Motherboard advice/recommendation needed

[beefheart]

Hello,

I need advice on the purchase of a new motherboard. I have the rest of the components outlined below that will comprise of the system that I am building and would like some tips, advice and recommendations from all you gurus out there.

Hardware that will be part of the system:

Graphics:
EVGA 384-P3-N966-TR GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB 192-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

Two of the above cards will be setup in SLI mode

CPU:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600

Memory [4GB Total]:
OCZTECH 2GB DDR2 PC2-8500 SLI

Heatsink:
Xigmatek HDT-1283 Heatsink

Hard Drive
SATA 3.0GBps [undecided]

Monitor
Dell S2409


I need a motherboard that will not require a second mortgage nor one the polar opposite. Something that will do justice to the above components.

Regards

 

[batuchka]

Well i have done a few Intel rigs for others off the new P43 chipset since they dun need crossfire/sli so i would suggest:

1) Biostar TP43HP
2) Gigabyte P43
3) Biostar TP43D2-A7

IMO that 9600GSO won't even tickle your LCD so am suggesting a HD4850 at the very least hehe

 

[sonnygdude]

What batuchka didn't explicitly mention though is that if you are dead set on SLI'ing those graphics cars, you can't use a P43 or P45 chipset - you need an Nvidia chipset.

I would go with a P45 board though - I think you're better off with a single card solution. Less power/heat, no concern about stuttering or lack of scaling, and if you buy a mid-grade single card you can upgrade again in a couple of years. What's your budget? I would look into an HD4870 at that res, it looks like the 512's are going in the $250 price range right now

Based on your choice for graphics setup, i'm assuming you're going to be gaming. Another good mobo to look at is the ASUS P5Q series, the P5Q Pro seems to be the sweet spot in that lineup.

Also, that RAM is more than you need. I would recommend getting 4GB of PC6400 - more RAM is better than faster RAM, and DDR2-1066 is overkill unless you know you're going to be doing really really aggressive overclocking

 

[VirtualLarry]

If you are dead-set on SLI, then you need an Nvidia SLI chipset mobo. Check out the EVGA 750i FTW board.

 

[beefheart]

Hello,

Thanks to all for the replies and recommendations. I would like to have an SLI setup and I already have purchased the hardware that I have listed above. Based on VirtualLarry's input I researched the FTW board as above and ended up ordering this. Ill let you know how the setup goes.

regards

 

[beefheart]

....also one question. Based on the feedback above the general sentiment appears to be not favorable to SLI/Crossfire. I understand the issues w.r.t the requirement for additional power/cooling... but could someone elucidate the pitfalls of such a setup or direct me to a URL where the pros/cons are listed ?

Regards