AM3+ SLI? Need help finding a mobo.

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paco16

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 20, 2007
Messages
498
Howdy! :D
I'm building a new system for a friend who wants to go the way of AM3. He wants to use this system to game on his 50 inch Sony Bravia TV to burn music and DVD's.
He'd like this machine to be upgradeable for the next 3-4 years (and "futureproof").
The budget is a maximum of $750. Triple or Quad core CPU doesn't matter. Here are the parts so far (minus a mobo and video card/s):

ATOP AT-RAPTOR-WB Black SGCC steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - $79.99 (i know, he wants red lights)
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX -$119.99 + $20 MIR
AMD Phenom II X3 720 - $134.99
OCZ Fatal1ty Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) - $49.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000333AS - $89.99
Samsung 22x DVD Burner SH-S223Q - $25.99
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 - $99.99

All we need is a compatible AM3 motherboard that supports SLI. I thought there were a bunch about to flood the market last month; but sadly that was not the case.
He's going to be buying by June at the latest. Any suggestions?
Note- He already has 2 8800gt's and doesn't have the cash to buy a new card or go the route of i7.
 
AM3 SLI motherboards are not out yet, but you can find a AM2+ motherboard that is compatible with AM3 processors. I have a Gigabyte GA-M750SLI-DS4 and it works pretty well, its not that old and you can still find it online.
 
Thanks for the suggestion. So the nforce 750a chipset is a good bet for AM3 CPU's and SLI? Is there a "better" chipset that's newer?
 
750a and 780a are the only nvidia based chipsets worth getting for AMD.. though most likely there will be some new ones coming out as amd pushes toward AM3 compatible boards along with AMD being more competitive in the enthusiast market..
 
Memory Standard DDR2 1200(O.C.)/1066*/800/667

*Due to AMD CPU limitation, DDR2 1066 is supported by AM3/AM2+ CPU for one DIMM per channel only ...Interesting. Does that mean if you populate more than 2 dimms for Dual channel, the ram doesn't work? Or does it "down-clock" to 800...?
 
paco16 said:
Memory Standard DDR2 1200(O.C.)/1066*/800/667

*Due to AMD CPU limitation, DDR2 1066 is supported by AM3/AM2+ CPU for one DIMM per channel only ...Interesting. Does that mean if you populate more than 2 dimms for Dual channel, the ram doesn't work? Or does it "down-clock" to 800...?
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It clocks down to 800 if you use more than 2 DIMMS for dual channel.

@ Topic: Yea, I, too am looking for this type of motherboard, so far no luck. The closest thing is the posted ASUS M4N Delux mobo, but I really hate the ddr2 support....don't even know why they even did this. IMO, it's pretty stupid. *sigh* Oh well, we just have to wait and see if other manufacturers will start selling AM3/980a mobos with ddr3 in the next few months...
 
Not trying to threadcrap or anything, but I think it would be best for your friend to look into i7 systems a little more. http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-phenom-ii-x4-810-and-x3-720be-review-am3/18 shows how much more raw CPU power the i7 has over the Phenom II - the PII was designed to compete with the Core2, and the 720 is even a lower end model. You should be able to get a 920/X58/DDR3 for about $200 more than that (maybe less if you catch some good deals). That's about 26% more cost for 100% more CPU power. If he wants futureproof, I think that spending a little more now for the extra power is a good investment.

I personally think that AM2+/S775 systems are dead. You can use AM3 CPUs in AM2+ boards, but you're always going to be crippling that brand new CPU with the old mobo/RAM. If he's just going to end up upgrading to a new AM3 mobo and DDR3 when they come out, then it'll probably cost as much in the end as just buying the i7.

As for futureproof, I think AM3 and 1366 could both end up lasting quite a while, or being replaced fairly soon. It's the standard guessing game that you play whenever a new socket comes out... However, I think AM2+ and S775 are the exact opposite of that. I'm tempted to say that AMD is more likely to have the more compatible socket, but it's probably a lot more true on paper than in reality. This is coming from someone who's had AMD CPUs on Socket7, SocketA, and SocketAM2. In theory, all were compatible with their new CPUs. However, you really needed Super7 to get the full benefit of the new chips. My high-end SocketA board only used 4 bits for the multipliers, so it didn't run the newer 5-bit chips at full speed. And I'm on an i7 right now because my X2 board was only AM2, not AM2+, so it's not compatible with the AM3 CPUs (even though one would fit in the socket).

By no means am I an Intel fanboy. This i7 is actually the first Intel system I've owned. I just feel that right now, the i7 is a lot more product for a little more money. If I'm spending $750 on a new system, I don't want to feel like it should be upgraded before I even use it.

