Hey, are the new Penryns going to be compatable with most of the motherboards out right now? I am thinking of getting the XFX Geforce 680i or something, but I dont know if it will be compatable with the new penryns. What would be the best motherboard to get for around $150 dollars if I were to get the E5420 2.50 GHz one. I have a 8800 GTS Video card, so I wanna know if all 3 would be compatable with each other. Any help is appreciated.

The 680i boards are not compatable with the Quad core penryns.Don't know about the dual cores.

680i boards are only compatible with dual core penryns, not quad core penryns. I'd suggest you get a P35 unless you want to SLI that card.

nope

Well, what would you suggest for a Quad Core Penryn as far as a motherboard? What would be the best one or a good one to get? The MSI P35D3 Platinum Motherboard seems like a nice motherboard. Does that support the Quad Penryns? And is it compatable with the 8800 GTS?

I'd go with a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L/R/P, depending on your budget. I've heard good things about the DFI Blood Iron too. And all PCI-E 16x/PCI-E 2.0 boards are compatible with the 8800gts.

Pay no mind to the Fanboi FUD. If you have a newer board, the answer is "YES, though you might need a Bios update". http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3138

Are you sure? Take a look at this thread:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/foru [...] ld-nothing

Thank you for pointing out that nVidia are not yet supporting Penryn. And Apologies for not including the words "Intel Chipset" in my post.

So....What motherboards will handle the new Penryn Quads? Anything around $175-$200 that will work with a Penryn? How can you tell what works and what doesnt? Does it have to have the X38 Intel Chipset? If so, would a Intel DX38BT Motherboard work? I think that only supports ATI though. Not my 8800GTS. I could be wrong though. If something has ATI Crossfire Technology, does it mean it is not compatable with Nvidia cards?

X38 supports Crossfire but not SLI. You can use two nVidia cards in an X38 board but not in SLI: that is, you can use card #1 for watching TV while card #2 plays a game on a different monitor; you can't use both cards to play a game on both and get better fps. You can use X38 with a single nVidia card but it's a waste IMO.

If you want both SLI and Penryn wait a few weeks and get a 780i motherboard when they show up.

If you don't care about SLI and just want Penryn support get the GA-P35-DS3R (or DS3L or DS3P, sure).

P35, X38, 780i will handle Penryn quads.
P35 boards like GA-P35-DS3R or DS3P or P5K or aBit IP35Pro are good and under $200 and work with a Penryn.
X38 boards are more expensive. 780i will probably be even more expensive.
How do you tell what works: reviews, news releases.
No it doesn't have to be X38 to work with Penryn.
X38 supports nVidia cards, just not SLI.
If something has Crossfire it doesn't mean anything about nVidia. It just means two ATI cards can cooperate to make a game run at higher fps.

I suggest the Asus P5K-E WiFi/AP as its not expensive and has a lot of features and is easy to OC. Intel is not able to support SLI as NVidia will not licsense it to Intel for their chipsets as they want it for their own chipsets. But SLI will only give you a 20-30% increase so might not be worth it for now.

Maybe if you are running it in SLI PCIe 2.0 at full x16.

Apparently even the 780i is having issues working with penryn quads last i knew intel werent giving them full quad penryn specs making it hard for NVIDIA.

Well NVidia is playing hardball so Intell will play as well. And they may drag out until Larabee and then NVidia might be screwed especially if it is a multi-CPU based GPU that can smoke anything.

Payback for nVidia not allowing SLI in x38? Ouch!

Somebody should lock those executives in a room and let them out only after they sign a few things.

I want webcams on the fights in that room

Lol. I wonder who would win.

of course the winner is...... the refferee. lol