Need a mobo for my new system

[jjj807]

I am currently gathering parts together on my new system, I want to make an SLi rig

It will be running Windows XP Pro for now, possibly Vista soon


Parts I own currently:
CPU: Athlon X2 5000+ Windsor
Video: 2x SLI Evga 7600GT 256
Case: ULTRA AV Wizard Mid Atx tower
PSU: spare 500w Coolmax-do i need more power for sli?
Memory: OCZ 2 GB 2 x 1 GB PC6400 DDR2 800 Reaper Edition
DVD drive: pretty new burner I had lying around
HDD: 250 GB Seagate SATA

Now I need a motherboard
I want an SLi, AMD x2, SATA drive availability, and high speed PCI express slots. I want to go SLI. Ive been looking at the ASUS nforce 570, and MSI boards. I play videogames.

I just need help looking for a board in the range 100-200 dollars. I want something that is stable, I do not OC anything. Also might switch to Vista in the near future. Thanks!!

 

[NXIL]

15 socket AM2 SLI motherboards at Newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...yCodeValue=719%3A21479

Filtered: boards with user reviews where 5 egg plus 4 egg % = 80% or more...exception is the

ASUS M2N32-SLI Premium Vista Edition AM2 NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard -

at $210....it was close at 77%, and may work for you.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...%2c719%3a21479&bop=And

Get yourself some grains of salt, and read through the user reviews....some are not so helpful, but some area, and you may be able to lock in on a good board for you by looking at price, features, reviews, etc.

No OC, stable, good price? I would probably recommend:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813131013

but, I do not own that board, no experience with it.....

HTH

NXIL

 

[jjj807]

thanks nxil! Ok i've heard that the new ASUS boards aren't handling SLi as some of their counterparts, MSI and Gigabyte. How about this Gigabyte?
Gigabyte Nforce 570 SLI Newegg

It is 90$ cheap,and seems to have what i am looking for. However, I am asking if anyone knows if the PCI x16 slots on this board run at full speed in SLi mode 16x? thanks!

 

[NXIL]

It is 90$ cheap,and seems to have what i am looking for. However, I am asking if anyone knows if the PCI x16 slots on this board run at full speed in SLi mode 16x? thanks!

No, but it doesn't matter: follow links to see performance compared to 590 chipset boards: essentially no difference.

http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=567

The nForce 590 SLI also includes a total of 46 PCI Express lanes, meaning SLI mode can operate at full speed. By this I mean both PCI Express x16 slots will operate at full speed when using two graphics cards. This is not a feature of the nForce 570 SLI chipset, which only operates each SLI card at PCI Express x8. The nForce 570 SLI on the other hand does not include the NVIDIA LinkBoost technology and only supports PCI Express x16 for a single graphics card. When operating in SLI mode the card will operate at PCI Express x8, which at this point in time has no influence on performance.

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=398&type=expert

http://www.ocworkbench.com/200...te/GA-M57SLI-S4/g1.htm

Performance wise, the board does well in all categories alongside the other manufacturers' boards based on 590 SLI, 570 SLI, ULI 1697 and NV 6100 chipset. In certain cases, we find that 590 SLI might really be an white elephant since as you would be paying more with not much of a performance gain.

http://www.ocworkbench.com/200...te/GA-M57SLI-S4/b8.htm

Great price, looks like a fine board, I would recommend: go for it.

 

[jjj807]

thanks a lot NXIL