What motherboard should i get with this setup.

[Computerade]

Hello,

I'm going to be building a new X2 setup using a 4800+, and i'm not sure which motherboard I should use. I'm going to be using it with 2 7800 GTX cards that i want to run in SLI, SATAII harddrives and some dual channel ram.

I've thought about the Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-SLI motherboard because I've had gigabyte boards before and enjoyed them, but have been reluctant because of its lower score on PCStats. The Asus A8n-SLI Premium and the DFI Lanparty NF4 SLI-DR are the other two boards i was thinking about.

Could someone please give me their advice on what I should get or elaborate on the boards in comparison.

P.S - on a side note i don't know if i could do this, but i like the 2-2-2-5 timing OCZ 1gb Dual channel modules, but i don't know if i could run 2 gb's(4x512) operating in two pairs of dual channel ? And if thats not the best ram for gaming with this setup, then what is ?

Thanks a ton !!
Kelly

[Stone Fox]

The gigabyte board is fantastic, I have the K8NXP-SLI variant and I'm well happy with it.

IF you're going to be doing some serious overclocking then go for the DFI lanparty boards.

If you're only doing light overclocking or none at all, I'd go with the gigabyte board. It is a more comprehensive package than just about any other SLI board. If you have a home network it might be worth going for the NON "ultra" variant - it isn't as overclockable, but it has 2 gigabit NICS that don't run on the PCI bus (don't take up the resources) as well as a wireless gigabit NIC.

Oh, as for the RAM, read this thread by one of the moderators (hardware gods)

http://forum.pcstats.com/showthread.php?t=32751

[therealwesty]

I've always been happy with the Gigabyte boards I've owned and built for others. They are usually pretty packed with features and I haven't had any problems with reliability. Sometimes they seem to be priced at a bit of a premium though, there is usually something with more bang for your buck. Their overclocking is capable as well, but once again there are better overclockers out there for sure.

Everything I've read on the Asus boards indicates it is a nice well rounded component. There isn't anything about it that particularly excites me, or draws me too it, but I am sure you'd be happy with it.

The DFI is also a popular choice and renowned for it overclocking and tweaking options. Some less experienced (or lazy) users have complained that it can be hard to get set up though. The multitude of BIOS options can be overwhelming to and unexperienced hand. I generally only recommend this board for the hardened overclockers and those with enough time and patience to tweak it properly.

[stlouis1]

im getting an asus a8n sli premium. i used to always use asus. then i had a gigabyte board, it was stable, and it was reliable, so i cant complain there, but i did find it to be an underperformer not to mention a baby blue cpu socket with green and orange ide connectors and purple what not. since then i've had an asus a7n8x-e which was great. had some issues overclocking, so i tried an abit nf7-s, which was a great board, i consider it equal to my experience with any asus board. then i upgraded to socket 939 with an msi board, its on its second rma. so now that im moving to pci express, im going back to asus.

ps, i mainly dont like the color schemes on the gigabyte boards. too many colors and no scheme make for an ugly board

[Computerade]

heres what i got:

1 x Antec P180 ATX Advanced Mid Tower Aluminum Case 4X5.25 1X3.5 6X3.5INT No PS W/ USB & Audio Ports
1 x AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Dual Core Processor S939 Toledo 2.4GHz 1MBX2 90NM Retail Box
1 x Gigabyte GA-K8N PRO-SLI ATX S939 NFORCE4 SLI DDR 2PCI-E16 SATA2 Sound GBLAN 1394 Motherboard
1 x OCZ EL Platinum PC3200 2GB 2X1GB DDR400 CL2-3-2-5 184PIN Pin Dual Channel Memory Kit /W Ramsink
1 x Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard USB Black Silver LCD Panel Programmable Back Lit Keys
1 x Logitech G5 Laser Gaming Mouse 2000DPI USB Bilingual
1 x OCZ OCZ52012U-520W Modstream Power Supply PCI-E Ready W/ Ezmod Cable System & Blue LED Fan

and with a sweet ass video card haha

EVGA E-GEFORCE 7800GTX 550MHZ 512MB 850MHZ 256BIT GDDR3 SLI Ready PCI-E Dual DVI-I VIVO Video Card

Shoudl be here well before christmas :D

[ElrichMeister]

wowsers, nice specs

[AKHandyman]

heres what i got:

1 x Antec P180 ATX Advanced Mid Tower Aluminum Case 4X5.25 1X3.5 6X3.5INT No PS W/ USB & Audio Ports
1 x AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Dual Core Processor S939 Toledo 2.4GHz 1MBX2 90NM Retail Box
1 x Gigabyte GA-K8N PRO-SLI ATX S939 NFORCE4 SLI DDR 2PCI-E16 SATA2 Sound GBLAN 1394 Motherboard
1 x OCZ EL Platinum PC3200 2GB 2X1GB DDR400 CL2-3-2-5 184PIN Pin Dual Channel Memory Kit /W Ramsink
1 x Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard USB Black Silver LCD Panel Programmable Back Lit Keys
1 x Logitech G5 Laser Gaming Mouse 2000DPI USB Bilingual
1 x OCZ OCZ52012U-520W Modstream Power Supply PCI-E Ready W/ Ezmod Cable System & Blue LED Fan

and with a sweet ass video card haha

EVGA E-GEFORCE 7800GTX 550MHZ 512MB 850MHZ 256BIT GDDR3 SLI Ready PCI-E Dual DVI-I VIVO Video Card

Shoudl be here well before christmas :D

Lots o green ... how much ?:rolleyes:

[Hansaman]

Should have gone with the Asus board!!

[AKHandyman]

With what he was showing earlier, it wouldn't have mattered ... though I would have gone with the DFI Ultra ... :)

[Computerade]

I had about 8 grand i could have spent on the computer but then i realized thats just stupid for what i do, hahah. I think total i dropped about $3800 on this system. I got more than what i posted too and im loving this antec p180 case. its all the small things in it that make it great.

I'm kind of pissed because they gave me x64 windows and it doesn't support too many things right now. And also my videocard doesn't run everything on full specs and its a god damned 7800 GTX 512 which i paid an arm and a leg for. If i have the textures turned up it stutters.