Need MB Suggestions: Core2 Quad + 2 nVidia GTX260 in SLI

[xanoc]

Hi there,

As the title mentions, I am looking for a handful of suggestions who have experience with SLI boards supporting the LGA775 chipset.

So far I'll be choosing 1 of these:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz 12MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041

and 2 of these
EVGA 896-P3-1257-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130433

Plenty of power, Antec TruePower New TP-750 Blue 750W Continuous Power
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371022

Cooling, XIGMATEK Dark Knight-S1283V
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233029

The general specs I am looking for in a board are:

-DDR3 Dual Channel, at least 4 memory slots (I plan on a 4GB dual kit to start) then go up to 8GB total later.
-Enough space between the 2 PCIe slots to keep everything cool, I hear these cards get hot...
-I want to OC the processor to at least over 3Ghz
-I think I want the SLI to be supported in dual 16x mode but I was a bit unclear on exactly what that all means (read about it in the video card FAQ)
-RAID support a plus, but I think I will use an SSD for my boot device so that should be awfully fast

Case decision is somewhat dependent on the mobo.

Thanks in advance everyone.

 

[GhislainG]

If you need DDR3 and SLI, then look for NVidia 790i motherboards, e.g., XFX MBN790IUL9, ASUS Striker II Extreme, EVGA 132-YW-E179-TR, etc.

 

[xanoc]

Aha thanks for the lead, that should help me begin to narrow this down.

 

[xanoc]

Maybe I shouldn't care about PCIe x16/x16 and just look for x8/x8? IS DDR3 ram worth it?

 

[GhislainG]

DDR3 isn't necessarily worth it. If DDR2 also is acceptable, that gives you the option to buy an NVidia 780i or 790i based motherboard. Both chipsets support PCIe x16/x16.

 

[shening]

Get the 780i, and DDR2. And btw you can OC the Q9550 to 3.4 EASY. All u do is change the FSB from 333 to 400. (400x8.5=3.4)
Plus that way you can actualy run the DDR2 linked at 800 Mhz to take full advantage of DDR2 800
If you want to OC above 3.4 get DDR2 1066.

 

[xanoc]

This will be my first OC machine and I've been building them for over 10 years. I just never bothered to do it before, so it sounds like from what I have read and what you mention, 3.4 will be a good spot for stability/heat/etc. I'll go for DDR2 800

Plus that way you can actualy run the DDR2 linked at 800 Mhz to take full advantage of DDR2 800

Do I need to do anything special to accomplish this or does simply overclocking the FSB for 3.4 GHz automatically get everything in line for this?

 

[shening]

This will be my first OC machine and I've been building them for over 10 years. I just never bothered to do it before, so it sounds like from what I have read and what you mention, 3.4 will be a good spot for stability/heat/etc. I'll go for DDR2 800



Do I need to do anything special to accomplish this or does simply overclocking the FSB for 3.4 GHz automatically get everything in line for this?

Its really easy, all you do you set the FSB to 1600 from 1333 (400x4) than you select
FSB- Memory clock mode [Linked]
and
FSB- Memory ratio [Sync Mode]
and ur done
bios looks like this

Also set the voltage to about 1.25 or 1.275 at which it should be stable, than you can lower it and see whats the lowest at which it works. The max voltage for that CPU as given by intel is 1.3625 so you should be perfectly safe.

Oh btw microcenter has the Q9550 for 169$ in case you havn't bought it.

good luck

 

[xanoc]

Oh btw microcenter has the Q9550 for 169$ in case you havn't bought it.

Haven't bought it yet thanks for the heads up, and definitely thanks for the screenshots and other info!

 

[xanoc]

So these are the boards I am looking at, anyone want to point me in one direction or another?

EVGA 132-YW-E179-TR LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 790i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188040

XFX MB-N780-ISH9 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813141005

And this one looks OK but whats the 750i
ASUS P5N-D LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131232