and more background apps to power the various rigs (eg. racing and flight sim takes a bunch of background stuff, and is eating away at my fps). That's my reason for the build.

I'll go check out ATI boards now. So many games inherently support nvidia shaders, etc now. I hear nothing about ATI anymore. But then I'm not looking too hard for ATI info.

lovely a 30" . The 4870X2 really pulls away from the competition at those sizes. Honestly man, for the best performance for your scenario. I'd move to ATi and that beautiful 4870X2. Don't hesitate on ATi man, even though some games are "optimized" for nvidia, thats a load of bull. This card is extremely powerful, and still on young drivers

I'll check em out. And I don't mean to disagree but it's not quite complete bull. Optimizing a game's engine to render for one type of chipset or another (different shader technologies, different aliasing methods, different LOD methods, etc etc.) does make a difference. I do agree it is an 80/20 thing...as in 80% of games would prob perform equally on either top-end card, but 20% of games do tend to render moving graphics, dual-card interlacing, line draws, shading, etc better for one chipset over another.

Last time I bought into ATI I was burnt badly. It was as if they were abandoned, and I had this powerhouse video card that was worthless in 2 months as the next wave of games rolled out, supporting nvidia. I've been back and forth many times. Maybe it's time to swing back to ATI. I'm swinging back to Intel after a several-year affair with AMD, after all.

SmokyTyrz said:

I'll check em out. And I don't mean to disagree but it's not quite complete bull. Optimizing a game's engine to render for one type of chipset or another (different shader technologies, different aliasing methods, different LOD methods, etc etc.) does make a difference. I do agree it is an 80/20 thing...as in 80% of games would prob perform equally on either top-end card, but 20% of games do tend to render moving graphics, dual-card interlacing, line draws, shading, etc better for one chipset over another.

Last time I bought into ATI I was burnt badly. It was as if they were abandoned, and I had this powerhouse video card that was worthless in 2 months as the next wave of games rolled out, supporting nvidia. I've been back and forth many times. Maybe it's time to swing back to ATI. I'm swinging back to Intel after a several-year affair with AMD, after all.

Click to expand...

ah yes, but when a game made for nvidia (crysis) gets taken down by a 4870X2 with mad AA and AF on a 30" you'll see what i mean. I can't imagine two of them, or CF with another 4870 for tri-CF. Don't even get me started on games that scale well with CF, my goodness, it's not even a comparison. You won't be dissapointed with the 4870X2 man, The GTX280 simply isn't good enough right now, my GX2 beats it out in just about everything.

edit: Also, besides a better graphics solution, you'll get much better boards. Don't get me wrong, the 7 series has made very big strides, but as far as OCIng the P3/45 and X3/48 can't be beat. They're consistently the best.

I see your point..their reviews and testing show the 4870x2 to be competition for the 280, albeit the 280 is a single GPU...but price-to-price comparison the ATI may as well be a single GPU, or vice versa.

So if I go with ATI, should I then be considering AMD CPU and mobo's now, since ATI is sleeping with AMD these days? AMD seems to have fallen off the mark for gaming and hard-use. Their performance per buck and stability reputation have fallen off as far as I can tell. Hence my switch back to an Intel chip this time.

Drat..none of the pieces are falling together so easily anymore.

Isn't a new Intel chip coming out in September?

ATI has certainly surprised Nvidia the last couple of months, forcing them to reprice and regroup. If I were buying today, I would seriously consider an ATI based 4870 card. The 4870X2 seems to be hit and miss regarding scaling and is game dependent (if your main use is gaming). You also need BIG power and good case cooling should be a given!

No AMD. Best beat these days is Intel CPU and chipset motherboard (P45 or X48). If you're going crossfire with high graphics res then X48, otherwise P45s are excellent!

Yes the Intel's new Nehalem CPU is coming out soon. But it needs a new motherboard and DDR3 memory. As with any new architecture, you'll pay TOP dollar and be a debugger for them after the initial release!