Picking a motherboard for gaming. Should I consider SLI for my new computer?

[mrbill]

It's build a new computer time.. Here is what I have to use:
intel e8400
sata segate baracuda 7200.10 750gb
sata western digital wd2500js 250gb
sata lite-on LH-20A1S
bfg 8800gt oc
antec sonata 3 case (500w power supply)

I also picked up:
evga nforce 780i sli
OCZ 4GB DDR2 Kit ? DDR2-800 ? 5-6-6-15 latency

what I have left over that might be useable:
creative audigy 2zs platinum

What I want is a nice computer to play the latest games (crysis, bioshock, unreal 3, ect).

My questions are:
1: should I spend $280 on the evga motherboard or pick something else? I would guess the other choices could be gigabyte or asus(I expect they would save me about $100-$150). If so which do you reccomend?

Obviously, dropping in a 2nd 8800gt card would improve the video. But from what I understand the 8800gt can only connect to 2 video cards and this evga motherboard supports up to 3.

2:I do realize SLi is not a very cost effective way to go. That is why I am consdering going with a single bfg 8800gt and just drop in a replacement in like 2 years from now. So What does it take to run a game like crysis at or near max settings? can 1 8800gt do a good job?

3: is the ocz memory good enough? The store guy was saying there may be some benefit in going with 1066 but I thought the specs say the board only supports up to ddr2-800?

4: Should I use onboard sound, use the audigy 2zs, or buy a new sound card like the x-fi gamer? I have a logitech 5.1 system system for my coumputer sound.

5: Is the power supply in the antec sonata 3 case good enough to run the above system with a single 8800gt? What about 2 video cards? If not Should I look into something like 650w or 700W?

5: The current plan is to use both HD's and set the computer up for dual boot xp and vista 64. Would that affect my choice in motherboard.

Thank in advance for any help!

 

[BlueAcolyte]

1. The SLi is not worth it. By the time you can fit in another card, there will be a new one that blows it away. Get a X38 board (save about $50) or P35 (save about $130) like the GA-P35-DS4. Some P35 or X38 boards can run crossfire.

2. Not even 3 8800GTXs can run Crysis on high settings... An 8800GT should be good for medium.

3. The OCZ memory is fine, but if you can find something cheaper, go for it. 5-6-6-15 is a weird latency... You can get a good set of 4GB for only $80-100

5. The Antec PSU is fine.

6. You would want a motherboard with onboard RAID. Conveniently enough, I don't think your EVGA has it.

 

[mrbill]

thanks for the reply!

Sounds like I should return the MB and stay away from SLI. I did not seem like a very good idea to me. The $300+ I would save would go a long way to the next video card.

I am 99.99% sure the evga supports raid 0, 1, 0+1, 5. thats what to box says.

So whats the deal with memory? I think I read the lower the number, the better. What would be considered good numbers, very good numbers and great numbers?

I see some 4gb modules are 555-15, the more expensive stuff is 444-15. but some say they are 444-12, and 544-15, 544-12, 555-18...

I plan to stick with nvidia. So I don't think I will be looking for anything crossfire.

 

[DSF]

1. I recommend you get a P35 chipset motherboard. As you said, Gigabyte and ASUS make good boards, as do Abit and DFI. Decide what features you want, and pick your motherboard accordingly. There's no need to spend more than $170 or so for a solid P35 motherboard.

2. I'm not sure where BlueAcolyte got his information, but my single 8800GT is running Crysis with all settings on High perfectly smoothly. Right now I have AA at 2x, and I'll probably try bumping it up and seeing if it remains smooth.

3. There won't be any benefit in going to DDR2-1066. Stick with DDR2-800, and I would recommend getting RAM rated to run at 1.8V. That generally isn't the case with OCZ. (If the guy at the store tries to tell you that all RAM runs at 1.8V, he's full of shit.)

4. I'm using the onboard sound on the Gigabyte P35-DS3L right now, and it's good enough for me to enjoy gaming with my headphones or my old speakers. I hear the onboard sound on the P35-DS3R model is superior, but I haven't heard it. Either way, I'd hold off on buying a sound card until you try out the onboard on whatever motherboard you buy. If it isn't good enough, then worry about an upgrade.

5. The power supply will run an 8800GT just fine. I don't know how it would fare with 2 graphics cards, but I wouldn't recommend that setup anyway.

6. Even a low-end P35 motherboard like the P35-DS3L has 4 SATA ports, so you shouldn't have any issue with 2 hard drives. You'd even have one open for another SATA optical or hard drive in the future. Stepping up one price bracket to something like the P35-DS3R gives you 8 SATA ports.

Edit: By the way, some P35 motherboards require a BIOS update to handle the E8xxx series CPUs, so you'll want to be aware of that before you buy.

As far as the RAM, ignore the timings. Just forget about them. They make very little difference in the real world. Buy the least expensive RAM you can find that's rated to run at 1.8V. Corsair, Crucial, Mushkin, Kingston and G.Skill all make good RAM, and I've heard good things about A-DATA and Transcend recently as well.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Personally I have been eye'ing up the eVGA board that you just picked up. To be perfectly honest with you, eVGA has won my next purchase with their support that they gave the 680i owners with all the quirks that existed with that chipset, they stood behind the product and gave out replacement boards with new physical revisions when it was shown that their original boards did could not meet the specs they had on the box. Gigabyte hasn't done that with their 680i boards when it was shown they could not do 1333 FSB combined with a Quad Core, which was advertised (and still is) on their motherboard. EVGA is supporting their motherboards like they do with their video cards (which is fantastic support if you didn't know). I know I am starting to sound like a fanboy, but just go read the threads about them and you will see what I mean.

I am looking at the 780i board because of the 3 x16 PCI-E slots. I have a PCI-E RAID controller card that my data disks are connected to (it is a Promise SuperTrak EX8350). As for the board supporting higher memory, YES, it does. The 680i even supported 1066 memory. The issue is that there is no official spec for DDR2 memory faster than PC-6400 which is 800mHz, everything faster then that is un-official specifications. However, I run my memory at 1000mHz on my 680i (I can get tighter timings at 1000 then at 1066, which resulted in faster overall performance, and my CPU is clocked to a 333 FSB with its multiplier and gave me a nice stable system). The eVGA is:

Maximum of 8GB of DDR2 533/667/800/1200MHz SLI-Ready memory

So that should more than meet your need. I don't know of many memory modules that can go to 1200MHz....

As others have said, TRI-SLI is NOT worth it. The only card(s) that support it are the 8800GTX and 8800 GTX Ultra. The 8800GT does NOT support TRI-SLI as you need 2 bridge connection ports on the card (so each card can communicate directly to the other 2 cards). So I guess if you have $1800 to blow on video cards, then you don't really care about price/performance anyway....

I would think the HDA audio will be fine for most people. Unless you are hooking this up to a home theater, I wouldn't bother with upgrading to something else, and if I was connecting to a good set of speakers, I wouldn't be looking at a Creative product due to their poor shielding of the transport stages which allows for electrical crosstalk and interference from other devices to creep in on the audio output (which is why you can hear your mouse move or hard drive accesses a lot of the time on their boards).