Sli am2+ motherboard recommendation and power req.

[250P-Rick]

im running a xfx 8200 motherboard with a 9750 quad core amd 95w , 1066 4gb g-skill , raptor 150gb 10,000 rpm with 4 x 320 gb 1x 670gb 1x500gb 7200rpm storage drives , antec 1200 case ,
noctua cpu cooler , asus 9600 gso 512mb higher cores , 750 corsair power supply. was thinking of the future and thinking of possibly going sli and getting a new motherboard , possible i5 or i7 or just a sli motherboard .
two questions would my power supply have to go bigger if i sli 2 9600 gso cards ?
what would you guys recommend as a motherboard , either with my cpu or going i5 i7 or other ?

 

[outlw6669]

Don't waste any cash SLIng your old 9600GSO.
Get a new 5770 or better and enjoy performance higher than dual 9600's with lower power draw, more features and no multi-GPU compatibility issues.

Your motherboard also supports Newer CPU's.
A Phenom II x3 720 would be quite an upgrade from your current CPU and is supported by both versions of the board.
If you have the MBA78S8209 XFX GeForce 8200 motherboard, look into a x4 955 for an even more massive upgrade.

No reason to ditch your entire platform yet.
Simply replacing the GPU and CPU will breathe new life into it.

 

[250P-Rick]

yea i just got the cpu for $50 so im happy with it for now , and i guess i will just wait to buy a 5770 in the future . one thing that does bother me is no optical out as i like to have my yamaha amp pluggeg in . should i go for a xi-fi ? should i bother to throw the money into the pci-e version ? or would anyone recommend a different card

 

[outlw6669]

Well, at least now you know there are some good upgrade options

Defiantly AVOID any Creative product!
There are much better options out there.

When you say Yamaha amp, are you talking about a surround receiver or a headphone amp?
Also, what budget are you looking at and do you plan on powering any analogue speakers/headphones directly from the sound card?

In general, you should be looking towards ASUS, HT|Omega or Auzentech for a quality sound card.

 

[250P-Rick]

my yamaha rx-v1500 powers 7.1 bose and theater research speaker setup i usually go optical but no optical on this board has me going speaker out sounds crappy and not full 7.1 i suppose i could get 3 headphone to rca but figured i mind as well just get a better card . this is my gaming rig so gaming compatibility first , i don't care to spend more than $100 and would like to find it used or by hunting locally for less. some specific models ?. is it worth the 32bit prices ?

 

[250P-Rick]

also ids there a way i could get it done fairly cheap and not notice game audio chopping , some mp3 and movie watching and get it all in one optical out card for under $50 would be awesome. maybe some online auction popular models

 

[250P-Rick]

also should i go pci-e for sure over a pci card

 

[outlw6669]

I think the $35 (after MIR) ASUS Xonar Ds would work great for you.
It has optical output (through the included adaptor) and supports DTS Interactive Encoding.

Unfortunately, you will be limited to 5.1 surround when using a TOSLINK output from the PC.
If you want to use the full 7.1 surround, you will need to use a pile of TRS => RCA adaptors and your receivers analogue input.

There is no real difference between PCIe and standard PCI for a sound card.
Either has more than enough bandwidth for the device.