Is there an Nvidia 750i SLI board that isn't a POS!!!!

[Duvie]

After much of my research I am starting to come to the conclusion that the Nvidia SLI chipset with INtel cpus appears to be a crapshoot with emphasis on CRAP!

Asus mobos seem to have tons of issues....

MSI boards have reboot issues....

A few spatterings of comments about EVGA and XFX as well....



Lee me tell you what I really want....

1) I want 2 pci-express 2.0 slots capable of 16x when in SLI.....

I want to place my (2) 9800GT superclocks in SLI

2) I want 3 overall pxi-epress slots.....I dont mind if they are in 8x when occupying all 3

I do some folding as well and would like to maximize my 750 watt PC...folding with gpus is much more bang for the buck with video cards. (1) 125 dollar video card can almost double up my qx6700@3.46ghz running all 4 cores in an SMP client. So 3 of them only takes 3 cores for polling (around 25% in vista or one core) for about 400 dollars will 6x the output of my system before the cards. I couldn't even build one system for that.


Does this mean I can only look at 780i chips? If so tell me the brand that is worth it....

 

[chizow]

I had pretty poor experiences with two 650i boards and have read similar problems persisting with the 750i/780i/790i boards. Personally I would absolutely steer clear of any Nvidia chipset, especially now that X58 supports SLI.

If you only wanted to spend on a board, you have 780i as an option, but of course there's the risk of just getting more of the same as you saw with your 750i. The better, but pricier option would be to go with an X58 board, i7 920, and some DDR3.

Another possibility that I can't verify for certain is potentially running 2 Nvidia GPU on a P45 non-SLI board. You won't get SLI graphics performance, however, this definitely works for GPU + GPU PhysX. Its possible this works for Folding as well, but that's something you'd certainly want confirmation on first.

 

[Duvie]

INtel chipsets will definitely work for multi gpu performance in folding...I just ant to true SLI support...

I dont totally blame Nvidia for this shithole lineup they have. I am sure the asses at INtel are responsible for a big part of the issues with the Asus and MSI boards....

It seems I hear less bad things about the evga boards...I may look at a 780i board if I can pick up a used one for a 100 or less...

 

[MegaWorks]

It's funny that you're saying this, I'm in the exact same boat as you are. I have 3 9800GT and I want to SLI two of them and use the third slot for folding or PhysX.

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: MegaWorks
It's funny that you're saying this, I'm in the exact same boat as you are. I have 3 9800GT and I want to SLI two of them and use the third slot for folding or PhysX.

you know...GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE!!!!


Let me know if you find something that works....I only have 1 with another 1 coming and hop when prices drop a bit or more used ones hit the market I will get a 3rd....plus that will be about the limit of my PSU at that point

 

[hennessy1]

In my experience and what I have done with the 780i(evga) is maybe in some peoples minds extreme but has worked in several cases. I remove the cmos battery for a days time. Then place it back in let it boot go to BIOS setup hit load defaults and save before restart place the bios update media w/e it is cd, floppy, usb in and then restart load the newest bios p08 and then I just leave it in there because it won't boot from it for me until I hit enter because I am missing the floppy drive and then when it reboots turn it off remove power cord and then take out cmos battery again for a day. After the day passes place cmos battery back in and then load defaults again and then reboot once more then change settings to your liking. Sorry if that was long winded and maybe other people have a different process but this one has worked for me several times and no problems matter of fact one of these boards currently runs 24/7 in an office and have never heard of a problem since I put it in. This is just my experience take from it what you will but I recommend the evga regular 780i not the ftw version.

 

[TantrumusMaximus]

What is the point of letting it sit for a day why do you do that?

You can just place the clear cmos jumper and then unplug power from the PSU and then press and hold the Power switch that will drain any stored voltage in caps.

I guess I don't understand the wasting of your time 24 hours is a long time for a simple 30 second process.


But back on topic. I have owned 680i and currently run 750i SLI FTW both from EVGA and neither have caused me any grief compared to other m/b's I've owned in the past.

I can assure you this there aren't any "perfect" mobos out there because there is always something you personally would like differently on any one, whether from a layout, or design, or options perspective...

I'm a diehard EVGA fan due to their warranties and quick responses to questions and great support experiences.... as long as they make nvidia stuff and it is competitive that's all that she wrote.

 

[lollerskater69]

my abit fp-in9 650i sli board was badass.

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: Duvie

Lee me tell you what I really want....

1) I want 2 pci-express 2.0 slots capable of 16x when in SLI.....

I want to place my (2) 9800GT superclocks in SLI

2) I want 3 overall pxi-epress slots.....I dont mind if they are in 8x when occupying all 3


Does this mean I can only look at 780i chips? If so tell me the brand that is worth it....

Yes, you should go with a 780i. The 750i only has 24 lanes total, so it's going to be a pain to find a good 3 slot solution. The EVGA 780i seems fine (no worse than the 680i EVGA that I am running in other words.). It's not going to OC all that well.

