Hey, Can someone show me a good Sli 775 Motherboard for under £90?? From any good UK sites :P
I have seen some but they are PCI-Express 2.0 16x and 8x, Does that matter? Im not sure what that would do?

Current specs

E8400
8800GT ( Have another ready for SLi )

My current motherboard is a Asus P5K-C Which is CrossFire (Dont ask why..) Lol

I have been looking at the XFX nForce 750i SLi which has PCI-E 2.0 16x and 8x SLi, Or a ASUS P5N-D, I have seen the EVGA Sli FTW that seems good, but i cant find it instock anywhere, Scan has it but its preorder since 22 july 09.. Please could someone help me out, Thank youv

XFX:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151011

Asus:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142585

MSI??:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150348

Edit- I have read that having 8x SLi would be 5-10% slower than dual 16x, is that true?
Edit2- Just checked a review and the results of the FPS was like 1-2 fps difference either way, But it was kinda old with a 7800 gfx card?
Edit3- I have just seen the MSI P7N SLI-FI, Not sure if its any good?

From seeing this, I can't help ask myself why you'd want to go from a quality P35 board to an SLI board, where you can probably overclock the hell outta the E8400 with such a good P35 board.

Again, I understand that you have 2 8800GTs! I don't know any UK Buyer sites, so I am using a well - known american site.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ ... aspx?Item=N82E16813131232

$120 which is around 6-70quid if I am correct? With handling fees aofc.
I can attempt to find some boards across the ocean, and see if you like them. Research is dependent on yourself, and I'd urge you to look around for benchmarks regards to the respective boards, and how they fair with other SLI capable boards. You probably won't feel a decrease in performance. I did some research for you, and seeing how an 8800GT's mem clock is @ 900mhz (dual pump) you'll get a theoretical bandwidth of about 1.8gb/s. Seeing how a 8x bus can do about 4 gb/s, you probably won't lose performance. Cards like 4770, 4870, and 4870x2 and 4890 might, if their memory clocks are above 1 ghz.

In my opinion, nVidia boards are great, but it depends what you get. I'd still aim to get a high end nVidia board, like a 680, 780, 790i boards. For Intel CPUs, I'd still stick with the Intel Chipset oriented boards, but seeing how you need SLI...

Hi thanks for ur reply, I get what u say but as I have a spare 8800gt, I thought that I could use it in sli and not have to upgrade my gfx crd for bit longer, but if u could help, can u look for a 775 sli mobo from somewhere like overclockers uk, novatech, scan, lambadatek, or somewhere In the uk please?? Thanks

Sure I'd be more than glad to! I'll edit the post when I have the results.'

1. P5N - D : http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ ... odid=MB-265-AS&tool=3
You find a review here... It is supposed to be a good product... but horrible for overclocking... totally dependent on you. found here:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articl ... /asus-p5n-d_15.html#sect0

2. Someother motherboard with 750i chipset:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products ... 800-SATA-II-SATA-RAID-ATX

3. Some nForce4 motherboard. Kinda sucks, but is rather cheap with SLI. Might not SLI newer cards, I have no idea.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products ... SATA-II-SATA-IDE-RAID-ATX

Can't find any more... don't no many UK websites... Good Luck!

Quote from GenesisX :

Sure I'd be more than glad to! I'll edit the post when I have the results.

Thank you, there isn't much of a selection but I hope u can find me one, have u looked at the ones I have posted?

According to http://forums.vr-zone.com/trou ... -better-xfx-asus-msi.html you might want to go with XFX. I personally have a better impression of XFX, less with ASUS and even less with MSI.

These boards are great though. You can use a CPU with a bus of 333 mhz! PCIe buses with high bandwidth... just dreamy!

I might move back to AMD for my next build...

Quote from GenesisX :

According to http://forums.vr-zone.com/trou ... -better-xfx-asus-msi.html you might want to go with XFX. I personally have a better impression of XFX, less with ASUS and even less with MSI.

These boards are great though. You can use a CPU with a bus of 333 mhz! PCIe buses with high bandwidth... just dreamy!

I might move back to AMD for my next build...

Hi ty, what does CPU bus 333 mean? As my e8400 is 1333? Thanks

edit - so if I got the xfx 750i sli should it work with my e8400, 4gb 800mz and ofc 8800gt in sli, thanks for ur help, please reply

Mhmmm.... The motherboards use bus speeds like 1333 because they are quad pumped. Such a CPU that has a running bus of 333 mhz runs on such a bus (333 x 4 = 1333). This applies to 1600 (400), 800 (200), as so applies.

Your question: Yes, it should work. Depends what else you have running on the motherboard and rig though. You don't want to run some crappy ram, as it will hinder your overclocking ablilites. 750i as in the review don't clock very well with 'Speedstep' as stuff running, so you make sure you turn off the 'smart' features when overclocking.

Quote from GenesisX :

Mhmmm.... The motherboards use bus speeds like 1333 because they are quad pumped. Such a CPU that has a running bus of 333 mhz runs on such a bus (333 x 4 = 1333). This applies to 1600 (400), 800 (200), as so applies.

