Best new motherboard for GTX280s

[MraK]

Hello Everyone, I am currently building a new gaming rig for myself and I was leaning to make use of the best motherboard that money can buy. I'm an Nvidia person so i was thinking of leaning towards the 790i boards yet almost all of them have problems, then i thought I'll just wait till the 880i or 890i comes out (before the end of this year)

Question: What?s the best motherboard for gaming that will last for 1-2 years atleast ahead in gaming?

My current budget right now is around $4500 grand, including the Monitor

CPU: possibly and extreme Core 2 Duo or less
Motherboard: Was thinking of the 790i SLI boards or probably wait till the 890i (that if their will ever be one like that by the end of this year lol
Memory: CORSAIR TW3X4G1600C9DHX 4gb kit (4gb x 2) 1600mhz DDR3
Videocard: Dual or even Tri if possible GTX280s, waiting till it comes out (last week of June I believe)
Optical Drive: PIONEER BDC-2202B blu-ray SATA combo DVD rw+ blu-ray player
Casing: Antec Twelve Hundred *Full-tower*
Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling TURBO-COOL 1KW-SR EPS12V 1000W
Monitor: Samsung 275T 27? inch HDMI-LCD
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit system
Aftermarket Cooling: Zalman CNPS9700 NT CPU Cooler (not familiar with what watercooling brands are the best, maybe you guys could help me on that department)

Any other suggestions would help me a lot, Thanks in advance





MOD EDIT #2: Thread continued here. - Zap

 

[AshPhoenix]

An X48 based board should be fine.

 

[MraK]

AshPhoenix,

I have read that the x48 boards dont support SLI and only crossfire, am i correct? Yet how i am interpreting your statement, your saying when the new Nvidia cards come out, the GTX280 and GT200, those cards will be powerful enough solo rather than SLI or TRI-SLI since that might be overkill because even the games coming out late of this year wont even need those kind of cards am i correct on that too? sorry for all the questions, i just wanna make sure i dont wanna get the wrong bored that wont last long. I mean my board on my current rig was obsolete since last year, i just dont want to have to face something like that with the next MB i buy.

 

[error8]

This thread of yours it's all over these forums. You could have just posted in only one section and it would have been enough.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I would recommend saving that 4500$ and just picking up some low latency/high overclockability DDR2 800 and a board that supports your nVidia SLi quest, which from what i heard, only the nVidia mobo chipsets support. That way you'll have the upgrade money ready for Nehalem instead of a socket (775) that will be discontinued soon, real soon.

 

[MraK]

BTRY,

I think I'll wait till the new socket boards come out and save my money, who knows by then i may have more to spend on my budget, thanks for your strait forward reply

 

[NoStateofMind]

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
I would recommend saving that 4500$ and just picking up some low latency/high overclockability DDR2 800 and a board that supports your nVidia SLi quest, which from what i heard, only the nVidia mobo chipsets support. That way you'll have the upgrade money ready for Nehalem instead of a socket (775) that will be discontinued soon, real soon.

Are you kidding? Please tell me you are.

1.) Higher speed RAM is better than lower latency. I wish I could link you to the thread we had here a while back which showed only 1%-3% performance gain for lower latency (same speed RAM).

2.) Nehalem is looking to be a great performer but saying "socket (775) that will be discontinued soon, real soon." is not true. In fact you will not see another socket till the end of the year and even then they will be scarce. You are looking at Q1 '09 for any mainstream Nehalem CPU's or Motherboards.

MrAK

You already have a nice system. The only thing I would consider getting ATM with your rig in mind is the new GPU's coming next month. Get 2 GT280's and call it a day until the beginning of the year. Good luck with whatever you decide. 🙂

 

[MraK]

PC Surgeon,

the reason for a new rig is that with my current rig, I'm giving it to my baby sister who just graduated from High-school (gift from me) thats why I need a new gaming rig, sorry for not mentioning it on my first post. As for memory concerns you have said "Higher speed RAM is better than lower latency. I wish I could link you to the thread we had here a while back which showed only 1%-3% performance gain for lower latency (same speed RAM)." so I was thinking of sticking with DDR3 1333s of 4GB, would that suffice?

 

[MraK]

oh and since this section is all about motherboards, i have decided to get a 790i board but not sure to which one is the best, could you guys help me in that department?

 

[NoStateofMind]

Originally posted by: MrAK
PC Surgeon,

the reason for a new rig is that with my current rig, I'm giving it to my baby sister who just graduated from High-school (gift from me) thats why I need a new gaming rig, sorry for not mentioning it on my first post. As for memory concerns you have said "Higher speed RAM is better than lower latency. I wish I could link you to the thread we had here a while back which showed only 1%-3% performance gain for lower latency (same speed RAM)." so I was thinking of sticking with DDR3 1333s of 4GB, would that suffice?

Check your PM box. 🙂

 

[MraK]

PC Surgeon,

Thanks for the PM, greatly appreciated for what you have suggested, while some parts i could not get (since i live in Guam, its hard to get certain brand name parts, but to be honest if i could get my hands of them I will certainly get that kind of setup)

I had stated on the last post of having a 790i board and yet i was leaning towards the 780i boards and getting the best DDR2 ram around, that leads me do my concern on, actually both boards. I have read all over so many websites (one exclusively "newegg") on all the reviews for these boards and with all the brands that carry them, i have seen that their are many problems with these models of SLI boards, making it very hard to choose the right one. I'm just surprised that many people still get them despite the MBs' faults. I am a firm follower of SLI but its just feasible to rely on these boards when most of them have problems. I have admired ASUS for some years but there 780i-790i boards seem to be the most problematic. I love Gigabyte but i have noticed that they never came out with a 7*0i board ( or will they and that we dont know anything about it yet?) XFX seems to be the ideal choice, as well with eVGA, but still, they all have alot of problems with them.

But i guess thats how the pc gaming world works, sometimes you get a good board, sometimes you get a lemon, their will always be one for every make and model, but seriously now, why would anyone risk getting that kind of board, if it has more lemons than oranges?

Basically "what 7*0i board is worth it, despite the chances of recieving a lemon? heck more than once even"

Thank you all in advance!

 

[MraK]

well can anyone elaborate on this matter? I mean since its very known that most of the 7*0i boards have problems.

What im trying to figure out is, are there going to be new revision of these boards in the coming months, due to the problems that arise with the current 7*0i boards? Or just wait till they come out with a new board? (hopefully in the coming fall, say september or October of this year) Or just get a board now and gamble on not getting a lemon?

 

[MraK]

*For everyone who has been viewing and posting on this thread, i have relayed this topic to the general hardware section and there you could finally see what specs i chose for my new gaming rig* check it out!