I need a MOBO that will allow Dual SLI, a PhysX card, an X-F

jlaavenger

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I need a MOBO that will allow Dual G80 SLI, a PhysX card, an X-Fi card and a TV card. Any advice? I'm a little confused here. Some PC builders like Alienware will say you can't have Dual SLI, a PhysX card and an X-Fi card because there are not enough slots, but Dell allows the configuration and shows no objection. Can anyone explain which 680i board would be best for adding extra cards like the X-Fi card? I'm looking at the EVGA and the Striker Extreme MOBO's. Which is better?
 

asdasd123123

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I didn't even know there was motherboards with four GFX slots..

And what in the world would you need FOUR G80 gpus for anyway? o_O

PhysX is completely useless anyway, it serves nearly no purpose at all.
There's what, three or four games that even enable the use of it?
 

asdasd123123

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Your topic says dual sli... sli is already the act of having two cards ;P

Anyway, get an external TV-tuner, I couldn't find any mobos with three pci sockets AND SLi support..

Ditch the PhysX and get one step stronger CPU or something.
 

DesertRat

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Hey, any 680i mobo should do! get a pci-e 1x tuner card, and there's a third pci-e x16 slot for a ppu(when they're released in pci-e format). the X-fi should slide in nicly to that one pci slot.

but right now he's right physics is all hype, however in not too long (mid-2007) physics is going to beome a great add-on if not a nesscesity for high-end gaming...

Edit: i just looked and the EVGa 680i mobo has 2 pci slots so it looks like ur good to go for a crrent gen phys card and ur x-fi, as well as a pci-e 1x tv tuner. newegg used to have a ATI thetre card in pci-e, however i cant find it on thier site nemore...
 

amnotanoobie

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About the PhysX card. I think you simply should dump the whole idea. The idea of the PhysX card was really good during its initial release but it ain't looking so hot now. Quad-core processors promise to do the additional physics processing, plus video card makers are thinking of integrating it to the video card (though i haven't seen any indication that it's really going to happen). I haven't seen any games today that are retail that say "you have to have a PhysX card to run this."


EDIT: But I could be wrong.. :p
 

DesertRat

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honestly i suppose i do have to agree, and both ATi and Nvidia have discussed dumping physics to an extra GPU in ur sys so, yeah...


so you have 2 PCI slots, 3 pci-e x16, and 2 pci-e x1 on the EVGa 680i.


PCI 1: SPU(x-fi) PCI 2: tv tuner PCI-e16 1 GPU 1 PCI-e16 2: open/future GPU/PPU PCI-e16 3: 2nd GPU PCI-e1 1&2: unnocupied. Right? so the 680i should do just fine however i'd be worried about the R600...
 

Heyyou27

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I didn't even know there was motherboards with four GFX slots..

And what in the world would you need FOUR G80 gpus for anyway? o_O

4X4, comes out in about a week and a halfThat doesn't make it a viable solution.

I say go for the eVga 680i with two 8800GTXs, a Kentsfield and an X-Fi Fatal1ty if you're really trying to max out your system. Don't bother with the PhysX card.
 

jlaavenger

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Which is better the SupremeFX / DTS Connect / Array Mic / Noise Filter on-board sound card, found on the ASUS Striker Extreme Motherboard or a Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro Series sound card? And why?

Also will an X-Fi card fit the SupremeFX card slot?
 

Slayer616

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Which is better the SupremeFX / DTS Connect / Array Mic / Noise Filter on-board sound card, found on the ASUS Striker Extreme Motherboard or a Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro Series sound card? And why?

The Fatal1ty is way better, 64 meg onboard RAM to store sounds and free up system RAM, offloads work from your CPU, lots of games support EAX and XFi. The riser card is most likely a based off some kind of CODEX, so its going to eat up some of your CPU.

Also will an X-Fi card fit the SupremeFX card slot?
I don't Think so, its a riser card slot , not a full PCI slot. They did that to remove some components off the motherboard because it so stuffed full of features. Many hardcore gamers would never dream of using that anyways so will just leave that riser card off the system.
 

Slayer616

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I need a MOBO that will allow Dual G80 SLI, a PhysX card, an X-Fi card and a TV card. Any advice? I'm a little confused here. Some PC builders like Alienware will say you can't have Dual SLI, a PhysX card and an X-Fi card because there are not enough slots, but Dell allows the configuration and shows no objection. Can anyone explain which 680i board would be best for adding extra cards like the X-Fi card? I'm looking at the EVGA and the Striker Extreme MOBO's. Which is better?

I've read a ton of reviews of both boards, both seem to be great boards. the ASUS striker is about $200.00 more. There is a P5N32-E SLI version similar to the striker, but as of this writing, nooner seems to have any 680i Asus boards in stock. The EVGA board is widely availalable, but Evga is known for poor customer service.

The striker does appear to have a somewhat better heat pipe system, it's got the backpannel LCD screen and blue LED lights on the motherboard. It's not a refrence board made by Foxcon like the Evga and BFG boards are.

Performance wise both boards are going to be pretty close to the same, the striker supposedly has better components so has the potential to overclock better. Bottom line is if cost is an issue, go with the EVGA, if maximum overclocking is what your shooting for, you may have better luck with Asus.

I believe all of the 680i boards have an extra 8x PCIE slot that will support using a third graphics card as a physics card later this year when Nvidia release driver support for it. as far as the PhysX card, that is only available as a PCI card at the moment and has limited support, so unless your a Ghost recon junky, I'd avoid it for now and just see how that 3rd slot will work our down the road.
 

