Need advice on MOBO for kuma and crossfire

[Michael Houtz]

Greetings,
I am going to upgrade my system and I have decided on the kuma proc x2 7850 and a couple sticks of 2gig ram
I own a saphire x1650 and a connect 3d x700pro
I would like to setup the dual card thing, (never done that before)

currently running xp sp3 32 bit, but I have begged Bill for a fresh reg several times as this system is like George washingtons axe, so, this time they may say no whereupon i will have another go at unbuntu linux particularly since I have learned that xp32 will not use the 4 gig of ram

I do a little photo work, some online gaming, but mostly surf, email etc

1.) reccomendations for a mobo under 150 that will let me run the two cards equally, address the 1066 5-5-5-15 ram correctly, permit me to OC some without being a genius
2.) should I get another x1650 so the cards arre identical?

the new stuff will go in the old case which is WC on the cpu and gpu, I will need to run a loop to the new card, but plenty of capacity in the pump and radiator old bord is gig k8ganf with a 939 amd1.8 and 2 gig

usually use gigabyte, leaning toward asus this time, heard bad about MSI and DFI. what happened to tyan?

THANKS

 

[wesleys_dad]

Best am2+ board for ddr2 right now is the asus m4a79 dlx.....you could crossfire if you had identical cards but you could get a 4850 which runs circles around the 1950....
crossfire is a waste unless you are running very high resolutions.....
possible get a 790gx board and hybrid crossfire with the onboard graphics.....

 

[QuietIce]

Tyan is almost strictly server boards for AMD now.

Gigabyte and ASUS are both very good choices. The Gigabyte 790FX-UD5P (I think?) is the current leader but $20 over your budget. In fact, the only board I'd recommend under $150 is the MSI K9A2 - slightly older design but VERY clockable. Both are 790FX chipsets with 8+2 phase power. If you don't mind used you might look for an ASUS M3A32-MVP. I've had excellent results with mine running both Phenom I & II and the power is rock-solid at any vCore.

Next up would be 790X chipsets, which have a few less frills but still very nice boards. The Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P is the board of choice here.

Unless you have the $$$ for high-end ASUS (M3A79-T or M4A79) I'd stay away from them this round. They've had some issues with their 4+1 phase power and even though I'm an ASUS fan of three years now I wouldn't recommend one. I've adjusted to the irregularities of the M3A78-T I bought but it's not a good choice for everyday use. The vDrop is annoying but the vDroop is excessive at high vCore, which is fine for my headless cruncher since it's always under load but not so good for a rig that's idle, load, load, idle all day long under normal usage ...

 

[wesleys_dad]

Id have to agree about the giga 790x board...its priced right and its a very good o/clocker also...
also another good deal is the dfi 790gx board w/sb750 on sale at newegg for 114.99$...its a great price and o/clocks real well too ...it also had the feature to do hybrid crossfire also...
really though any of these name brand amd chipset boards are all pretty equal so it really comes down to features you want and price you can afford..
the 2 video cards you have will not crossfire but if you want to crossfire on the cheap the hybrid xfire is the most affordable and the compatable video cards are real cheap now like about 30 bucks or so...
if your not doing real high o/clocks any asus,gigabyte,msi,dfi,or biostar boards that run the amd chipset is going to do you fine.....

 

[Ha-Nocri]

Yes, just GA-MA790XT-UD4P is AM3/DDR3 board, GA-MA790X-UD4P (w/o 'T') is AM2+/DDR2. I like how well Giga put PCI slots, much better then the DFI 790GX board(s).
Most video cards today use 2-slot cooling solution, so they use 2 slots on your mobo. Like this picture shows, if you CF 2 2-slot cards you will have 2 PCIe X1 slots free and one PCI. On the DFI board you would have 2 PCI's free, but none PCIe X1.

 

[QuietIce]

I feel the same about DFI this time around as I do about ASUS, or maybe even less. DFI has had a very slow start maturing the BIOS's and there have been some quality problems in their mid-line boards as well. For this round I'd also skip DFI ...

 

[Michael Houtz]

great, but ? NEW PS needed ??

Tyan is almost strictly server boards for AMD now.

Gigabyte and ASUS are both very good choices. The Gigabyte 790FX-UD5P (I think?) is the current leader but $20 over your budget. In fact, the only board I'd recommend under $150 is the MSI K9A2 - slightly older design but VERY clockable. Both are 790FX chipsets with 8+2 phase power. If you don't mind used you might look for an ASUS M3A32-MVP. I've had excellent results with mine running both Phenom I & II and the power is rock-solid at any vCore.

Next up would be 790X chipsets, which have a few less frills but still very nice boards. The Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P is the board of choice here.

Unless you have the $$$ for high-end ASUS (M3A79-T or M4A79) I'd stay away from them this round. They've had some issues with their 4+1 phase power and even though I'm an ASUS fan of three years now I wouldn't recommend one. I've adjusted to the irregularities of the M3A78-T I bought but it's not a good choice for everyday use. The vDrop is annoying but the vDroop is excessive at high vCore, which is fine for my headless cruncher since it's always under load but not so good for a rig that's idle, load, load, idle all day long under normal usage ...

I have a decent PS but I do not remember a 8 pin board connector. most of these boards are 4 pin and I wonder if this means a new PS or is an adapter available, or do I ignore it, ?????

 

[QuietIce]

Using both 4-pin connectors allows for much better voltage but many people run them with only 1 4-pin connector. Just expect a little voltage irregularity that you'll have to adapt to.

What PSU do you have ...?

 

[Michael Houtz]

Using both 4-pin connectors allows for much better voltage but many people run them with only 1 4-pin connector. Just expect a little voltage irregularity that you'll have to adapt to.

What PSU do you have ...?

a viotek, which may be dual rail, it has a table of multiple models but no specific model number if it is a 650 or above its shown dual
I posted the PN in the PS forum under viotek ID

 

[Michael Houtz]

Using both 4-pin connectors allows for much better voltage but many people run them with only 1 4-pin connector. Just expect a little voltage irregularity that you'll have to adapt to.

What PSU do you have ...?

quick call to 3btek solved that, it is a 600 watt supplying 32amps to a single rail

is that gonna run the 95 watt kuma and 2 video cards?

 

[Ha-Nocri]

I think it will, but only just... that is if you are talking about x1650's... some good 400W PSU's have near that amperage on +12V rail...