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Questions regarding SLI Motherboard

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  • Questions regarding SLI Motherboard

    I am planing to buy a new one (since my asus is officially dead), but this time i am planing on buying an SLI motherboard http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...985&CatId=1569
    so i have some questions regarding this:

    1) will I be able to (this will probably sound a an stupid question) run it with only one video card (i plan to buy another geforce 7800gt later)?

    2) In an SLI build, can i use 2 different video cards with no issues or will one slow the other or does their processing power adds up?

    3) Is an athlon 64 3800+ going to bottleneck the performance of 2 geforce 7800gt (hell, can it even handle one)?

    4) Is this board all right, or do you know of a better one (that you can find in tigerdirect.com {NOT ASUS})?
    Last edited by computernewbie; 01-31-2006, 10:41 AM.

  • #2
    Re: Questions regarding SLI Motherboard

    Answer 1: Yes
    Answer 2: Yes. Get two cards that have the same specs then they will run at the same speed. The new drivers will force a faster card to run at the slower card's speed.
    Answer 3: Yes it will bottleneck them. You need extreme cooling on the CPU and 3.0GHz + to run SLI without bottlenecks.
    Answer 4: I would not get that board, I am not a fan of low end ASUS boards. I strongly recommend the DFI ULTRA-D SLI board, especially for overclocking. If you are not a hardcore overclocker, the ASUS A8N PREMIUM SLI is a very nice stable board and it can overclock fairly well too.
    GIgabyte GA-990FXA-UD3
    AMD FX8120 @ 4GHz
    Patriot 1866MHz EL series 2X4GB DDR3
    Powercolour HD 6970 2GB w/XFX 8800GT 512MB Hybrid PhysX
    Creative X-FI titanium HD w/Technics class A 300W amp and tower speakers
    PC P&C 500W PSU
    2TB Seagate
    Coolermaster 690II w/Corsair H100 tucked under the hood

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    • #3
      Re: Questions regarding SLI Motherboard

      The ASUS SLI boards are okay, but DFI is definitely better. The SLI-Infinity isn't bad if you want something cheaper, otherwise go with the SLI-DR (not the Ultra-D SLI, there's no such thing, unless of course you mod an Ultra-D to be and SLI-DR and call it that for fun). As I just mentioned in a long bit of parenthetical information, you should still be able to mod a DFI nF4 Ultra-D to be an SLI board. The Ultra and SLI are identical chipsets except for the price.

      Why are you restricting yourself to TigerDirect? Newegg is the best online retailer for hardware by far.

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      • #4
        Re: Questions regarding SLI Motherboard

        I think ill go with your suggestion yawgmoth, although i am still in the process of making a test buy to tigerdirect.com but the items has not shipped yet, apparently i have to call them to confirm the order wich is extremely annoying.

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        • #5
          Re: Questions regarding SLI Motherboard

          My board is not a DR it is a UT nF4 SLI-D. The DR has extra SATA ports which to me are useless especially for the money. I highly recommend it.
          GIgabyte GA-990FXA-UD3
          AMD FX8120 @ 4GHz
          Patriot 1866MHz EL series 2X4GB DDR3
          Powercolour HD 6970 2GB w/XFX 8800GT 512MB Hybrid PhysX
          Creative X-FI titanium HD w/Technics class A 300W amp and tower speakers
          PC P&C 500W PSU
          2TB Seagate
          Coolermaster 690II w/Corsair H100 tucked under the hood

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Questions regarding SLI Motherboard

            Originally posted by casecutter
            My board is not a DR it is a UT nF4 SLI-D. The DR has extra SATA ports which to me are useless especially for the money. I highly recommend it.
            I'd have to agree that the SATA ports are probably useless for most people. I didn't realize there was a difference between the DR and D SLI boards. Both are pretty expensive though, and I'd probably take the Ultra-D and mod it if I were going to do SLI. I haven't looked at updated stuff, but last time I checked it looked like it was basically perfect.

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            • #7
              Re: Questions regarding SLI Motherboard

              So true, it is a very simple mod that can be done by anyone with a penknife and a conductive pen. Scrape a touch of epoxy off the contacts and draw a trace. Getting a SLI bridge is also easy enough and cheap. The only reason I went with the actual SLI board is I got a great deal on it and actually paid less for it new that the Ultra-d. As for the extra sata ports, you can still only run 4 sata drives in raid even when you get 8 on the DR so I just don't understand who would want 8 SATA drives running.
              GIgabyte GA-990FXA-UD3
              AMD FX8120 @ 4GHz
              Patriot 1866MHz EL series 2X4GB DDR3
              Powercolour HD 6970 2GB w/XFX 8800GT 512MB Hybrid PhysX
              Creative X-FI titanium HD w/Technics class A 300W amp and tower speakers
              PC P&C 500W PSU
              2TB Seagate
              Coolermaster 690II w/Corsair H100 tucked under the hood

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Questions regarding SLI Motherboard

                I have not heard much on modding the Ultra's lately, can you use newer drivers? Or do you still have to use the 66.?? ones?

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Questions regarding SLI Motherboard

                  Newest drivers work fine, I know of someone who just bought and modded one about 2 weeks ago. Worked perfectly. Check on the DFI forum for a link to an official DFI SLI bridge for cheap moneytoo, under $20US shipped.
                  GIgabyte GA-990FXA-UD3
                  AMD FX8120 @ 4GHz
                  Patriot 1866MHz EL series 2X4GB DDR3
                  Powercolour HD 6970 2GB w/XFX 8800GT 512MB Hybrid PhysX
                  Creative X-FI titanium HD w/Technics class A 300W amp and tower speakers
                  PC P&C 500W PSU
                  2TB Seagate
                  Coolermaster 690II w/Corsair H100 tucked under the hood

                  Comment

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