Am I getting the right board for i5-750 + SLI?

[ishbuggy]

I want to build a system around an i5-750 and 2 GTX-460 1GB cards in SLI. The motherboard I am looking at is the MSI P55-GD65
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130239

Is this a good choice? Are there any other options I should know of. This is the first computer I have built in about 9 years so I'm sure things have changed since then and SLI is new to me. Thanks!

 

[Rifter]

That should work fine, if you were using faster cards a board with two full speed 16x PCIe slots would be a better idea but for those 460's you should be OK.

 

[nenforcer]

Well that board looks good but I think you want this version

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130291

the P55A-GD65

which adds SATA 6Gbps support. The other one only supports the SATA 3Gbps natively and appears to be being phased out (hence the mail in rebate).

Don't know if this is worth the extra $30-$40.

 

[iufan4lifeul]

Correct me if i'm wrong but the bandwidth from cards in SLI + SATA III would start hurting performance on a P55? I know just doing SLI with a 16x and an 8x only is 2-3% slower than 2 16x's but I thought when you added SATA III that reduces performance even more.

 

[nenforcer]

The P55 doesn't natively support SATA ]I[ and it uses the Marvel SATA 6Gbps controller just like everyone else.

If this controller is sharing PCI-E lanes then yes it could cramp your SLI but if its integrated onto the motherboard maybe not.

An add-in PCI-E controller definitely would, however.