MoBo for new ATI Directx10 cards.

[Oldguy]

The past few months of MoBo Forums have been generally dominated by
discussions of SLI mobos for the overclocker due to the superiority of the NVidia GPU. As we get nearer to the release of ATI's next generation cards, it appears that they will be, to say the least, competitive. For those of us who are inveterate upgraders and those putting together new builds in the near future, it might be wise to explore Mobos for the new cards.

It would seem the NVidia 6xx chipsets are still more than viable for single card solutions, but crossfire is out. Some of us are dense enough to want to look at crossfire with the new cards which means reorienting our Mobo focus. 965? 975? wait for the new intel release later this year? I don't know - but I'm hoping an open ended discussion will point in the right direction.

 

[SuperFly03]

the 965/975/RD600 are all great chipsets but only the 975 and RD600 technically support crossfire.

In all reality it will boil down to what features you want with the board and what you want to do with it. Do you want to OC it until your CPU breaks? Do you just want it to work? Do you have to have dual GPU? Are you hell bent on AMD or Intel? Do you want to have room for Physics?

I see your conundrum, but more information is needed before I can attempt to steer you in a good direction.

 

[Oldguy]

QX6700 looking to oc in the neighborhood of 3.2. Dual GPU issue will remain open until ATI benchies are confirmed, - late March, I suspect, but the capability is important. Don't care if AMD or Intel - but not willing to wait for alleged next "intel killer" ( I am Oldguy, you know). Physics not really demonstrably superior at this point, so will waive the need. I guess one frustration is that a dual gpu setup pretty much limits me to a single pci slot from the designs I've seen which means forced choice between sound and tv tuner. Thanks for your help.[/i]

 

[SuperFly03]

Well then you are probably looking at either the 975, 680i, or RD600 chipset. the 975 and RD600 support crossfire and the 680i supports SLI.

As for the OC'ing.... that won't be a problem on any moderately priced board since you are only looking for a mild OC. Cooling will probably be more of a problem than anything. As long as you buy a respectable board with the right chipset, you should be fine. Expect to pay $150 or so for a good budget board, or you can pay upwards of $300 for an enthusiast level board. Your call on that one.

The TV Tuner/Sound card thing may be an issue.... let me see if I can find something with enough PCI slots or some other alternative.

 

[SuperFly03]

It looks like the RD600 and 975x chipsets have enough PCI slots for you to have a TV tuner and a Sound card. On the 975 chipset there is a 1x PCI-e slot that gets covered when using the primary slot and 1 PCI slot gets covered when using dual GPUs, but there are 2 free PCI slots still. On the RD600 it appears to be the same case except that where the 1x PCI-e slot is on the 975 chipset there is just a space, but still enough room to use the PCI slot right below it.

I am ball parking since I am at work, I can confirm it when I get home and take a look at my RD600 board and give you an exact answer.

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[Oldguy]

Have not seen much on the RD600 spec boards yet. If near future release and decent numbers, would seriously consider. Cooling will be Tuniq - have one in each of my current boxes, other than PITA to install, I am very satisfied. Ram will be subject to Mobo selection but 2 gb with frequency tbd based on mobo limits to get me 1:1 with decent latency. PSU will probably be 1kw enermax or pcpower&cooling - just in case I go 2 gpu with the preliminary draws of 240-270 each. Parking all this stuff in a TJ09 case with Noctua fans. Push comes to shove will live with 1 pci slot for sound and wait on tv for better than currently exists usb solution. Again - thanks.

 

[SuperFly03]

RD600 is out

I have one sitting next to my desk waiting for a CPU/RAM.

Right now there is only 1 and it's pretty expensive. Its the DFI ICFX3200, on newegg for $270.

Tuniq Tower.... excellent choice.

RAM I would recommend Super Talent 4-3-4-8 DDR2 800 2 x 1GB kit. It's cheap relatively and scaled really well during OC. It is the RAM I plan on getting here soon. It is only ~$210 for 2GB, which isn't 1/2 bad. There are cheaper sets but they have higher latencies and don't scale as well.