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: aka1nas

Originally posted by: Duvie

Lee me tell you what I really want....

1) I want 2 pci-express 2.0 slots capable of 16x when in SLI.....

I want to place my (2) 9800GT superclocks in SLI

2) I want 3 overall pxi-epress slots.....I dont mind if they are in 8x when occupying all 3


Does this mean I can only look at 780i chips? If so tell me the brand that is worth it....

Yes, you should go with a 780i. The 750i only has 24 lanes total, so it's going to be a pain to find a good 3 slot solution. The EVGA 780i seems fine (no worse than the 680i EVGA that I am running in other words.). It's not going to OC all that well.

Agreed....look like the EVGA 780i has a 3 slot solution that at newegg with 970 customer reviews has 85% of good or excellent....

So I guess it is just that ASUS is a POS company these days...MSI has been spotty for years. I notice the DFI has decent reviews on some of their nforce 7 series boards as well but the premium is hard to swallow all the time....



EVGA nForce 780i SLI ATX 132-CK-NF78-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA

I am look at this model and hopefully try to get a used one in the 130-140 range.....

 

[hennessy1]

Like I said my solution is just the way I do it. It makes no difference to me if I lose 24hrs here or there not a major priority.BIOS updates don't come out all that often anyways so not a major issue for me. Just expressing how I've done it and has warranted no problems and I've use several different memory, cpu, and gpu configs with it and no issues to be had. I first started doing it that way when I read on the evga forums people were updating and then having major issues. Me not wanting to run into that just did it one way a certain day and since then have had no issues.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: aka1nas

Originally posted by: Duvie
1) I want 2 pci-express 2.0 slots capable of 16x when in SLI.....

Yes, you should go with a 780i. The 750i only has 24 lanes total, so it's going to be a pain to find a good 3 slot solution.

I think some of the 750i boards use the NF200 chip for more PCI Express lanes.

780i is just a warmed over 680i.

MicroCenter has Core i7 920 chips at $230 and you can get x58 boards that support SLI for just over $200 new (pay close attention because not all boards support SLI).

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: aka1nas

Originally posted by: Duvie
1) I want 2 pci-express 2.0 slots capable of 16x when in SLI.....

Yes, you should go with a 780i. The 750i only has 24 lanes total, so it's going to be a pain to find a good 3 slot solution.

I think some of the 750i boards use the NF200 chip for more PCI Express lanes.

780i is just a warmed over 680i.

MicroCenter has Core i7 920 chips at $230 and you can get x58 boards that support SLI for just over $200 new (pay close attention because not all boards support SLI).

The Nf200 chip on the 750i boards is what provides the PCI-E 2.0 functionality and is intentionally crippled to only have 24 out of the 32 lanes active.

 

[MegaWorks]

Duvie I ordered the EVGA NVIDIA nForce 790i Ultra FTW, I'll let you know how good this board is.

 

[GiganticPanda]

I have an EVGA 750i, and it's bad ass. I did have a minor issue with video corruption when I first got it; however, as soon as I noticed the issue I updated to the latest BIOS and have had ZERO issues since. It overclocks like a beast, and has 2 PCI Express x16 2.0 slots. I never owned a 6 series motherboard, and I admit that the 7 series may have had some teething issues when they launched, but what motherboard doesn't? A 780i should be enough to keep you happy unless you really like to spend money, and want or need an i7 system.

 

[MegaWorks]

I got the reference EVGA 790i Ultra so far so good. I'm going to do more tweaks before I give a conclusion.

 

[pugh]

My 7501 runs solid . Using SLI also. I can't think of any probs I'm having.

 

[geno]

Originally posted by: aka1nas
The 750i only has 24 lanes total,

So in SLI, it's going to operate at 16x + 8x? I'm looking for an SLI solution which offers 16x + 16x in SLI, I was under the impression the 750i did just that, but I guess not?

 

[MegaWorks]

Originally posted by: geno

Originally posted by: aka1nas
The 750i only has 24 lanes total,

So in SLI, it's going to operate at 16x + 8x? I'm looking for an SLI solution which offers 16x + 16x in SLI, I was under the impression the 750i did just that, but I guess not?

No, the eVGA nForce 750i SLI FTW has two real 16x channels for SLI.

 

[PCTC2]

the eVGA FTW line of 7X0i boards is what I would go with too. eVGA's warranty is almost unmatched, as is their CS.
But the 780i is a 680i w/ an NF200 chips. I would recommend the 790i FTW if you have the money for the board and DDR3.

 

[MegaWorks]

OK the EVGA 790i ultra gave me hell, this board hates when all memory banks are full. It's running now I had to increase the memory voltage for it to run stable.

Overclocking with the reference board is also hell if it crashs it won't reset to the previous setup it will run on and on until you clear the cmons. I would recommend getting any nForce 7xx other than the Reference design.