Your question: Yes, it should work. Depends what else you have running on the motherboard and rig though. You don't want to run some crappy ram, as it will hinder your overclocking ablilites. 750i as in the review don't clock very well with 'Speedstep' as stuff running, so you make sure you turn off the 'smart' features when overclocking.

Hi thanks for ur reply, my ram is corsair xms2, and I guess i will do Some slight overclocking to get some more powerr out of my pc

Edit- Well after reading some things about the XFX 750i SLI, it seems that it has many problems and isnt a very good board... I Might look at the Asus P5N-D Sli, As it proberly is better?? Can u help me out here Lol!

Edit 2- On Ebuyer, on the Asus P5N-D product, someone said In conclusion a great board that is stable and has scope for FULL X16 SLI tho i would check card sizes first on anything bigger than a 8800GT 512mb,
So i guess i wont be able to upgrade to any Dual slot card as they proberly wont fit?? :S

Edit3- Does anyone know if these will be in stock soon?? as it says Overdue since 22 july, http://www.scan.co.uk/Products ... 800-SATA-II-SATA-RAID-ATX

Edit4- Well Its between these, XFX 750i SLI (£81) and Asus P5N-D SLI (£91) Incl. Postage, Im not sure which will be better, the XFX has nicer looks ( Doesnt matter though ) but apparently has some problems, and the Asus has SLi (16x16) but the slots are very close together so I dont think using 2 of the 200 series graphics would work, or any dual slot card, Whereas the XFX seems like u could..

Can someone please help me decide please?

Edit5 LOL- Well on Tigerdirect.com, the XFX is rated at 4.6, and the Asus is rated at 4.3, And the reviews for the XFX seem alot better than the Asus, So i think the XFX would be best tbh..

But Can someone give their opinion on XFX 750i SLI (£81) and Asus P5N-D SLI (£91) Please?

Quote from GenesisX :

1. P5N - D : http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ ... odid=MB-265-AS&tool=3
You find a review here... It is supposed to be a good product... but horrible for overclocking... totally dependent on you. found here:

I have a P5N-D and I've had no trouble with it and overclocking, my C2D E8200 is at 3.2GHz from stock 2.66GHz, with time I could probably squeeze 3.4-3.5GHz out of it, but I got lazy and stuck at 3.2 for now.

There are a few problems with the bios causing the USB to sometimes play about a bit (or there was on mine) but a flash to the latest bios version fixed all the problems.

Quote from mr_x :

I have a P5N-D and I've had no trouble with it and overclocking, my C2D E8200 is at 3.2GHz from stock 2.66GHz, with time I could probably squeeze 3.4-3.5GHz out of it, but I got lazy and stuck at 3.2 for now.

There are a few problems with the bios causing the USB to sometimes play about a bit (or there was on mine) but a flash to the latest bios version fixed all the problems.

Hey, Do u use SLI? And thanks for ur info , What do u think i could get out of a E8400 Stock cooler? Thanks agian

Well, If i was to buy the XFX i will get it tomorow, If i got the Asus P5N-D i would get it next tuesday :S

Edit- In the end I chose the XFX 750i SLI, Just ordered it, Will be here tomorow :P, Thanks for everyones help!

Quote from lukelfs :

Hey, Do u use SLI? And thanks for ur info , What do u think i could get out of a E8400 Stock cooler? Thanks agian

Well, If i was to buy the XFX i will get it tomorow, If i got the Asus P5N-D i would get it next tuesday :S

Edit- In the end I chose the XFX 750i SLI, Just ordered it, Will be here tomorow :P, Thanks for everyones help!

I didn't use SLI, but as of last night I've added a GTX260 to replace my 9600GT and kept the 9600GT as a physx card. I've found the space between the 2 cards is very tight, there's 2 fans on top of the GTX260 I got, meaning cooling could get interesting, but after testing last night, seems to be all good so far. If it does become a problem then I guess I'll have to get rid of the 9600GT.

3.5 ghz out of a 2.66 ghz is great. In the review, they state to actually turn off the energy saving options, to get an optimal overclock. Why? Because when the motherboard found out that the user was overclocking, it raised the vCore by itself. By the time the user got 66mhz in increase for the FSB, the vCore was too high to continue. His solution was to turn off these options, but you'd end up consuming a bit more at idle.

I hope this isn't a problem with XFX. XFX all the way

EDIT: Ehhh... I'm not sure how things work with E8400. I own a PDC over here... However, I've heard that stock coolers for them Nehalems are rather small. If you have another cooler, even stock 775 coolers, they'd probably do a better job. However, I'd really suggest you get one. You can get a stock for as little as $15 (not sure in UK). Generally, I'd think on an E8400 with a such small fab. process, a good cooler will pay for itself. You'll see performance that is worth more than the 20 euro. Easily, you can probably get 4 ghz. I've seen E5200 and E7200 do that (with some hard work, and a good batch ofc.) Optimally, aim for something around 4.3 I guess. Look at other people's 8400 setting, to help your own . Good Luck!

Hey, Well i got the mobo yesturday, set it all up, SLi worked great, But my PSU decided to kill itself, Got a new one today, Back up and running, SLI is awesome, Double FPS in CoDWAW, and GTA IV works good, was 30FPS before with medium settings and 1600X1200 res, Now i do 40+FPS 1920x1200 high and very high settings! Thanks for ur help!