I have a XFX 780i, which I know is faulty as I have tested all of my components on a friend’s board (exact same one), I sent it back for RMA and it came back with a note saying "tested and working fine".

I called them and told them the problem but they will not have it back again as they have already tested it once.

I am now looking for a new board, undecided on chipset, and am hoping a nice kind person can recommend me one.

It must support a Q9450, DDR2-pc6400.

At the moment I have a single 9600GSO but would like to know whether it would be worth getting a second one as this will decide on what chipset I will need. I mainly play COD4 at a high resolution.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

sorry forgot to mention i would like to OC my CPU to over 3.2Ghz as it is watercooled

My favorite at the moment is the EVGA 750i FTW.

Funny that you had the XFX 780i, my friend just ordered (or will soon, I can't remember) that mobo and I am going to get the 750i. We've been arguing over which is better and I don't see any reason to spend another $100 just so you can get tri-SLI (another waste of money) and 2 PCI-E 2.0 16x lanes when 2 PCI-E 16x (which is equal to 2 PCI-E 2.0 8x) lanes will work just fine. The other "benefits" of the 780i boil down to: extra SATA and USB ports.. but who fills all of those up anyway?

If you want to save money, get this.
This costs about $120.00. Does not support Crossfire.
In your case I would get a better video card if you want to upgrade rather than SLI that card.

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Product [...] uctID=2844

thanks for you advice, i will be taking these into consideration when buying,

also, i was wondering what would be the best chipset to go for incase i see in special offers on any boards.

thanks again,

Michael.

get a P35/P45 board and stick to a ATI 4800 card

gl

If you want to overclock, stay away from nVidia chipset motherboards.
http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en& [...] sues&meta=
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/chips [...] mpany.html

well i would get an x38 because:

- of its high factory fsb @1333mhz
- since youre trying to do sli, x38 boards allow full x16 speeds on both card slots (some argue that this doesnt even matter and that x8 on both slots are sufficient)
- 45nm ready

if you want 1600mhz factory fsb on your motherboard, then i'd recommend an x48 board.... like the Gigabyte GA-x48-dq6

sorry you wanted to sli ur 9600gso... which is nvidia.... sorry x38's are crossfire only.... so are x48's ... so forget my recommendation ... heh

is it worth me sli'ing them or getting a intel chipsetboard and upgrading the GFX card latter?

it depends on ur applications.... like is ur system for gaming, or work? or graphics stuff?

it all depends... but assuming you are going to game... theres not really a reason to go with two gpu's since there are single cards out there that will benchmark higher than two cards...

for instance, i want a radeon hd 3850 single card (for now)... well i was researching this card and they did benchmarks on popular video games currently out now.... well there has been cards out there that single handedly defeated crossfire'd 3850's (namely 8800 ultra)... i guess it really depends on how the games made up - as crossfire 3850's beat 8800 ultra in some games

so bottom line... do you care about cost?
if you dont, then get a $500 single gpu (that'll defeat most midrange crossfire'd gpus)
of if you really dont care - hell, just crossfire/sli the $500 gpu.. lol $1k crossfire gpus
if you need help deciding, look for the price to performance ratio... usually the best way to decide things...
plus look for benchmarks if youre gaming... they'll help you decide