Help pick i7 board

M

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[H]ard|Gawd
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May 13, 2009
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I am looking at going i7 soon.....of course I will be using the i7 and probably 6gb of ram to start maybe 12 down the road. I will attempt to overclock this processor not sure how far depends on what route i take for cooling. I have my old C2Q wc loop but not sure if it will be sufficient

I will be running 2 evga gtx 260s in sli permanetely and possibly tri sli for a short time because I will have an extra 260

the two boards i have been lloign at are the evga one and the p6t deluxe. but i am also open to all sugestions. i need help picking the best board for the money
 
For tri-SLI, the EVGA Classified would probably have the best layout.
 
The P6T Deluxe won't let you run tri-SLI with GTX260s because of the layout. That might not be a big deal to you since you mentioned that you'll only have the third card for a little while, but it's something to consider anyway. You may want to look at the vanilla P6T instead because that board does support tri-SLI. Other good boards to consider are the Gigabyte UD4 and UD5, the ASUS Rampage II Extreme, and the eVGA X58 SLI, all of which have tri-SLI support.

The eVGA Classified board that PC_User mentioned is a good board, but wouldn't really be worth it if you'll only be running tri-SLI for a while, especially considering the cost.
 
Zero82z said:
The eVGA Classified board that PC_User mentioned is a good board, but wouldn't really be worth it if you'll only be running tri-SLI for a while, especially considering the cost.
Click to expand...

I completely agree. Only mentioned it because it does have the layout to support tri-SLI. I have the UD5 but I'm not sure if the spacing between the PCI-E slots will allow for 3 cards.
 
PC_User said:
I have the UD5 but I'm not sure if the spacing between the PCI-E slots will allow for 3 cards.
Click to expand...
It does. The advantage of the Classified is that it has an extra space before the last PCI-E slot, which allows another card like a sound card, a NIC, or a RAID card to be used along with the three video cards (other boards generally lose all their extra slots when Tri-SLI is used, due to dual-slot video cards blocking them off).
 
Zero82z said:
It does. The advantage of the Classified is that it has an extra space before the last PCI-E slot, which allows another card like a sound card, a NIC, or a RAID card to be used along with the three video cards (other boards generally lose all their extra slots when Tri-SLI is used, due to dual-slot video cards blocking them off).
Click to expand...

http://www.jatoncomputers.com.au/images/GA-EX58-UD5.jpg

Taking another look at it, it looks as though that last card will have to hand off the edge of the motherboard. That would require a case that has sufficient room below the motherboard.
 
yes but tigerdirect has a 15% cash back.....which means over $100 back.....i compared newegg and tiger direct. tigerdirect will be cheaper because of cash back

newegg..... 827 shipped

tigerdirect....829 shipped only difference is the ram both have 12gb but newegg is 1600, instead of 1333
but.....then after that with tigerdirect i get %124.50 cash back

making them $122 cheaper
 
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anyone got any suggestions for a board that would be great for a 920 4ghz OC? Price is no object, but I have no use for any specific features like SAS that would jack it up. In otherwords if there is a $400 board that OCs just as good as a $250 i would pick the lower price. I just want the best overclocker period.

Though i'm using crossfire right now with 2 4870s, i would like there to be a slot open for a X-Fi card or some kind of other PCI-E 1x card.



Also what is the difference between these two boards:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188039
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188046
 
Kanaric said:
anyone got any suggestions for a board that would be great for a 920 4ghz OC? Price is no object, but I have no use for any specific features like SAS that would jack it up. In otherwords if there is a $400 board that OCs just as good as a $250 i would pick the lower price. I just want the best overclocker period.

Though i'm using crossfire right now with 2 4870s, i would like there to be a slot open for a X-Fi card or some kind of other PCI-E 1x card.



Also what is the difference between these two boards:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188039
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188046
Click to expand...

AFAIK, the A1 has lifetime warranty.

Also, your CPU will be more of a limiting factor in the overclock than the X58 board. Based on the layout you need, I'd take at look at the EVGA 3X SLI, Gigabyte UD5, and ASUS P6T.
 
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Kanaric said:
which would be the better buy if I want to hit 4ghz, stable, with a minumum voltage?
Click to expand...

As I mentioned before, your CPU will be more of a limiting factor in the overclock than either of those motherboards. Both are good boards.
 
The plain vanilla P6T has mounting holes for 775 coolers, so your old C2Q waterblock might drop right in :)
 
I see a Rampage II Extreme open box avail for $250, would that be a better buy even though its open box over any of the board discussed?
 
i would not buy an open box mobo, acessories are not included which also means io shield. sometimes you get lucky and get all acessories, but i would not risk it
 
i'm kind of realizing that I would like to have 3 pci-e slots open for video card use as well as having the option to use an X-FI titanium card in another slot. Neither of the board i've been looking at is capable of that.

I've seen this Gigabyte UD5 board, what is the general opinion of that? I have a friend who HATES Gigabyte with a passion because hes had bad luck with their boards, so i'm wondering about that.

Any other boards that are capable of this that I should look at? I havn't used anything other than Asus so I dont have experience with the quality of other boards. Last time I used something other than that company was some Soyo kt600 Dragon board ages ago.
 
Kanaric said:
anyone got any suggestions for a board that would be great for a 920 4ghz OC? Price is no object, but I have no use for any specific features like SAS that would jack it up. In otherwords if there is a $400 board that OCs just as good as a $250 i would pick the lower price. I just want the best overclocker period.

Though i'm using crossfire right now with 2 4870s, i would like there to be a slot open for a X-Fi card or some kind of other PCI-E 1x card.



Also what is the difference between these two boards:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188039
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188046
Click to expand...

Check out the ASUS P6T7 WS, it looks like it would be what you are looking for. Which I most likely will be upgrading my P6T Deluxe/OC Palm at the end of July. :D
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131390
 
Kanaric said:
i'm kind of realizing that I would like to have 3 pci-e slots open for video card use as well as having the option to use an X-FI titanium card in another slot.
Click to expand...

The evga classified is the route to go for this.
 
It's either the Classifiedor Asus P6T7 would be the obvious choice, and maybe the new EVGA X58LE would be a cheaper budget choice.

All these boards allow 3-way SLI and another slot for a sound card.
 
Those two >$400 boards are nice but above what I can spend. Though I wish I could, they would be perfect.

that LE board looks like if I used 3 video cards that were dual slot that I wouldn't have room for a pci sound card. edit: Thinking with that evga board, since the third video card i'd be using would be for physx actually I could use the bottom of the two PCI-E at the lower end of the board and use the one above for sound. Didn't think of that until just now. I will have to look at these other boards realizing this.

This UD5 looks like the best layout for me at that price, wondering what other people think of that board an gigabyte in general.
 
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got my parts today and put it together....man this thing is a beast.....after work i am going to install the os and try it out with some gaming
 
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