Looking for a cheap SLI board for AM2, Phenom capable

[Elcs]

Hello all,

After discovering my dads motherboard isnt SLI capable, I have decided to plump for a cheap SLI board and add a second 8800GT to boost my graphics performance.

I am very rusty on new tech and have the following to migrate:

AMD X2 6000+ AM2
4 x 1Gb OCZ DDR2 800mhz
SATA/PATA HDD's and DVD drives
8800GT
PCI sound card (Club 3D Theatron Agrippa)
Seasonic S12 600W PSU

and all of this in an Antec SLK3000B case.

Requirements:

To fit in the case and for everything to fit in smoothly.
To allow fitting of a second 8800GT
To allow possible upgrade to a Phenom in the future. (yes I know they arent great but a cheap upgrade at the time may prove to be fruitful.)

Thanks in advance.

 

[iBPJohn]

I'd think the 750a would be a good choice

 

[Elcs]

Bump

 

[Sylvanas]

Only option is the 750a and 780a boards. MSI and Asus have some good boards in this regard.

 

[Elcs]

Originally posted by: Sylvanas
Only option is the 750a and 780a boards. MSI and Asus have some good boards in this regard.

Any specific ASUS or MSI boards I should pay particular attention to?

 

[Sylvanas]

Originally posted by: Elcs

Originally posted by: Sylvanas
Only option is the 750a and 780a boards. MSI and Asus have some good boards in this regard.

Any specific ASUS or MSI boards I should pay particular attention to?

For the 750a, I'd say take a look at the MSI K9N2 Platinum and Asus M3N also of note is the Biostar Tpower N750 which is part of Biostars recently very well received T-Power range. For a more expensive budget with a few bells and whistles included the you'd want to look at the MSI K9N2 Diamond

 

[Elcs]

Originally posted by: Sylvanas

Originally posted by: Elcs

Originally posted by: Sylvanas
Only option is the 750a and 780a boards. MSI and Asus have some good boards in this regard.

Any specific ASUS or MSI boards I should pay particular attention to?

For the 750a, I'd say take a look at the MSI K9N2 Platinum and Asus M3N also of note is the Biostar Tpower N750 which is part of Biostars recently very well received T-Power range. For a more expensive budget with a few bells and whistles included the you'd want to look at the MSI K9N2 Diamond

The MSI board is extremely expensive here, the equivilent of $200 whereas the Asus listed is approximately $100-110, Biostar pulls up nothing on a quick scan and the expensive MSI one you list is approximately $300.

How does the ASUS one compare? Bells and whistles, overclocking arent really important.

As long as the board accepts phenoms (pref from the box), an Thermalright Ultima 90 (doh, forgot to mention that) and does SLI... then I am reasonably happy. Rock solid stability is what I am after.

Also as a side question to my main, I am running an AM2 X2 6000+ @ 0.05V lower than stock and its pretty toasty... 40C idle and 50-54C at full load. I do run my PC rather silently and I am loathed to improve the cooling (fan/heatsink/noise). My question is, which Phenoms (quad core preferred) run cooler than the 6000+ I have and are they worth it?

With the switch in my gaming patterns to more bleeding edge games, currently playing Age of Conan and with the cheap SLI move, gearing up for some decent DX10 content both on AoC and future games.... I am weighing up the benefits of going triple/quad core now Vs. 2-3 years down the line (my next planned huge upgrade) going more into multicore then.

Opinions welcome.

 

[Sylvanas]

Originally posted by: Elcs

Originally posted by: Sylvanas

Originally posted by: Elcs

Originally posted by: Sylvanas
Only option is the 750a and 780a boards. MSI and Asus have some good boards in this regard.

Any specific ASUS or MSI boards I should pay particular attention to?

For the 750a, I'd say take a look at the MSI K9N2 Platinum and Asus M3N also of note is the Biostar Tpower N750 which is part of Biostars recently very well received T-Power range. For a more expensive budget with a few bells and whistles included the you'd want to look at the MSI K9N2 Diamond

The MSI board is extremely expensive here, the equivilent of $200 whereas the Asus listed is approximately $100-110, Biostar pulls up nothing on a quick scan and the expensive MSI one you list is approximately $300.

How does the ASUS one compare? Bells and whistles, overclocking arent really important.

As long as the board accepts phenoms (pref from the box), an Thermalright Ultima 90 (doh, forgot to mention that) and does SLI... then I am reasonably happy. Rock solid stability is what I am after.

Also as a side question to my main, I am running an AM2 X2 6000+ @ 0.05V lower than stock and its pretty toasty... 40C idle and 50-54C at full load. I do run my PC rather silently and I am loathed to improve the cooling (fan/heatsink/noise). My question is, which Phenoms (quad core preferred) run cooler than the 6000+ I have and are they worth it?

