Crossfire Motherboard Under $160?

[GG-Xtreme]

NVM: Delete this thread

Well, my trusty 7600GT has finally died, and tormented by my Pentium 4, I though it was time to look toward a new computer. After seeing reviews of Nvidia's GTX 2X0 series and ATI's 48X0 series, I have made the decision (after much thought) to give ATI a try for this generation. Part of my decision was cost, after seeing that an 8800GT might not cut it for me, and the 4850 was the next best card up that was cost-effective. I also planned on going multi-GPU later on. However, when I started looking for an Intel Crossfire motherboard, that cost-effectiveness seemed to drain away. After doing some research, I found out that the cheapest updated CF chipsets were the P35 and P45. But it turns out that half of the P35 and P45 motherboards sold only have one PCIeX16 slot, or run one of the slots in X4 mode (which has a NOTICEABLE drop in performance for CF). The 750i SLI motherboard I previously selected was $149.99 and ran at full 2x16 speeds (I planned on using the money saved for the mobo for my 4850 upgrade). But the X38 and X48 with that 'feature' were far out of my price range. So can anyone recommend me a good CF motherboard that does at least 2x8 in CF mode for under $160?

Edit: Forget this thread, I've decided to go with the Gigabyte P35-DS3L. CF isn't as good as I expected.

 

[GG-Xtreme]

How much is the Gigabyte GA-EX38-DS4 over there? I have the DQ6 version, and I could not be happier! I think the DS4 is pretty much the same, with a different cooling arrangement and a few extra minor features. gigabyte boards are amazing in terms of build quality.

Both of those are well over $225 Thanks anyway. I've heard Gigabyte makes really good Intel boards.

 

[GG-Xtreme]

Do you have a sound card, or do you intend on using the motherboards onboard sound? This is an important consideration, because you might end up with onboard sound that is as good as useless (eg. the 'SoundMAX' chip that was on my ASUS P5N32-SLI Premium), especially since you are looking in the lower price range.

I have never been a fan of multi GPU configurations. For me, there have been compatibility issues and/or poor performance gains. Personally I would just get a good single card and be done with it, however other people seem to get good results.

I would say P5K Pro, but you're absolutely right about those boards only supporting 16x + 4x PCI-E.

I don't care about the sound card. I use a USB headset, and I currently use SoundMAX, which is find for me. I follow your feelings about multi-gpu setups. However, (and I might get flamed for this), I plan to play Crysis and I plan to REALLY play it. And it seems that ATI CF will be more economical than SLI, and will provide sufficient performance for my needs. Thanks for the help.

 

[Derdak2rot]

actually , there not much difference in CF perfomance between X38/48 and P45 , i would go for the last one if i was you , a GA-P45-DS4 or DS3R is largely enough
same thing goes with the PCIex 2.0 , no game actually use so large bandwith , so there not much difference again between 8x/8x and 16x/16x ( except the price of the MB )
but avoid P35 for crossfire though , the 16x/4x set up is not all that good compared to other chipset

 

[GG-Xtreme]

Edit: NVM this thread. After much research, I've decided to go with the Gigabyte P35-DS3L. It turns out that CF isn't as good as I'd like, and I decided that I'd save the extra money and get a good monitor instead. I'm hoping I'll be fine with sticking with single cards, as the 4850 seems sufficient so far on its own. Sorry for wasting everyone's time.

 

[unbecoming]

wise choice

Go with ATI and crossfire.Nvidia recently forced me to switch as well since they release products that do not have proper drivers.AT least with ATI's scaling works the way it should.

TBH I cannot tell one performance gain or loss with crossfire over sli anyway as long as u buy comparable cards.But what good is a card without good drivers?