Got ATI X1800XT! Now what?

[shunail]

Hi there,
I'd heard great reviews about X1800XT, without knowing anything else I bought it (big motivation was

big sale and store coupon though ), not what??? I need BIG FAVOR that is your advice. Which motherboard

would support this card? I've searched and found "ASUS P5WD2-E Premium" is Crossfire capable. Card's box says

Crossfire compatible motherboard is required and this motherboard is ATI Crossfire capabale. Other I've found

was "ASUS A8R-MVP" but thats AMD base board. I prefer Pentium base processors because I always had bad

experiences with AMDs. I want to play Battlefield 2 without any jitters and its all for that. I would like to

use my 2 x 1 GB DDR RAM if useable, PCI Creative Audigy 4, ATI All in Winder TV Tuner card, PCI IDE

controller for my 4 Hard Drives and 2 DVD Burners.

In short, I'm looking for
- system board with processor (Intel Pentium D if its worth buying or AMD :? )
- with no builtin video,
- no sound (may be),
- 2 PCI Express,
- 3 PCI slots (minimum),
- DDR RAM slot (if possible).

BY THE WAY, do I also need need a master video card??? 8O


Thanks for reading. Merry Christmas and Happy New year!!!

 

[RichPLS]

The new Asus A8R-MVP motherboard is a good choice for that X1800XT. I have one with an X1800XT that I am building this weekend.
Motherboard is a socket 439, so it uses AMD Athlons, XP-xxxx, or Opteron 1xx processors.
I got the Opteron 175 for $460, which is equivlant to the X2-4400.

Here is a review on that board by Anandtech, who labeled it the MainStream Rocket!

 

[shunail]

That means AMD is better buy than Intel Ps???

 

[RichPLS]

Without a doubt in regards to speed and price/perforance.

The Intel single and dual core processors draw the most power and produce the most heat of all current chips. Granted, this will ease up next year with Intel's new chips, and they might once again be the one to want, but today, the X2's or dual-core Opeterons are the chip for me... So I got a dual-core Opteron 175, since I needed a PC sooner rather than later...

 

[shunail]

and do I also need another video card OR a master video card???

 

[RichPLS]

Need, no, that card is very fast in single mode, need to run crossfire dual, yes, you need one crossfire x1800XT card, and the one you have...
That Asus A8R-MVP motherboard, I believe, is the best crossfire board on the market. I got mine for $139 at newegg.com

 

[Crashman]

You don't need a Crossfire compatible motherboard. Crossfire is only the name ATI uses for combining the graphics power of two cards on one display. The only reason you'd ever need a Crossfire-compatible motherboard is if you wanted to buy another X1800XT, this time a "Master Card", and use the two of them in Crossfire mode.

 

[shunail]

What about Gigabyte board. Aren't there any? Or Asus is better choice?
I making my mind towards AMD Opteron 165!

 

[ProdigyMS]

You shouldn't go to cheap on a processor, it might bottleneck your videocard. DFI makes a great crossfire board, but I would only go crossfire if you plan on buying an X1800XT card later.

 

[RichPLS]

Asus's A8R-MVP has a better southbridge than DFI's board (which DFI has manufactureing problems and is resulting in their lack of availablity).
The Opteron 165 is not a cheap processor, I went with the 175 for my A8R-MVP.

 

[Crashman]

Aren't there still problems with ATI's southbridge? The ULi southbridge is excellent, but I'm not certain if it works "perfectly" with the ATI northbridge.

Sapphire has some extremely nice designs using the ATI southbridge, Notice the use of all seven slot positions enables the placement of more slots

 

[RichPLS]

I hope ULI and ATI bridges work good together. As soon as I get mine running, I will post my personal review and findings.
From what I have heard, is the only dis-advantage is the gigabit ethernet will be choked at 800mb due to the PCI bus.
I will see soon!

 

[ProdigyMS]

I don't really see the point in using dual video cards anymore, buy a top of the line card now, wait another year for the next generation to come, and that top of the line card will most likely beat the dual cards you would've had.

I believe you would get more performance and less problems with a Nforce 4 chipset.

 

[Crashman]

SiS had some decent chipset technology but nobody put it to good use and it's fading into oblivian. ULi has some good stuff too but again...