Personally, I'd hold out for the AM3 board if that's really all he can afford, or scrounge up the difference and go i7. I hate to encourage debt, but Newegg does offer Bill Me Later. For orders over $500, you can get no interest if you pay it off within 6 months. If he will have the cash for certain, just not right now, that might be an option to allow him to spend a little more on something a little higher.

Disclaimers
DDR2 is not currently that much slower than DDR3.
The i7's extra power probably won't be noticed a lot in most games (since they're GPU-limited) and for DVD burning (video encoding, yes; just burning, no).
I constantly fall victim to "while you're in there..." upgrades (but am generally glad I did).
http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?o...k=view&id=13006&Itemid=1&limit=1&limitstart=2 has a huge variety of benchmarks. You can see in some that the 720 does just as well as an i7, and in others it gets smacked down hard.
 
The i7 does not support SLi with 8800 series GPU, he would have to get new gfx cards if he wanted to use two again. There's always the possibility of selling them and getting a more powerful single GPU setup but some people don't want to go to that trouble.
 
Hmmm, I didn't realize that.
Lastly, SLI on supported Intel X58 based boards currently only works with GeForce 9800 GTX, GTX+, GX2, and 200-series GPUs. This could potentially change with future revisions of the 18x.xx ForceWare releases.
Click to expand...

Guess that shoots down my idea. Unless it does actually become supported before the AM3 SLI boards are out...
 
AciDeX said:
The i7 does not support SLi with 8800 series GPU, he would have to get new gfx cards if he wanted to use two again. There's always the possibility of selling them and getting a more powerful single GPU setup but some people don't want to go to that trouble.
Click to expand...

Hu...? I'm running an EVGA x58 with the Intel i7 920 with 2x8800gt's in SLI right now... He's buying those off of me for his new setup as I'm selling both of them to him for $150. I'm upgrading to an gtx285 probably. SLi on the 8800 series works just fine folks.
 
yeah why wouldnt 8 series SLI work on the x58? SLI support didnt change just because a platform changed.. its just a nvidia 200 series chipset..
 
Well that's cool then... Last I heard that they were considering support of the 8800 series for sli on the i7. That was back when i7 had just come out and nobody could confirm if the 8800gt worked on it.
 
8800GT is a G92 based card (later renamed 9800GT), so yeah, it will work.

I think support is dodgy for older G80 based cards like the 8800GTS (320/640mb versions) and the 8800GTX.
 
AciDeX said:
Well that's cool then... Last I heard that they were considering support of the 8800 series for sli on the i7. That was back when i7 had just come out and nobody could confirm if the 8800gt worked on it.
Click to expand...

My quote was from a Tom's article from November. It looks like (at least at first) it wasn't verified as supported.


Unknown-One said:
8800GT is a G92 based card (later renamed 9800GT), so yeah, it will work.

I think support is dodgy for older G80 based cards like the 8800GTS (320/640mb versions) and the 8800GTX.
Click to expand...

That makes sense to me. However, they specifically mentioned the GTX, GTX+, and GX2 but didn't mention the plain GT. This made me think that the GT (in 8800 or 9800 clothes) wasn't supported even though other G92s were.


But since it is verified as working, go ahead and get the i7 system now like I suggested. =)
 
InvisiBill said:
That makes sense to me. However, they specifically mentioned the GTX, GTX+, and GX2 but didn't mention the plain GT. This made me think that the GT (in 8800 or 9800 clothes) wasn't supported even though other G92s were.


But since it is verified as working, go ahead and get the i7 system now like I suggested. =)
Click to expand...

LOL. I've already built mine. He really can't spend, I stress can't spend more than $750 on this machine. The i7 is just too expensive for that budget. I'm wondering if the 8800GT being compatible with SLI via i7 has anything to do with PCI-Express 2.0 on the card vs. old school PCI-X.
 
paco16 said:
LOL. I've already built mine. He really can't spend, I stress can't spend more than $750 on this machine. The i7 is just too expensive for that budget. I'm wondering if the 8800GT being compatible with SLI via i7 has anything to do with PCI-Express 2.0 on the card vs. old school PCI-X.
Click to expand...

PCIe 2.0 should only increase the theoretical transfer rate over PCIe 1.0, and wouldn't have anything to do with SLI support I don't think.

As for the budget, I think he'll be much more future-proof if he waits for AM3+SLI. Waiting sucks, but so does needing to upgrade a lot sooner because you were impatient to begin with. Been there, done that.
 
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