1Kw PSU is probably a bit overkill, but it is always better to have more than enough power rather than less.

All in all, you seem to have your ducks in a row. Again, I will check out the exact availability of PCI slots when I get home here in 2 hours or so. Slow day at work.... lol

 

[Oldguy]

Again - thanks for your help. This will be build #8 and everything changes with each build. Have a pressler, a prescott (just in case my George Foreman quits and I need to grill something), an FX57, a 4800+ and my just months old c2d. Expensive to keep the family relatively current, but sure is fun.

 

[Oldguy]

Tacos - from what I have seen, the 975 pcie operates at electrical 8 on the second slot which, to date has been sufficient for current generation crossfire. At this point, nothing I've seen about the ATI cards indicate the need for dual full 16x for the new cards. Haven't seen anything that says they will function 8x either - so I guess I'll have to wait. Need to pull the trigger by the end of March so there is some lead time.

General rant follows to all you mfgrs: When top end tech is available, why don't you mfgrs. (may or may not just mean manufacturers) figure out how to build something that ALL the best components can be interoperative at the same mfgng time. Oh well, time for another bottle of bordeaux's finest.

 

[SuperFly03]

not true, the 975x doesn't even have two pci-ex16 slots, only the p965 does, and that doesn't have support for for either sli or xfire officially, but companies like gygabite are getting around that with their one drivers

eidt**whoops, that was only the first ronud of 95x mobos I'm thinking of, the newer version have two pci-ex16 slots, and the bad axe 2 techinically has 3 (but electrically only 1 16, 1 8, and 1 4), all mobos before that have only 1 like the bad axe 1 does

Taco... I think you have mistaken 955 for 975. All 975 chipsets have 2 x16 (all be it x8 x 2 in CF mode).

And oldguy, there is definitely enough space to use both PCI slots (the upper most and lower most) with dual GPU's. I say this as I stare at my beautiful RD600 board

 

[SuperFly03]

DFI ICFX3200 on hand. It is beautiful. I have a CFX3200 for my 939 now. I have gotten used to the DFI BIOS and I have a good grasp on all 300 options lol, so I am sticking with them. RD600 is a really good board, but not cheap. Max FSB is around ~510-520

 

[Oldguy]

RD600 looking probable. Any issues with multipliers vs. fsb for cpu or ram compatibility?

 

[Oldguy]

Oldguy sold!!! DFI RD600 it is...went to dfi website and checked it out - looks like it does everything I want (4 bottles and a fine cigar cheaper than striker too) Hope it ships wrapped because box is seriously #1 all time butt ugly. Will also save a few bucks on the windowed version of the TJ09 because the color scheme is......uhhhh....less than optimal......now must wait......and wait.......and wait for video cards.

 

[SuperFly03]

Oldguy sold!!! DFI RD600 it is...went to dfi website and checked it out - looks like it does everything I want (4 bottles and a fine cigar cheaper than striker too) Hope it ships wrapped because box is seriously #1 all time butt ugly. Will also save a few bucks on the windowed version of the TJ09 because the color scheme is......uhhhh....less than optimal......now must wait......and wait.......and wait for video cards.

I have had 2 DFI's previous to the RD600 all have been wonderful but very complicated BIOS. They are only complicated if you want to make them, another words if you leave it on auto it will run fine otherwise you are going to learn alot lol. I don't hesitate to recommend it, but is alot to digest. The RAM timings are what are crazy. I think it is well worth the effort. It comes in a nice pretty red box

 

[Oldguy]

Willing to play with bios a lot for ram settings. Have spare sticks out the wazoo so will put together some probable settings on some cheaper pny 667's to establish a baseline before installing the good stuff (OCZor Crucial 800's) with very small incremental pushes. Only looking for a 3.2-3.3 on a qx6700 (unless i get a testosterone rush - then may go for 3.5) with a 1:1