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Best budget P55 motherboard for Xfire?

M

mingsoup

Golden Member
I'm looking to replace a DOA ASROCK P55 Extreme with another motherboard. I have 2 ATI 5770's so a x8/x8 mobo is a necessity. Besides that, quality onboard audio for 2.1 or headphones is also needed, as it gets harder to squeeze a audiocard in such setups. I'd also like a MFG with a SUPER warranty/support/RMA. Do any Mobo MFG's have lifetime or advance RMA?

Also of note, is that I went with 3x PCIE x16 (x8,x8,x4) in the idea that I might add a Nvidia card for physics later on down the road (Mafia 2) Is this even a smart idea? Can I even do that? If so, then I guess i'd need a 3x PCIE x16 board.

Thanks in advance.
 
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120-LF-E651-TR_LG_7.jpg

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188064&Tpk=EVGA%20120-LF-E651-TR
 
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It seems to me that PhysX for ATI users is totally gimped as of late and needs to be 100% hacked in. I wonder if its even worth it, spending almost 70$ more, compared to the suggested mobo, for that third 4x slot. Can someone give me a heads up?

Thanks for the recommend.However, maybe 70$ more for an extra PCI express slot and a full ATX mobo for comfort and room is a plus. That board hasn't been reviewed, and I don't know what kind of overclocking it exhibits. The Asus P55's have been noted for their easy and excellent overclocking.
 
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mingsoup said:
It seems to me that PhysX for ATI users is totally gimped as of late and needs to be 100% hacked in. I wonder if its even worth it, spending almost 70$ more, compared to the suggested mobo, for that third 4x slot. Can someone give me a heads up?

Thanks for the recommend.However, maybe 70$ more for an extra PCI express slot and a full ATX mobo for comfort and room is a plus. That board hasn't been reviewed, and I don't know what kind of overclocking it exhibits. The Asus P55's have been noted for their easy and excellent overclocking.
Click to expand...

Yea Physx will be a PITA with ATI cards, I think you can only hack it with leaked drivers? or old drivers? I don't remember, it seemed like a gimmick to me.

I just went for a cheap P55 board from a good manufacturer on newegg tbh. Too bad about no reviews but it's still EVGA and even though I like Asus myself many of my friends have had EVGA boards which OCd to nonsense levels.
 
I ended up going for the Asus PP7P55D deluxe. It had glowing reviews and excellent overclocking potential used by many review sites to do their overclocks. According to techspot's roundup, I can set a base clock frequency and memory timing, save and exit, and the board will take over the rest. Since I'm not looking for max, but 4.0Ghz, I will probably just let the board do it. I don't have any want to spend days trying to tweak the OC to death. The extra PCI x16 (x4) port may come in handy one day, or not. Maybe Mafia II can be hacked to use a Nvidia PhysX card in that third slot. I'm gonna have to look into how to hack in Nvidia PhysX or maybe even just hack PhysX into ATI directly, bypassing the need for Nvidia altogether. (I think that has been done.) Possibly even on a game by game basis.
 
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