Evga 680i or Gigabyte 650i motherboard? NOW what?

[Smitty1705]

I was actually interested in the GA-N680i-dq6 board but I just found out it was discontinued. I am interested in native 1333 speeds and want a good upgrade path so I can go to quad core down the road. What board would you suggest? Is the Gigabyte 650i board any good? I was also considering the EVGA 680i board unless someone has a better idea? I need to have SLI capability, and it would be nice if it did C2D now and allow for Bearlake down the road. (is that possible?)

Thanks..

Smitty

 

[alaricljs]

650i will get you SLI at x8 speeds. 680i will get you SLI at x16. Other than that you're going to need to compare features. I bought the N650SLI-DS4 and am in the process of building. I didn't want SLI but the rest of the features were a fit for me and the price was a whole lot better than a 680i board.

 

[vailr]

Bearlake/ICH9 boards are supposed to be out within 3 to 5 weeks.

 

[Smitty1705]

Bearlake is going to basically just be 1333 procs/DDR3 memory right? Since DDR3 memory is going to be a bazillion dollars and hard to get for a long time I'm thinking DDR2 since the first DDR3 won't be much different. Will a DDR3 Bearlake board use DDR2 memory also? (upgrade down the road?)

 

[vailr]

There's going to be: DDR2 only, DDR3 only, and also "mixed": 2x DDR2 + 2x DDR3.
The "mixed" boards cannot use both types simultaneously, however.