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mATX SLI time?

Love-Man

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 14, 2004
Messages
167
I've seen this topic several times on a few sites, but what do guys think? Isn't it about time we got a new mATX SLI board?

The reason I have become interested in the idea again:

http://sg.vr-zone.com/articles/Point_of_View_GeForce_8600_GT/5386-2.html

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is the only low profile 8600gt with a SLI connector. Anyone know where I could get one of these in North America?

I know the cooling would be hell, but a slim sff SLI setup would be fun to make. :)

What do you guys think?
 
sweet little card. not that the 8600gt is really that powerful, and two in SLI would likely be on par with my fiance's 7600gs sli setup, jut with added HDMI and HD decoding onboard to offload from the CPU. it wouldn't be that bad to game on, as long as you're a WoW or Sims fan. She's played Oblivion on it at 1400x1050 at medium detail, it does alright. At any rate, I'm always one to vote for unique projects/builds, even if the masses think it's "stupid" or "without purpose." If a slim SFF build with low-pro SLI is what gets you going, think about adding in two 2.5" 7200RPM laptop drives for a cheap RAID-0, and then a slim dual layer burner (a-la laptop slimline form factor). You could even go for two slimline drives in a single 5.25" slot. Heh, I'm running away with your project idea. Bummer is, you'll have to run it all on the eVGA nforce 410 based mATX, since (getting back to your original comment on no new mATX SLI boards), this is the only one in existence, currently (also in my fiance's rig). got a budget for the build? Here's what I'd do:

FX-60
eVGA mATX SLI Nforce 410
4GB PC-4000
decent 500w quiet PSU
2x 2.5" 7200RPM SATA drive in RAID 0
2x Slimline dual layer DVD burners, or maybe 1 DVD burner, 1 Blu-Ray/HD-DVD combo drive
2x 8600GTs in SLI
XP Pro x86_64bit edition
onboard audio, ethernet, etc

OC the FX-60 to as high as the board will allow (which is usually only about 250FSB...but it's an FX, so you can also adjust the multiplier) and see how high you can get the 8600GTs clocked to, then flash them to the lowest common denominator speed (same on both), and churn it up. The case was left off of the list intentionally, as that's a bit of a personal choice, I feel. Sorry...I think I thread jacked! ;)

update: I just had an idea. SFF SLI Slim factor, Dual core, dual HDD, dual burners...on water...now there's a project!
 
I'd love to see a "modern" SLI capable mATX board. My guess is the closest I'll come is putting a 9800GX2 in my box.
 
I dont see a modern mATX SLI mobo anytime soon. The manufacturers dont seem to be interested in it.
 
sweet little card. not that the 8600gt is really that powerful, and two in SLI would likely be on par with my fiance's 7600gs sli setup

In shader heavy games (Crysis, Oblivion, Unreal Tournament 3, Flight Simulator X), the 8600GT will perform on par or better than the 7900GS. Surprising yes but its true. In most older games however, the 7900GS will beat the 8600GT but with much newer games, the 8600GT will win. Since the 7900GS is faster than the 7600GS, therefore, the 8600GT will beat the 7600GS in newer games. Though I'm not too sure about older games.
 
At any rate, I'm always one to vote for unique projects/builds, even if the masses think it's "stupid" or "without purpose."

One after my own heart... why ask "why?" when you can ask "why not?". :)

Yeah, I really like the idea of this project for the cooling challenge. Maybe we should put this together to show that there is a market for modern mATX SLI motherboard.

I was thinking of this for the case:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=19312&vpn=MINUET%20300&manufacture=ANTEC
Simple and it looks easy to modify. I think some artwork would look really nice on it too.

I would like to try to avoid water (if possible) to keep the case very portable. We'll see how it goes. :)

The motherboard you mentioned doesn't seem to be too hard to find. As for the power supply, the minuet's 300W won't cut it. I calculated that we would need about 330W, so I would like to go for at least a 400W. Gonna have to fit in that case though. Any suggestions?

And I still need to find two of those video cards in North America. Anyone know a place international that might ship those?
 
I have the EVGA mATX SLI capable board and I am extremely pleased with it. My only negative is that sometimes when OCed too far HDD detection has been an issue, but right now it is running on a 250FSB without a sweat. Also my Chipset fan has finally died. I do wish another board similar to this would be released on either AM2+ on Intel's socket. It is my favorite board ever.

By the way it isn't nForce 410, it is nForce 4 SLI. It is a little older, but a very nice chipset!
 
Maybe our prayers have been (kinda) answered? :)

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/627/3/

It's not pure SLI, but if it works with a good next gen low profile card, it might be the next best thing.

Having a quad core phenom and ddr2 ram will make a big jump in performance. I think I'm gonna sit and see how this turns out. Power saving would also be great for a HTPC.
 
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