Which SLI? Asus, Gigabyte, MSI

[flexy]

Originally posted by: bap4201
my vote is for the asus, if you are not an enthusiast.

Asus, for its performance, very "mild" overclockability, flaws and problems is way overprized and overhyped.

 

[flexy]

Originally posted by: Dethfrumbelo
It's crunch time here too. I need to get a mobo sometime this coming week.

DFI > MSI > Gigabyte > ASUS

DFI is too far off, so that's out. MSI would be my 1st choice if it comes out on time. Gigabyte looks solid on NF4, but is way overpriced. ASUS is a little bit cheaper, but apparently is a lousy overclocker with a beta bios.

we all know that "DFI is best" is only an ASSUMPTION. In all my time of research etc. i did not see ONE real review of the dfi. Thats all hear-say and guessing !

 

[wylecoyote]

There is only ONE recent review of the Gigabyte (on tbreak, jan 2nd !) where they say its a good board, but they could NOT overclock the board at all from bios but had to use software tool. Also....in non-sli mode it looks the MSI is a bit faster.

Let us remember that T-Break opened their article with a disclaimer saying : "Stability of any SLI board boils down to what you plan on equipping it with and the PSU you?re using.... the stability started shaking once we equipped the board with two 6800GT and our standard 400 Watts PSU."

I would assume that the initial overclock of 275mhz FSB with a PSU that doesn't quite cut it ain't bad at all... T-break certaintly didn't seem to tax the overclocking capabilities or tinker much. The article was rather cursory and brief. Not up to the quality of Anandtech for instance.

Granted the MSI, if history is any indicator, will overclock like a beast... we'll see how they compare.
And the guys over at xtremesystems are hardcore... vapochills and nuke-blaster XL9 Incredo-memory... I'm waiting for a legit review of the MSI. Wink wink Anand.

Still, it's between MSI and Gig.

If anyone knows of or sees a review of the MSI Neo4 SLI, please post.

Either way, it's nice to see these boards appearing on the market. Finally.

 

[SkyBum]

After working with ASUS Tech Support, I'm told that I have to RMA my RMA'd A8N-SLI. This time around my LAN, Firewire, and PCI ports are all DOA.

2 boards and 2 RMA's. I will not be putting my third A8N back in this rig.

 

[DaFOBulous1]

Sigh...I'm confused as I would like the option to O/C but it seems to come down to the MSI Plat. SLI or the DFI Ultra-D. I may or may not add another video card.

Any suggestions?

 

[gixxer]

There is a review of the MSi board over at HardOCP.. http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzE0
And there is a review of the DFI here on Anandtech
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzE0

 

[gixxer]

does anyone have personal experience with the MSI SLI board and can tell me if the SATA NCQ option works? (i keep reading that the ASUS is still having problems even after the latest bios and Nforce drivers.. is this true??)

 

[user1234]

Originally posted by: gixxer
There is a review of the MSi board over at HardOCP.. http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzE0
And there is a review of the DFI here on Anandtech
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzE0

be sure to read the comment at the end of the MSI review which says that all performance measurements are INCORRECT !!!!!! what a lame azz site it is, admitting such a huge fumble, yet not taking the article down, and replacing it with correct results. In short, you should know that the MSI K8N Neo4 is a little slower than the Asus A8N-SLI at stock speeds, as reported by every other review but this piece of crap - which even admits its own mistakes (at least that).

 

[Teknet]

I've got an MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI coming in next week. What I liked about the board is the second SATA II controller. Also, both the SiI 3132 SATA II chip & the Marvell 88E8053 GB Ethernet chip are PCI-E x1 parts. All of the other SLI boards on the market are traditional PCI parts for the second SATA controller & GB Ethernet controller. This is probably there are no additional PCI-E slots on the board...although it would have been nice to see one.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Originally posted by: Teknet
I've got an MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI coming in next week. What I liked about the board is the second SATA II controller. Also, both the SiI 3132 SATA II chip & the Marvell 88E8053 GB Ethernet chip are PCI-E x1 parts. All of the other SLI boards on the market are traditional PCI parts for the second SATA controller & GB Ethernet controller. This is probably there are no additional PCI-E slots on the board...although it would have been nice to see one.

Great point, I didn't even think about nor consider that. The express useage is a good thing for sure.