Hi everyone. I'm going to put a gaming system together based around 2 GTX 470s in Sli. Could anyone help with a suggestion for a suitable motherboard? For my budget it looks like a toss between the Asus P6X58D-E and the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R but I was wondering which would be the best to support my Sli set up. thanks to everyone in advance. cheers Ed
i'd consider saving some cash and use 2 460's in SLI. if you're using the air coolers, the 460's run a lot cooler and quieter than the 470's and perform just as well, if not better. then with the money saved, you could consider a improved motherboard, possibly a Rampage series
Honestly? There's next to nothing in it. They cost about the same, look pretty similar, and overclock about on par. The Gigabyte has an IDE port... and that's really about it for advantages. The Asus has a slightly more robust CPU power circuitry, which is always nice to have during heavy overclocks. But really, if it comes down to two motherboards that cost about the same, perform about the same, and look pretty much the same... there's not a whole lot of point debating between them. That said, I have tested the Asus board, and it performed pretty well, and I recommended it to a friend, and we got his 930 to 4ghz stable easily and quickly. So from personal experience, I'd say the Asus. Hope that helps?
I agree here, save yourself the money and get 2x460's. As for the motherboards they are practically the same so just pick the board the suits you best, i.e. if you need an IDE port or more SATA ports. I can't think of much else that separates them to be honest.
Thanks everyone. I already have the GTX 470 which is why I was wondering which would be the best board to run another one in Sli. I've got a budget of £700 to build my system so really want to get it right and be future proof. I heard the 470 scales really well in Sli and so I can get a second card in a year or so.
Be nice to see some fps that compares 2 x GTX 460 and 1 GTX 480. As the normal rule of thumb is buy the best single card you can before you go to sli, as this then relies on the drivers and the games being able to use SLI, anybody seen any benchmarks? RE the mobo i woud go for the Asus.
Thanks everyone. It looks like I'm going to go for the following build: Scan SLIK Core i7 BUNDLE -Intel Core i7 930 - Overclocked at 4.0 Ghz -6Gb Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600Mhz -Asus P6X58D-E -Prolimatech Megahalems Cooler -120mm Akasa Apache Fan -750W XFX Black Edition Single Rail Modular Power Supply -GTX 470 (I'll aready own this!) Does anyone have any other suggestions? Is it worth paying an extra £20 for 6GB Corsair Dominator over the Corsair XMS3? Thanks again. This is a great forum for helping new builders like me so please keep the advice coming in! cheers Ed
I didn't buy this overclocked bundle but I did buy the same memory, cpu and the P6X58D-E mobo from scan and they all work fine. I got mine running at 4Ghz no problems. If your not confident with over-clocking yourself then its not a bad way to go even if you do have to pay a small premium for this.
ive actually just bought exactly that setup as well, although i got the mobo and cpu from dabs as it worked out cheaper that way. I havent got around to overclocking mine yet, have you got any advice as to settings for me?
This should start you off on the right track: http://www.overclock.net/intel-motherboards/662236-asus-p6x58d-premium-e-thread-4.html#post8397751 My settings are very similar to this except I used the slightly lower QPI/DRAM Core voltage of 1.21875 and I got my CPU volts to 1.24v (this will vary from system to system). I did get it as low as 1.208v but it failed after 7 hours on prime95. This is with Hyperthreading on as well. Read it carefully and any overclocking is at your own risk. P.s make sure you have a good cooler as well. Good luck
