Mobo for Core i5 3450 with 2x Radeon 5850

[dimid99]

Hi all,

I want to buy a Core i5-3450 and I am looking for a motherboard that will support that along with 2 Radeon 5850 in Crossfire. I am not interested in over-clocking any of those parts. Now, from what I read so far, it would be good for me to go for a Z77 based mobo, if not, please correct me and tell me why not and what I should go for instead. My budget for the mobo does not exceed 120 euro.

The products I found so far are:

Gigabyte Z77M-D3H
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4142#ov
Now from what I understand, if I install two GPUs on this mobo, one will work at 16x and the second at 4x. How much of a performance drop is that compared to an 8x-8x setup?

ASUS P8Z77-V LX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131824
I don't see anything wrong here, am I missing something?

ASUS P8Z77-M
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131832
From what I see the main difference with the -V LX is size... would this mobo have enough space for 2 5850s? Should I go for the -V LX instead?

ASROCK Z77 PRO4-M
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157306
Another small mobo, this one from ASRock.

Which one of those would you suggest? Also, is there another model out there that I could go for?

Thanks.

 

[g-unit1111]

Now from what I understand, if I install two GPUs on this mobo, one will work at 16x and the second at 4x. How much of a performance drop is that compared to an 8x-8x setup?

That really doesn't matter - it's kind of like RAM in that by default it will run at the lowest speeds it can handle.

From what I see the main difference with the -V LX is size... would this mobo have enough space for 2 5850s? Should I go for the -V LX instead?

If you're running dual GPUs - absolutely do not purchase an mATX board - you will run into space constraints. Get a full ATX board. Of your choices the second one is the best option.

 

[dimid99]

Thanks for the reply g-unit. I decided to go for the Gigabyte Z77X-D3H, which although exceeds my 120 euro limit, seems like a better investment.