*EDIT* Here's my dilemma.. Free mobo or buy myself

[JaceAce32]

I'm building a new rig and havent bought a motherboard yet and am very interested in the 7800 now that i've stumbled across this...
Should i get the:

7800 gt n516 with faster clock speeds and copper heatsinks for about $300

or

7800 gt n518 which is stock and comes with the Evga sli motherboard for $359

If the first choice is better, what would be the best and (under $100) sli motherboard i can get that which runs an opteron 165 and overclocks well?

EDIT: How well can the EVGA Sli mobo overclock, this is my main concern. Also what is the story behind this board and the xp-90, do they fit together?

 

[JaceAce32]

any constructive criticism?

 

[cubeless]

the evga deal seems like a pretty good kit... and u can get quake 4 free, too (at the evga site)...

i'm probably going to get one since i decided not to upgrade any of my agp systems any more...

reviews around the net seem to like the evga board overall, hard to beat the price for a sli board with the features it has...

 

[Wentelteefje]

Trying here now? 😛

Originally posted by: Wentelteefje
Even when not going to use the SLI, that combo deal is hard to beat... The mobo isn't very feature-rich, but has a decent overclocking capacity and is speedwise equal to other SLI boards...

The extra $ 59 can't get you a similar mobo (unless you go with the ASRock or GigaByte mobo on the ULi chipset), so I would definitely recommend it...

But, like I said, ASRock/GigaByte + 516 is a possibility too...

EDIT: Seemed like the Quake 4 deal is off... 🙁 Someone said there weren't any left...

 

[JaceAce32]

Any more constructive criticism on this as it is soon pay day and i'm going to be purchasing a video card and motherboard soon.

 

[2kfire]

From what I've read, EVGA makes good products. Nforce 4 is a good overclocker. 7800GT is :thumbsup:. I'd go for the combo with the motherboard. I doubt that you could get another SLI motherboard for the $59 difference. You could overclock to the higher clock speeds, and you'd be fine, since the only exception to EVGA's lifetime warranty is physical damage (linky).

 

[moosen]

Originally posted by: Wentelteefje

EDIT: Seemed like the Quake 4 deal is off... 🙁 Someone said there weren't any left...

i just bought the $300 evga 7800gt card last friday off newegg and quake 4 was in the box. i'm not sure if that's how it's like with the $350 7800, i have no clue. but i'm just guessing that evga isn't shipping from their company anymore and it's just what's left bundled with the card itself.

 

[Budarow]

I'm pretty happy with my system. I initially had doubts about the mobo...but so far, it's rock solid. My only beef is not having fire wire on the board so I can't connect my fire wire port on my Audigy2 ZS Platinum.