Best SLI and AM3+ motherboard?

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brandon wenneborg

Honorable
Aug 9, 2012
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Hey, I have a custom build that I finally wanted to take up a notch with SLI. Sadly, I discovered my motherboard supports ATI crossfire and not Nvidia SLI and at the time of purchase I didn't know the difference.

specs:
ASUS M5A97
AMD FX8150 eight-core
2x GTX 560 Ti
12 GB of RAM
1000W PSU

My problem is in finding a motherboard that supports SLI and my eight-core processor. The couple I did find were either badly rated, didn't like FX eight-core CPUs (user experiences) or were a bit out of my budget.

What would you recommend, preferably Gigabyte or ASUS and ~<130?

Thanks in advance!
 
Solution
photonboy
Scroll down to my LINKS: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1974658/performance-lost.html#xtor=EPR-8809

My advice is THIS one from my links: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M5A99FX_PRO_R20/#overview

I believe it's the same board being recommended above. It's not in your budget, but I do think the Sabertooth is really awesome though.

*You SHOULD be able to directly swap motherboards but I'm not certain. I recommend planning as if it wouldn't work in terms of backing up data etc as reinstalling the old motherboard is a big hassle.

If it DOES work, then you probably just need to REMOVE the old motherboard CHIPSET driver and other drivers particular to that board and INSTALL the newer ones.

If reinstalling Windows wouldn't be too...
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Neverrazor

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Oct 26, 2013
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there won't be a best choice thing every board got goods/bads ...

This would be your best option Asus m5a99fx it support 16x/16x and the Asus m5a99x evo r2 it support 8x/8x

both support sli/crossfire

m5a99x would be kinda cheaper ... the diff of 8x/8x won't really appear on a single monitor ... i got one my self runing crossfire is fine .. works fine for me
 
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photonboy

photonboy

Titan
Jun 20, 2006
21,567
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85,015
Scroll down to my LINKS: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1974658/performance-lost.html#xtor=EPR-8809

My advice is THIS one from my links: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M5A99FX_PRO_R20/#overview

I believe it's the same board being recommended above. It's not in your budget, but I do think the Sabertooth is really awesome though.

*You SHOULD be able to directly swap motherboards but I'm not certain. I recommend planning as if it wouldn't work in terms of backing up data etc as reinstalling the old motherboard is a big hassle.

If it DOES work, then you probably just need to REMOVE the old motherboard CHIPSET driver and other drivers particular to that board and INSTALL the newer ones.

If reinstalling Windows wouldn't be too much hassle I'd recommend doing that from scratch though.

Other:
- test DDR3 memory via MEMTEST
- make sure DDR3 memory in correct slots (often 2nd and 4th for two sticks)
- verify CPU and RAM are optimal
- update BIOS
- SATA to AHCI
- for Windows 8, you should NOT be in Legacy mode in the BIOS prior to installation or you'll lose critical boot-time security
 
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Solution
jb6684

jb6684

Distinguished
Feb 20, 2011
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If you change motherboards, and certainly if they have different chipsets (which in this case they WILL to get SLI support) you Must reload the operating system from scratch......

But wait, it gets Worse, if you do not have a Full-Retail version of Windows 7/8 (that OEM builders version we all buy to build our own systems will Not work) you need to buy a new copy of the OS. You can't Re-use it on the new board, MS license doesn't allow it (it's keyed to your old MB/CPU when you register it)

Had to suggested it but, you might consider getting a single GTX770 or GTX780 or moving to AMD 280X/290X... would be simpler and if you can Return/Sell-off the 560Ti's might make financial sense...
 
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