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New to Intel, need mobo recommendations

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Medicated

Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2002
Location
Jersey City
OK, so I haven't built an Intel machine in about 10 years and haven't kept up much with the motherboards that everyone is using these days.

I think I have settled on an e8500 chip for my new machine. It's going to be used probably about 90% for gaming, so I don't think I need a quad. I will be looking to OC it, but nothing crazy, only going for air cooling (is the retail hsf sufficient or will I need to buy one?).

Now, I am looking for motherboard suggestions. I would prefer one that supports SLI. Would like suggestions for both DDR2 and DDR3 boards (are they worth the money?) as well as suggestions as to what ram to buy if anyone is feeling really helpful.

thanks
 
If SLI is a requirement, your only choices are either
- 780i for DDR2
- 790i for DDR3

There are several manufacturers including eVGA and XFS.
 
OK, so I am still undecided here.

Looking at these two 780i boards

or these two 790i boards

Any recommendations as to which one to go with? It looks like the total cost for a DDR3 board + ram is going to be about $200 more than a DDR2 board + ram. Is it worth the money?
 
Typically both XFX and EVGA boards are Nvidia reference boards, i.e. use the Nvidia design. So from my perspective it just depends on which brand you like, they are the same board.

I've had EVGA video cards and boards and have found their costumer support to be extremely good. XFX may well be just as good but I don't have any experience with them. So I'm always going to pick EVGA for that reason. Please remember that all manufacturers do produce a few bad boards, just the statistics of the manufacturing process.

One more note regarding SLI. If you already have the cards and are set to go in that area then fine. However, if you're starting anew with the rig then you really should consider the Intel chipset boards (P45 or X48) that use crossfire instead of SLI. I have truly enjoyed the Nvidia boards I've had in the past but current trends seem to indicate Nvidia is falling behind the curve.

Regarding DDR2 vs. DDR3: I've avoided DDR3 up to now due to cost. I see no big performace gain to be had with DDR3. However, DDR3 will be the future memory and at some point we all will change as new architectures come into existence, e.g. i7.
 
One more note regarding SLI. If you already have the cards and are set to go in that area then fine. However, if you're starting anew with the rig then you really should consider the Intel chipset boards (P45 or X48) that use crossfire instead of SLI. I have truly enjoyed the Nvidia boards I've had in the past but current trends seem to indicate Nvidia is falling behind the curve.

I only have 1 card right now, but it is an Nvidia card. I do not like the ATI cards. I have used ATI cards in the past and found the performance disappointing and the drivers and config software never worked correctly. (These were 9800 cards so it was after ATI supposedly fixed their driver issues). That's my reason for preferring a board that supports SLI.


Regarding DDR2 vs. DDR3: I've avoided DDR3 up to now due to cost. I see no big performace gain to be had with DDR3. However, DDR3 will be the future memory and at some point we all will change as new architectures come into existence, e.g. i7.

So you think that, for the setup I am looking at, it's not worth it then?
 
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You've thought it through, excellent! Let us know what you decided and very interested in hearing how it turns out. :beer:

So you think that, for the setup I am looking at, it's not worth it then?

For me it is almost a coin flip. Cost not a big deal, go DDR3 since DDR3 memory costs have come down recently.
 
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