A8N-E to A8N-SLI Premium: questions

[sulfur_lad]

I'm pushin' this ol' 939 rig about as far as it will go.

I'm running an Asus A8N-E right now, and recently picked up a A8N-SLI Premium on eBay. I'm resurrecting another processor I had lying around for a media box and 'upgrading' my machine at the same time. I had a couple questions hoping someone knew the answers about the process:

1. I have two drives set up as a mirrored RAID (using NVRAID) on my current A8N-E. Seeing as the chipsets are of the same pedigree (NForce4 Ultra to NForce4 SLI), can I just unplug and re-plug and have everything work? My paranoid guess was no.
   
2. What's with this SLI thing, how close do I need to match? I.e., I have a BFG 9800GT of some flavor, will I need to get the exact same 9800GT flavor to enable SLI?

Thanks for the help, folks.

 

[e-geek]

1) I guess it depends on the raid chip the m/b uses, i would still think you might have to set something up.

2) It doesnt matter what brand as long as they are the same type of card, although if you have an oc version and a normal clocked card they will both run at the lowest speeds, at least before overclocking.

I guess the question is, will it be worth it to pay for a new m/b + 9800gt over upgrading to a core2/Phenom II system as 9800gt's in sli would be cpu limited by alot, even a 9800gt would be cpu limited on a skt939 cpu no matter how much you overclock it, i dont think you will see the benefits that you might hope for by adding another 9800gt.

 

[sulfur_lad]

I'm not expecting a substantial performance improvement, I know I'm already pretty much as far as I can go on this platform. Hey, I've stretched it beyond 5 years here, that's gotta be worth something.

The cpu-limiting is news to me though, hmmm. Basically all I was doing was resurrecting another processor for a htpc. From what I'm reading, fine, I've got another motherboard (and for cheap lol), but don't bother with another video card; save my cash for building a better new machine later (which I'll do, but I'm waiting a bit).

 

[crazjayz]

As a fellow s939 user holding out for as long as possible, I know the boat you're in. Now with regards to adding the second 9800GT, if it's for gaming, don't. e-geek is definitely right with respect to CPU limiting. Unless you have one lying around and you don't have any other computer to throw it into, don't even bother running SLI. You gotta keep in mind that these parts were being used when the best card out was a 7800GTX. Your single 9800GT owns the 7800GTX, even with SLI, on all levels.

As far as the RAID goes, yeah, you should just be able to unplug and re-plug since it's essentially the same chipset.

Good luck making it work. I think we both know that s939 is on it's last legs here as a main PC.