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8

87dtna

Member
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Joined
Jul 30, 2009
Hi my name is Matt and I'm new here. I've never been on any computer forums, this would be my first. I'm on a few car forums, so I know how things work in general.
Anyway, I'll list my system here first, and then I have a question.

ASROCK 780fullHD board
Phenom II 550 x2 @3.8ghz (NB@2600 and HT@2200) 1.45vcore
GeminII cooler
G.Skill DDR2 1066 ram, 4gb (5-5-5-15) 2.15v
EVGA gts250 gpu
320gb wd HDD
800w PSU
2x LG DVD burners
ATX case
Windows 7 RC

I just switched over to a full ATX case yesterday, had a mid case that only supported micro ATX boards. So, my question is, whats a good motherboard to upgrade too that has an SB710/750 to attempt to unlock the cores on my 550, overclocks well, along with supporting SLI and not just crossfire like most ati chipsets only do. At the time I bought the GTS250 I didn't know as much, otherwise I would have just sprung for a 4870. Everyone I knew was just telling me to go with the EVGA brand, which I'm happy I did the card I have is pretty nice.
Before I wanted to go SLI I was eyeing up the 790GMH board from ASRock, at $85 it seems like a real bargain....but it only has 1 PCI-E x16 slot of course.
My typical max budget for a board is $100, but willing to spend a few bucks more for the right board if it has every featuree I want. Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

Oh I forgot to add I would like to retain my DDR2 ram, and not go to a full AM3 board. IMO DDR3 is overrated, my 1066 ram scores a 7.4 on windows 7 experience and thats pretty good to me.
 
Last edited:
First, Welcome! Im not sure how to answer your question specifically. Personally, its not worth it to me to buy another board just for the off chance that unlocking your cores will work. If I wanted a quad, I would have paid for a real one. :)

Now with that said. I would use the SEARCH function at this site to be assertive in your endeavor. In the meantime I will do the same and post back what I find. Im not certain any board that has the potential to unlock your chip is SLI though...

edit: Gee what do you know what I found!!!!! Enjoy! And I hope it unlocks and is stable!

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=609024&highlight=Phenom+550+unlock
 
Thanks.

This CPU flies as a dual core, and it does everything I need. I want to upgrade my board mostly to run SLI, but I want the ''chance'' of unlocking the cores also. If they don't unlock, or if it's not stable as a quad, I won't cry much.
Also, I want to upgrade to a 790gx board anyway, supposedly I read it overclocks better and has more options in the bios with the SB750 than I do with the 780g and SB700.

Can anybody tell me if this board will run SLI, seems to have all the features I want otherwise-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157141
 
The 790GX Boards you are looking for have an AMD chipset, and will only support CFX. If you're looking to SLI, you'll need an nVidia chipset.
You're GTS 250 should handle anything short of full 1900x1200.
 
SuperMiguel said:
it will use CrossFire which is the sli version of nvidia :)
Click to expand...

I know that crossfire is ATI's version of Nvidia's SLI, what I want to know is if any board with the ATI SB750 chipset will work with Nvidia SLI. Apparently not though.

EarthDog said:
Why are you so set on multi GPU? What res do you game at where the GTX250 cant handle it (aside from the joke called crysis)?
Click to expand...

I want my options open for the future, staying with single card now but I'm sure newer games will come out that I'd like to play that will require more than my gts250 can dish out.

nzaneb said:
The 790GX Boards you are looking for have an AMD chipset, and will only support CFX. If you're looking to SLI, you'll need an nVidia chipset.
You're GTS 250 should handle anything short of full 1900x1200.
Click to expand...

OK, like I mentioned earlier I may just get a 4870 and sell my gts250, that way I can have a board capable of Xfire for future purposes and the chance to unlock the other cores on my CPU.

I use 1600X1200 resolution, and my gts250 plays COD WAW averaging ~50fps with 4xAA. It can drop in the 40's with the more intense scenes. I never have any lag though, but I think a 4870 will be an upgrade for me anyway. Should have gotten one to begin with, only $10 more than I paid for the gts250 for a sapphire 4870 right now off newegg.

3dmark06 scores 15K with my setup. I really didn't do enough research before buying this card. First, it's just a slightly overclocked 9800gtx, it only has a 2 year warranty VS the 9800gtx's lifetime, it wasn't much of an upgrade over my 8800gts-320mb, and all the motherboards I want to run won't let me SLI. I was dumb.
 
Multi card at your res is......not worth it. Step up to GTX275/HD4890 and forget about wasting your money on multi card setups that dont scale anywhere near 100% or dont scale at all on some games (rare, but it exists). As you can tell, Im not a big fan of SLI/Crossfire. Im not paying another $150 when I can only get an extra 50% out of the card in most cases. :)
 
EarthDog said:
Multi card at your res is......not worth it. Step up to GTX275/HD4890 and forget about wasting your money on multi card setups that dont scale anywhere near 100% or dont scale at all on some games (rare, but it exists). As you can tell, Im not a big fan of SLI/Crossfire. Im not paying another $150 when I can only get an extra 50% out of the card in most cases. :)
Click to expand...

