Socket 1156/1366 Motherboards?

[RockLoi]

Hey all,

The other day I scratched my P5N-D mobo when I had it open, and it seems it's pretty FUBAR from the tiny scratch.

Unfortunately I couldn't find any available motherboards that had socket 775 and full (x16/x16) SLi, which is a requirement, without hitting ebay and getting used, or paying above what I did originally for my P5N-D as it seems they don't make them anymore.


My choices as I saw them were either:

1. get a cheaper socket 775 single PCI-e x16 slot motherboard, and buy a new graphics card

2. Seize the opportunity to get an i-processor whilst I have the cash and flog my old cpu/RAM to my brother


I'm happy with my graphics presently and figured option 2 would be more futureproof. However looking around socket 1156 motherboards they all seem to be x8/x8 slots in dual mode, and I think I heard somewhere that it's a limitation of the chipset or something and that it would be true for all 1156 boards.

Is that true? I'm happy to pay extra for the 1366 boards/i7 cpu as I don't think they have that limitation. I was thinking this board?

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159360

Anyone have any recommendations/suggestions for what the best course of action is?

Thanks

Lee

 

[nukemaster]

You should take a look here

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/p55-crossfire-nf200,2537.html

Some P55 boards use an Nvidia express 200(basically a pci-e bridge) chip to get 32 lanes out of the normal 16 on p55 boards(this 16 IS a chipset limit, and that chipset is inside the cpu).

You will have to make sure the board of choice supports crossfire or sli or both.

Look at your old board, maybe you just nicked a trace and can fix it with a conductive pen(electronics stores sometimes sell this, or radioshack if you have one).

 

[shin0bi272]

what kind of money are you looking at spending? that would be a better guide as to what we would recommend.

I have an i7 920 with a gts 250 (dont ask) and i just built my friend an i5 750 with my old 8800gtx and they are just about identical in game performance... so unless you reallllly wanna go sli you can save a lot of money with a socket 1156.

 

[RockLoi]

You should take a look here

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/p55-crossfire-nf200,2537.html

Some P55 boards use an Nvidia express 200(basically a pci-e bridge) chip to get 32 lanes out of the normal 16 on p55 boards(this 16 IS a chipset limit, and that chipset is inside the cpu).

You will have to make sure the board of choice supports crossfire or sli or both.

Look at your old board, maybe you just nicked a trace and can fix it with a conductive pen(electronics stores sometimes sell this, or radioshack if you have one).

Yeah we had a go at fixing it with a teeny tiny brush and some conductive paste stuff, it seemed to scream at me worse when I turned it on! I will still try to get it fixed, but I'm fairly set on an upgrade right now.

@shin0bi272 Yeah I should have mentioned. I was intending to spend about £350 or thereabouts, though it seems if I go socket 1366 once I include DDR3 RAM it may end up being £100 more than that, which'll sting but I'll pay it if I think it'll save me upgrading a while!

Also my main current gear is:

Quad Q6600 CPU
P5N-D (FUBAR)
4GB DDR2 RAM
2x 8800 GTS 512Mb

 

[RockLoi]

what kind of money are you looking at spending? that would be a better guide as to what we would recommend.

I have an i7 920 with a gts 250 (dont ask) and i just built my friend an i5 750 with my old 8800gtx and they are just about identical in game performance... so unless you reallllly wanna go sli you can save a lot of money with a socket 1156.

I was looking at the i7 920, was wondering if a low end i7 is better/worse/same as a high end i5?

Looking around it seems the price difference overall from 1156 to 1366 would be less than £100 all in all, so I think I'd pay it for the better board with SLi.