Right now I have a couple of different builds in my possession. One of them is using an Abit IL9Pro with the E4300 Core 2 and 2 gigs of ram with just a video card to run simple stuff, its more of a work computer. My personal/gaming computer is using a Abit IP35-E, with a Q6600 at 3.0Ghz with 4 gigs ram and a 8800GTS 320.. Now my question is, I have really been considering getting the HD 3870x2 and possibly crossfire them in the future, should I swap out motherboards and then crossfire later? moving the 8800 to the work computer and getting an x2 on the IL9? I also was wondering, the IL9 Pro is listed as supporting crossfire, I know it isnt PCI-E 2 and all, and I know about the bandwidth issues and pointlessness of it for now, but would the IL9 support two X2's crossfired? or a single one for that matter... But, well, one will work... anyways, thanks for you guys time.
whats the time frame and budget for this build? I think with the geforce 9800's and other nvidia products coming out within the next couple of months, you might be better off waiting on the hd3870x2 purchase a bit if you can, because prices are pretty much guaranteed to drop (just look at what happened to the hd3870 when 9600 came out)...
Either way, video cards don't use up the bandwidth of pcie 1.1 let alone 2.0... If you want to buy a board so you can upgrade the gpu's and cpu to the 45nm quads down the road, I would suggest again to wait a little bit. X48 boards are due out soon, so X38 prices should probably drop which will give you 2.0 bandwidth with crossfire support. If you decide to go nvidia route, then I guess your best option for 2.0 bandwidth SLI would be the 780i chipset... Not too familiar with nvidia boards though, so you might want to wait on opinions about that.
If you MUST buy now... then IMO you should buy the foxconn X38A motherboard, which has dual x16 2.0 crossfire support. Get an HD3870x2, and then buy the second after a few months when prices drop. CPU, i dunno... are you going to recycle one of the previous ones (Q6600, or E4300?) If not... and your budget can handle it, I would get the E8400... if your budget can't handle it... buy another E4300 for now, and upgrade to the 45nm Quads when they come out, or when you can afford them!
You probably already know, but just to make sure... nvidia boards SLI with ONLY nvidia gpus. ATI/intel chipsets CROSSFIRE with ONLY ATI video cards... So keep that in mind if you are absolutely certain to run multiple GPUs, as your motherboard choice will have to go hand in hand with your gpu choice.