Doughbuy

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Valve just signed a deal to incoporate the PhysX engine in their games... shrug.

nVidia and ATI are talking about using an older graphics card as a physics card, which should also help us enthusiasts who upgrade a lot. My take on this, wait for physics, leave your options open, but don't take the jump.

Board-wise, I see no reason for anyone to get the striker unless they wipe their butt's with money. The eVGA performs perfectly fine, and has proven to be a nice board. Not to mention the audio rise for the striker kills off one expansion card, and the sound quality difference is negligible.
 

rodney_ws

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Instead of telling this guy to ditch the PhysX card... we should all be trying to sell him our stuff we regret buying. Anyone who is considering one of those cards at this point has serious issues or else is living in a bubble.
 

RyanMicah

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There are boards with 3 PCI-E slots. The X-Fi cards take a regular old PCI slot, and I think X-Fi is over-rated. Look into other suitable but cheaper cards, there are several with 24-bit support. The PhysX card sucks. Rodney, you actually bought one? Research man, research.
 

rodney_ws

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Hell no I didn't buy a PhysX card... I was waiting until after the reviews came out before I made a decision... and I'm GLAD I did. Although I do put considerable effort into researching my purchases... that's not a skill I developed overnight... so yes, in my younger days I'm sure I bought plenty of crap I should have passed on.

When I was 10 my mom bought me a PS/2 30-286... had I picked up and read a PC Magazine at the time I would have known that it was incredibly overpriced... especially in a world of 386 SXs that were so common that year. I hated that computer and my neighbor (owner of a local computer business) for selling it to us.
 

RyanMicah

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Doesn't that kinda go for most of this hardware? :p All we really NEED is an email/internet system, and we only really NEED the net to find movie times and information...even then, there's the phone book. But do we really NEED movie times anyway? Or a phone? Sure, the dark ages weren't that great...but people ate, lived, and had family and music nonetheless. Spending hard earned money on hardware that is gold one day and junk the next...is still kinda silly. But this is an enthusiast site and I'm guilty just the same. :) I saw an FX-53 processor for sock 939 for sale last night priced at $114. Today it was changed to $800+ I don't get it. LOL The FX-60 dual core is found for around $400.
 

jlaavenger

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Slayer616 said:
Also will an X-Fi card fit the SupremeFX card slot?
I don't Think so, its a riser card slot , not a full PCI slot. They did that to remove some components off the motherboard because it so stuffed full of features. Many hardcore gamers would never dream of using that anyways so will just leave that riser card off the system.

Really? The Riser card slot looks like a small pci x1 slot, like the one below.
I really want an enthusiast board with these features but I also want 7 expansion slots.

I've been looking at various custom PC builders like Velocity Micro, Alienware and Dell, and I think it would be cheaper to build a system myself. From different configurations I've seen I think I'm leaning toward
• Processor Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme processor QX6700, quad 2.66GHz cores, 8MB L2 Cache
• ASUS Striker Extreme Socket T (LGA 775) NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Motherboard or similar board.
• ENERMAX GALAXY EGA1000EWL ATX/BTX 1000W Power Supply 100
• DDR2 Memory 4096MB Corsair Dominator DDR2-1066 Twin2X2048-8500C5D* Dual-path Heat Xchange
• 2 x BFG Tech GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB Water Cooled PCI Express graphics card in SLI DDR3 PCI-Express
• Multimedia TV Tuners ATI Theater™ 650 PRO or ATI TV Wonder 650
ATI Technologies TV Wonder 650 PCI NTSC [/b]
• Physics Processor 128mb Asus® AGEIA™ PhysX™ Processor Ghost Recon Edition
• Areca ARC-1210 4 ports 500 MHz PCI-Express to SATA-II RAID 6 Adapter, Areca Premium 256M SoDimm ECC-Raid Controller card.
• 4 x 150GB Western Digital Raptor 10,000rpm SATA/150, 16MB Cache, NCQ -RAID 0 Stripe (600GB Total)

• Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional Series sound card , 64MB X-RAM for high performance and superior digital audio
• Floppy Drive & Media Reader 8-in-1 Floppy Drive & Media Reader Combo
• Bigfoot Networks Killer NIC M1 10/100/1000Mbps PCI Network Adapter with a 400 MHz Network Processing Unit (NPU) 1 x RJ-45, 1 x USB2.0

• Microsoft® Windows® Vista Home Premium Edition
 

Talon

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If you're looking to use a lot of add-ins ie Physx, X-Fi etc. then you definitely want to stick with the eVGA board. The Striker wastes a PCI-x1 slot on the audio riser card which you won't use due to the X-Fi you want to add.

Looking at the board if you go SLI you should be able to fit all you ask for in it but I might suggest waiting on the Physx PCI-x1 card to hit unless you already have the regular PCI variant already.
 

Talon

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Really? The Riser card slot looks like a small pci x1 slot, like the one below.

The slot for the riser card is a "reversed" PCI-x1 slot. You can't put any other type card in it as it would have to stick out the back of the case to do so.

On the Killer nic card: I have seem reports of it modestly increasing some FPS or swiftness when using voip programs and such but the 680i boards already include something very similar in prioritizing packets which should help in a similar way. I "personally" can't see the extra $250 or so being worth it especially coupled with a 680i board. I'd still stick with the eVGA one for the riser card reason stated above.

EDIT: Everything in your list should work fine with the eVGA 680i board from what I can tell. If you MUST put the Killer NIC in there then I would lean even more to the eVGA for the extra port.
Unless something "better" (read not Asus with their slot-wasting board) comes out the eVGA is what I'll go with. As a sidenote I've followed their forums a little and looks like they're working quickly to solve any quirks of the 680i chipset with nVidia and drivers. I'm more sold on them the more I read about them.