With the switch in my gaming patterns to more bleeding edge games, currently playing Age of Conan and with the cheap SLI move, gearing up for some decent DX10 content both on AoC and future games.... I am weighing up the benefits of going triple/quad core now Vs. 2-3 years down the line (my next planned huge upgrade) going more into multicore then.

Opinions welcome.

A quick google search doesn't pull up many reviews of the Asus board but that is to be expected as the 750a chipset is fairly new on the scene. I don't think you are going to have any problems, the 750a/780a are designed for Phenoms and judging by the picture on the product page you should have no problems with you're cooler.

As for heat, 54c is fine, it when it's at 90+ that you should be concerned. But if you don't want high temps because that increases fan speed and noise then you should be able to adjust fan speed via the Bios and set thresholds for when it will spin faster. Generally any Quadcore is going to run hotter than a Dual core. According to this you can expect a Phenom X4 9350e coming soon which will be 65w- that should be the coolest Phenom around until Deneb 45nm later this year.

As for SLI on AMD you are really only limited to these chipsets- it might be worth considering a single GPU setup on an AMD chipset based board which are generally alot cheaper and cooler than their Nvidia counterparts.

 

[Elcs]

Originally posted by: Sylvanas

Originally posted by: Elcs

Originally posted by: Sylvanas

Originally posted by: Elcs

Originally posted by: Sylvanas
Only option is the 750a and 780a boards. MSI and Asus have some good boards in this regard.

Any specific ASUS or MSI boards I should pay particular attention to?

For the 750a, I'd say take a look at the MSI K9N2 Platinum and Asus M3N also of note is the Biostar Tpower N750 which is part of Biostars recently very well received T-Power range. For a more expensive budget with a few bells and whistles included the you'd want to look at the MSI K9N2 Diamond

The MSI board is extremely expensive here, the equivilent of $200 whereas the Asus listed is approximately $100-110, Biostar pulls up nothing on a quick scan and the expensive MSI one you list is approximately $300.

How does the ASUS one compare? Bells and whistles, overclocking arent really important.

As long as the board accepts phenoms (pref from the box), an Thermalright Ultima 90 (doh, forgot to mention that) and does SLI... then I am reasonably happy. Rock solid stability is what I am after.

Also as a side question to my main, I am running an AM2 X2 6000+ @ 0.05V lower than stock and its pretty toasty... 40C idle and 50-54C at full load. I do run my PC rather silently and I am loathed to improve the cooling (fan/heatsink/noise). My question is, which Phenoms (quad core preferred) run cooler than the 6000+ I have and are they worth it?

With the switch in my gaming patterns to more bleeding edge games, currently playing Age of Conan and with the cheap SLI move, gearing up for some decent DX10 content both on AoC and future games.... I am weighing up the benefits of going triple/quad core now Vs. 2-3 years down the line (my next planned huge upgrade) going more into multicore then.

Opinions welcome.

A quick google search doesn't pull up many reviews of the Asus board but that is to be expected as the 750a chipset is fairly new on the scene. I don't think you are going to have any problems, the 750a/780a are designed for Phenoms and judging by the picture on the product page you should have no problems with you're cooler.

As for heat, 54c is fine, it when it's at 90+ that you should be concerned. But if you don't want high temps because that increases fan speed and noise then you should be able to adjust fan speed via the Bios and set thresholds for when it will spin faster. Generally any Quadcore is going to run hotter than a Dual core. According to this you can expect a Phenom X4 9350e coming soon which will be 65w- that should be the coolest Phenom around until Deneb 45nm later this year.

As for SLI on AMD you are really only limited to these chipsets- it might be worth considering a single GPU setup on an AMD chipset based board which are generally alot cheaper and cooler than their Nvidia counterparts.

Thank you for your help.

Is there any quad core phenom that is similar in heat output to the X2 6000+? I also use a Sunbeam Rheobus to keep my fanspeed at a static speed which keeps the noise to a minimum. I know the temps are fine but it always makes my cheeks clench past 50C because Im getting nearer to the unenjoyable 60C mark.

As for SLI, I have an 8800GT already. Single card Vs. 8800GT in SLI is a bit of dodgy ground. Any card available to give me the equivilent to an 8800GT SLI combo (as proved by Anandtechs recent reviews) would cost me a lot more than a motherboard and a second 8800GT (£55 for the board and £120 for the card). For comparison, a 9800GX2 would be approx £317 and an AMD HD 4870 is approx £200.

Going for a single card solution could possibly stop me from using a higher grade phenom and reduce the upgradability of my system. I am rather in a pickle here as I do not expect to upgrade motherboard/CPU/GPU for at least 24 months after this.

 

[Gary Key]

Biostar TPower N750 is a very solid, well performing board for the money. That said, if budget is a primary concern I suggest the ASRock K10750SLI-WiFi. The next two boards on my list would be the ASUS M3N-HD or Gigabyte GA-M750SLI-DS4.

 

[Elcs]

Nudge