SLi Motherboard Advice

[DragonStar]

Ok, originally i was going to go for the quad sli barebones system scan are doing, but after reading reviews, it doesnt really seem worth it, there are lots of problems with the cards and i'd ideally like 2 free pci slots on my motherboard, which i cant get with that setup. Im still looking to buy from scan, but think im going to go with either 2 x 7900GT 512's or 2 x 7900GTX 512's, an X-Fi Fatal1ty soundcard, a Sparkle FSP 700w PSU and 2 x 150GB Raptors, this is to go with the Tai-Chi case, 4GB OCZ Platimum memory, FX-55, and watercooling i already have, so can anyone suggest a motherboard for this setup??

Here are the rough prices i have so far:

System 1
2 x 7900GT
1 x 700w PSU
1 x X-Fi
1 x Motherboard
2 x Raptors
£1320

System 2
2 x 7900GTX
1 x 700w PSU
1 x X-Fi
1 x Motherboard
2 x Raptors
£1520

System 3
2 x 1GB 7900GX2 (Quad SLi)
1 x X-Fi
2 x Raptors
£1675

Any thoughts or suggestions? If i changed the HD's to 300GB SATAII Drives that would knock about £210 of each price, what do you guys think?

[ifyouknowme]

Ok, originally i was going to go for the quad sli barebones system scan are doing, but after reading reviews, it doesnt really seem worth it, there are lots of problems with the cards and i'd ideally like 2 free pci slots on my motherboard, which i cant get with that setup. Im still looking to buy from scan, but think im going to go with either 2 x 7900GT 512's or 2 x 7900GTX 512's, an X-Fi Fatal1ty soundcard, a Sparkle FSP 700w PSU and 2 x 150GB Raptors, this is to go with the Tai-Chi case, 4GB OCZ Platimum memory, FX-55, and watercooling i already have, so can anyone suggest a motherboard for this setup??

Here are the rough prices i have so far:

System 1
2 x 7900GT
1 x 700w PSU
1 x X-Fi
1 x Motherboard
2 x Raptors
£1320

System 2
2 x 7900GTX
1 x 700w PSU
1 x X-Fi
1 x Motherboard
2 x Raptors
£1520

System 3
2 x 1GB 7900GX2 (Quad SLi)
1 x X-Fi
2 x Raptors
£1675

Any thoughts or suggestions? If i changed the HD's to 300GB SATAII Drives that would knock about £210 of each price, what do you guys think?

system 2 but change the raptors for somthing with sata2 now tbh ive got a raptor and its so loud im not sure its worth the extra noise

[DragonStar]

ifyouknowme: where was your suggestion on a motherboard and reasons for the choice i dont know whether the GTX warrants the extra £200 its going to cost over the GT, i mean on paper in comparison you have:

GT GTX
GPU 550MHz 665MHz
Mem 512MB 512MB
Mem S 1400MHz 1630MHz
Pipes 24 24

is it worth that extra?

[ifyouknowme]

dfi sli -dr expert becouse ive had one of each other mobo and scrapped quite a few others and my dfi is better than anything ive tried so far
most gt's ive seen are only 256
deffinatly worth the extra

[DragonStar]

This is the 512 GT im looking at
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=392228

and this is the 512 GTX
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=382291

The SLI -DR looks a good board, and i've heard good things about DFI, however, with a dual Slot GFX card wont there only be 1 PCI slot available?

[ifyouknowme]

yeah u dont get many pci slots on dfis
although when using 4 back plates with gfx's there aint many mobos that will give u more pci slots
the chipset fans are rubish though there so loud but i think theres a new rev that fixed that

oh i see where u get 200 from now cos there 2 i wouldnt recommend gainward and xfx my favorite, i also rember reading about somewhere about the memory regisisters being different on normal and gt cards not sure this was 7 series though

theres also more features in the cores of the 7800gtx

[DragonStar]

Yeah i know you dont get many pcis on many boards but one of the reviews i read on the quad sli mentioned the boards that do and dont, but i cant remember what site it was the chipset fan shouldnt be too much of a problem because im probably going to water cool the cpu and chipset. The only thing is it appears scan dont stock DFI motherboards, which is a shame

[ifyouknowme]

yeah scan dont stock them becouse they get returned back to dfi rather than company which imo is better
mine will soon be watercooled aswell theres lots of speicailsdt chipset sinks for them the mips is surposed to be great

[DragonStar]

specialist chipset sinks? are they not a standard size? ive got an asetek dual rad watercooling kit, so i just hope it fits whatever board i get, lol, though if i get one of those asus things with the heat pipes i may just watercool the cpu only

[ifyouknowme]

the sli-dr standard the shipset is under the gfx's
i had an asus premium i hated it

[BUFF]

yeah scan dont stock them becouse they get returned back to dfi rather than company which imo is better

Scan don't stock DFI because they had too many problems with RMAs & dropped them but apparently the situation is under review.

[DragonStar]

Well are there any other alternatives?

[BUFF]

Abit AN8 32X is a very good board

[BSKueh]

any good for Asus A8N 32X deluxe?

[ifyouknowme]

personlly i will never buy another asus again after the last few ive had and had to replace on other peeps machines

[DragonStar]

looking at the review from bit-tech on the abit it might not be suitable as i will be getting dual slot gfx cards, specifically this page http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...n8_32x/10.html any thoughts?