AM3/AM2+ Crossfire Motherboards

[pensar]

Hello everyone,

I am considering what upgrade path to take, I'm interested in an AM3/AM2+ motherboard with crossfire support for 2 5770. I have 4gb of ddr2 and I'd like to put in a phenom II 955, possible to oc it too. However, I'm having trouble finding a good choice of board with these qualifications, I'm thinking I might have to go AM3 or 1156 and just buy the ddr3 and eat the extra cost.

Does anyone have any suggestions in this case? Will ddr2 (800 mhz with sleeves) make overclocking a 955 harder in comparison to ddr3?

If I'm better off ddr3, does intel or amd have the better crossfire performance?


Thanks

 

[darckhart]

how long do you want to keep this upgraded system? you'll only need to worry about differences in xfire performance when you have 1) disgustingly high monitor resolution (>1920) or 2) digustingly powerful cards (>5850). imo, otherwise everything does xfire just fine.

for overclocking, 4gb of ddr3 will run you about 80$ to 120$ (depending on what speeds you want) you seem to have ddr2 800mhz which points you to the cheaper end of ddr3 equivalent.

keep in mind both amd and intel are releasing new chips soon. and at least intel will let socket 1366/1156 die.

 

[pensar]

Id like to keep it for a few more years, when I first made the system I didn't have the change anything for 3 1/2 years until the gpu went out. Now I'm finding some games are laggy (e6600 with a 5770 and 4gb ram), and my mobo doesn't support crossfire. The best solution in my mind is to cf another 5770, while I'm at it I might as well upgrade my cpu.

If I'm going to go the ddr3 route I'm leaning towards an i5 -750 build with overclocking in mind.

Are you suggesting I wait for the next iteration of AMD and Intel cpu? If so how long can I be expected to wait for them to be released?

 

[darckhart]

if you're the kind of person that likes on jumping onto the new stuff, then i'm just informing you that new stuff is coming very soon. although from the AT article, it seems intel is not being so friendly to overclocking with their new chips.

i guess i should also mention that ati (oh excuse me, amd now) is going to have new midrange cards out very soon too. imo, that will probably beat the pants off CF 5770. so you may want to keep that in mind (ie, sell off that 5770).

since you seem to keep a system around until parts die, i'd say intel is a bit more expensive now, but you'll get quite a bit more performance (and possibly longevity) out of it via oc.

 

[pensar]

Ok, if I were to go intel, what do you think of this board?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138162

 

[darckhart]

well, since you've got your cpu picked out, i'd recommend that you do some googling to find out which are the most popular overclocking motherboards for it and what are the common advantages and disadvantages. iirc, asus and gigabyte are popular.

keep in mind that a full platform (esp for oc) means you have to pay attention to interaction between cpu, video, ram, cooling. i think i5-750 is a 95W part, but once you get it >3.8GHz and assuming you oc your video cards too, you're going to need a lot of stable power.

also, i think the only chipset for socket 1156 is p55 (yes, there's others, but i doubt you would be interested in those) which gives you a max of 16 pcie2.0 lanes for video (ie, you will have x16/x0, or x8/x8), which wont be a prob for CF 5770, but could potentially be limiting if you began gaming at ultra hi res with ultra powerful cards.