Well, like I said the sli/Xfire is for future purposes. I'm quite sure a single 4870 will be fine for me now, and then in 6months to a year when some game comes out that a single 4870 can't play, I'll get another 4870 because they should be a lot cheaper by then.
Are you saying 2x 4870's isn't as good as a single 4890 or GTX275?
 
Im saying the scaling that multi GPU's offer, TO ME, isnt worth the cost at your res. At the time you upgrade to SLI/Crossfire, a single card in your price range (with selling your old one of course) will likely be about the same. Or if not, one card you get 100% all the time vs a roller coaster with multi gpu.

Id rather see you wait a couple months with what you have, then jump up to the new 5 series from ATI which should last you quite a while.

2 HD4870s would beat out a single 4890/GTX275 in most games, yes. I just cant personally buy a GPU for xxxx amount of dollars and not get 100% out of it.
 
I'm sure the 5 series will be out of my price range though! If I sell my gts250 ($100 probably) and buy one 4870 card now, at $135, in about 6months or a year the 4870 will more than likely be below $100 and I will have payed only a little over $200 total invested for performance better than a 4890.
I definitely see your point though, keep the single gts250 for now and sell to offset the cost of a 5 series. But, just how much will the 5 series be? Probably around $300 or maybe more when they first come out. And by then my gts250 will be worth $60-75 selling it used. $225 is out of my price range to spend *at one time* on computer stuff. If I can spread out cost, and still have great performance, I prefer to do it that way.
 
My friend, you dont have to justify your situation to anyone! I had a similar situation and just saved my money for that big card every 2 years. Now, her arse is working and I dont have to worry about that. But whats funny is I still have the same upgrade path even though I could afford two or three monster cards at this time. :)
 
Hehe, thats funny.

From what I've been researching, a 4870 is near the equivalent of a GTX260, so just getting one 4870 for me right now will be a decent upgrade for $35 more after I sell my gts250, and keep my options much more open in the future.

Well I guess I've decided what I want to do, thanks all!

Oh, anybody want to buy a gts250?? LOL
 
looks like your well on your way just from your original post, hey welcome to the forums!

Early this morning I was looking at the Phenom II 550 cpu you have and surfing around to see what others have unlocked and which combinations work.

Some think its pointless to unlock this chip, the PhenomII x4 chips are generally 100 dollars more, with no hassle using all 4 cores. They say the motherboard manufacturers are (begining to) not allowing ACC updates on sb710/750 to keep people from unlocking this chip (here say rumors which AMD doesn't want consumers doing), and to top it off many people are saying this chip is either disabled and/or has 2 non-functional cores, so your right you need a motherboard that has the sb710/750 chipset, and a bios update ACC to unlock your chip, and a chip that has 2 disabled cores. all of which you already know.

In all this, us overclockers lick our chops and see a hot, chance commodity, cheap, powerful quad core system which if unlocked is what us world of warcraft junkies like to refer to as a "Achievement".

this motherboard looks like a prime candidate for what you need...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128387

EC AOD-ACC Support
(EC AOD-ACC is described as Embedded Controller for AMD OverDrive- Advanced Clock Calibration, which is the newest feature comes from AMD SB750 southbridge chip, destined for use AMD 790X chipset, is set to allow AMD Black Edition CPUs to be overclocked through AMD OverDrive utility further than was previously possible)

try this motherboard, I looked up the spec's on google has your southbridge support, crossfire, AM3 capable, 109.99 on newegg.
 
Looks like a lot of people with the 550 are using that board, and I definitely like the layout. Thanks for the link, I think I will give that board a try!
 
87dtna said:
Hehe, thats funny.

From what I've been researching, a 4870 is near the equivalent of a GTX260, so just getting one 4870 for me right now will be a decent upgrade for $35 more after I sell my gts250, and keep my options much more open in the future.

Well I guess I've decided what I want to do, thanks all!

Oh, anybody want to buy a gts250?? LOL
Click to expand...

LOL. HD4870 and the 260 are basically equal. Like the 4890 is with the 275. etc.

My HD4870 runs everything perfectly fine at my res (1680x1050). Might not play Crysis on very high settings dx10, etc.. Well it does, but around 25-30 fps isn't acceptable to me. But otherwise it'll play everything and anything I could throw at it. Probably my most graphically intensive game on it apart from crysis, would be far cry 2, or even the witcher, enhanced edition(which is fairly taxing with all settings on max). And they're fine, occasional stutter in busy situations, yes, but there's always modifying it so maybe shadows are lower (shadows/lighting usually being the culprit to any lag spikes/low fps).

Lol I notice more and more people on these forums turning to ATI/AMD. GG AMD for being good for value =). Glad they made a comeback after their first Phenom line got absolutely thrashed (mostly) by C2D/C2Q. XD
 
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