New motherboard for 2600K and SLI

[marlon_smith]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to choose a motherboard to go with a 2600K and a GTX 560. I'd like to SLI possibly sometime down the road. I also want to use quicksync, so I'm choosing a Z68 mobo. I have a few questions:

- For SLI, do I need a motherboard that will do two PCIe slots at 16x, or is it ok if one of them is only 8x?
- I've heard that using SATA 6GB and USB 3.0 can use up some of the PCIe lanes that are used for video. Is this true?

I think I need virtu as well so I can use the quicksync and the graphics card at the same time? I will have one monitor connected to the GTX 560 and a TV connected to the onboard graphics.

Based on what I know so far, I'm looking at the GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3 motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128500

Do you guys have any thoughts?

Thanks!

Marlon

 

[amirp]

I can answer one of your questions regarding the 16x Pci-e lanes. With the 1155 chipsets, so including z68 and p67 boards, they are all limited to two lanes running at 8x 8x speed, so having the second slot only running at 8x is normal.

Now if you are using very high end cards there is a way to have both slots being 16x 16x, you would have to buy a motherboard with an NF200 (i am not entirely sure on this), but Toms did a review on it and it is not necessary as the performance gains from 8x 8x are not noticeable. Just do a search and it should come up or I am sure somebody will clarify it.

I also would like to know the answer to your other questions.

 

[amirp]

here is that 16x 16x vs 8x 8x review I mentioned ,

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/p67-gaming-3-way-sli-three-card-crossfire,2910-9.html

 

[tokencode]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131730


take a look at that one.

 

[festerovic]

I thought z68 was for the IGP, lower end boards.... Better to stick with a p67 for anything to do with dual graphics setups. On paper everything looks ok, but when it comes time to use it, you will make many concessions just for wanting the graphics core on the CPU.

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

The Z68 has everything that the P67 has plus Intel® SRT (Smart Response Technology) and support for the IGP (Intergraded Graphics on Processor). With software like the Lucidlogix Virtu that can switch betwen the IGP and the dedicated video to give the best performance for the given application. The Z68 chipset is able to overclock both the processors core clock speed and the IGP if you use the Z68. I like the Asus P8Z68-V board I think that would fit your needs well.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

 

[marlon_smith]

Thanks for the responses everyone! The Asus P8Z68-V board looks pretty good for my needs. Can anyone tell me the difference between it and the PRO version? I know the PRO has a 16 stage voltage regulator, but I'm not sure about the non-pro.

Also, this card from Gigabyte seems very similar: GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128498).

Between the Asus and the Gigabyte, the main differences seem to be that the Gigabyte only has a seven phase voltage regulator, but apparently the Asus can't support RAM at the same speeds as the Gigabyte. Which of those things should I be more concerned about?

 

[tokencode]

Personally I'd stick with the ASUS product. I've run ASUS forever and have had a great track record. The 1 Gigabyte board I had literally melted in the case to where the components "dripped" off the board and the PCB was charred. Gigabyte did make good on the warranty, hand repairing the board getting it back to me a month later, charmarks and all and to my amazement it did actually work. By this time I had already replaced it with an ASUS which I still have to this day.


Taking a quick look I think the Pro provides more PCIe lanes, non pro can do 8x,8x 4x where as pro can do x16, x16, x4. Please correct me if I am incorrect here

 

[mekunekud]

The Z68 has everything that the P67 has plus Intel® SRT (Smart Response Technology) and support for the IGP (Intergraded Graphics on Processor). With software like the Lucidlogix Virtu that can switch betwen the IGP and the dedicated video to give the best performance for the given application. The Z68 chipset is able to overclock both the processors core clock speed and the IGP if you use the Z68. I like the Asus P8Z68-V board I think that would fit your needs well.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

Are SRT and the Integrated GPU worth it though? Why would you use the IGP when it doesn't switch off your discrete GPU while doing so?

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

The difference between the P67 and Z68 chipset in price is around $8. Now with the Intel SRT (Smart Response Technology) and the ability to use the IGP for both back up and in areas where it outperforms the dedicated video (thanks to the Lucidlogix Virtu software), I think the better question is why would you stay with the P67?

I remember a Sunday night guild raid in WOW, where my dedicated video started to go out on me give me and I had to log out and hope that I could pick up a video card at Best Buy the next day that wasn’t too much. If I had out the ability to use an IGP I could have simply changed to the IGP and would have ordered a better card and not worried about having to pick it up locally and I wouldn’t have to have left my guild searching to find a replacement for me so they could run. That $8 would have seemed cheap then.

Another thing that a lot of the Z68 boards can do is support the IGP and a dedicated video card at the same time giving you the ability to run 3 or more displays at once. 2 on the video and at least 1 more on the IGP.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team