motherboards with crossfire?

[bechidow]

Hey guys i just need a list of crossfire able motherboards. I know there's X38, X48, p45, and p35. But is that all of them. Or are there others. Im buying a motherboard with crossfire and want to look at all of my options.
If someone could make me a list maybe newest to oldest or best to worst for a crossfire setup id really appreciate it.
Thank you in advance.

 

[PCnut]

Why dont you do some reaseach on internet and newegg for this. In doing this your self you would learn a lot about cross fire and PCIexpress. and then you would be better able to make a decision. because it all depends on what you want and how much you want to spend and a lot of it is personal preference. If you come up with a couple of boards you like and some knowledge i will be more than happy to assit you in anyway.

 

[bechidow]

Oh i wasnt looking for specific boards. Just the codes like X48 or something so i could narrow my search and go from there. On the site im going to right now there was something like 13,000 mobos. Not all different but still alot to go through to see all of the ones with crossfire.So if i knew all of the letters like X38 and so on i can punch that in and it would be alot quicker for me.

 

[njalterio]

Crossfire motherboards are the ones that are labeled "X38" and "X48".

Good luck.

 

[PCnut]

depends again on budget and if you want pciexpress 2.0 or if you want 2 16x slots or will 2 x 8x slots be ok?? Personally i would stay with a x48 board and i have made 2 builds using the Asus Rampage Formula and they are great boards overclock easy and they have 2 16x Pciexpress slots. they also use ddr2 memory and to me this is best because of the price/performance issue. you can get the ddr2 a lot cheaper and not give up much with performance..

 

[outlw6669]

The only Intel CrossFire motherboards you should be looking at are based on the X38/48 (exact same chipset just validated by Intel to run at 1600FSB) or the P45 chipsets.
Motherboards based on the X38/48 chipset will give you the best performance with future cards whereas the P45 will work just fine with current generation cards.

 

[eklipz330]

fyi there not codes, they're chipsets
pcie 2.0 x16 is what your looking for, i think as of now only x38/x48 and p43/p45 are the only chipsets offering that as of now...im not so sure about the AMD platform, but there isn't a real reason you should be buying that over intel right now

*edit*
im pretty sure p43 isnt a CF motherboard, and p45 doesn;t support full bandwidth over the pcie lanes, but pcie 8x shouldn't hinder your graphics performance anyway...not yet at least

 

[50bmg]

X38/X48 have 2 x full x16 PCIe slots

P35/45 have 1 x16 and 1 x8 PCIe slots when in crossfire.

X48 is great, just make sure you are getting DDR2 or DDR3 mobo. DDR3 is still pricy.

If one great card is good enough, the P45 will probably do. Crossfire, X38/48 is better.

a recent Tom's article has the p45 not performing:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-p45-chipset,1961.html

What are the rest of your specs, what will you be doing with this pc and what resolution will you play at? Cross fire is really only better at resolutions above 1600x1000. Some say higher than 1900. All i know is, at 1600x1000 my fps doubled with crossfire.

 

[outlw6669]

P35/45 have 1 x16 and 1 x8 PCIe slots when in crossfire

Not correct.
A P35 based Mb will have 1 full time 16x PCIe 1.1 slot.
For Cf it is 16x 4x PCIe 1.1.
The P45 offers 1x PCIe 2.0 16x slot.
When using Cf on it, the bandwidth is split into 8x 8x PCIe 2.0.

An interesting fact to keep in mind is that PCIe 2.0 doubles the bandwidth of PCIe 1.1.
As such, 8x PCIe 2.0 has the same bandwidth as 16x PCIe 1.1.

 

[50bmg]

yes, thats right. Thanks for correcting that. It has been a while since i read all that.

My main point was, P45 does not carry full bandwidth for 2 PCIe slots in crossfire. I should have left it at that.

 

[bechidow]

Ok yes eklipz i am going with intel. This is gonna be a gaming rig. Heres what id like. Socket 775,at least 1 pcie 2.0 slot 2 would be nice, at least able to hold 4 gigs of DDR2 ram 800, 8 gigs or better prefered, no onboard video as i here that hampers OCing a bit.
Thats all i can think of for wants in a motherboard but im probably missing something. Took a look at the X48 and they are a bit pricey. Will i be sacrificing much if i go with a X38 chipset?
Thanks to you guys for helping me narrow my search.