ati cards and sli mobo ...

dorkismaximous

Good evening,
Well, I will soon be purchasing a new mobo and processor however, before I delve into the market I would like to have a few questions answered, hopefully all of you friendly folk at driverheaven can help! So this is the quagmire, I would like to eventually ( emphasis on eventually) obtain an 8800 card, so I have been keeping that in mind while shopping around for a new mobo. Are SLI boards compliant with ATI cards? I currently own a 1900xtx and intend to continue using it until the time comes where I am financially capable of upgrading. Forgive my ignorance, just out of curiosity would crossfire work on an sli board? When I upgrade my mobo, will my comp still boot up properly if I simply swap the harddrive from my OEM machine or will it malfunction because the mobo/processor is not the same? Thanks for everyones time! Sorry about the barage of questions

temeteus82

That card will work on SLI board just fine. And so all the other components, you might have some issues with Windows XP if it's OEM version. What cpu you are looking for??? You might need to get some new RAM too ...

PangingJr

when changing motherboard with different chipset it's advisable to perform a fresh install of Windows operating system.
however, even though in some cases, an advanced users, who knows a few tricks on their own of how to replace the system board without having to perform another fresh install of Windows, he may be prepared and made the installed Windows to have less or no problem when replacing the system's board.

as for the OEM copies of Windows, once OEM license is installed and activated, it's legally possible that you can change your system board, this however also depends on the type of the OEM copy. if Windows is installed using the images that developed by an OEM's, then you may not be able to just change the board and have Windows still working after that by your own. i suggest you check with your OEM, or check with Microsoft for reactivating your Windows if you are an OEM yourself.

dorkismaximous

Thanks for the responses. Well I think I am going to stay with AMD, despite AMD appearing to always trail shortly behind intel in perfomrance, I have had nothing but good experiences with my athlon x2 64 3800+. I am thinking about purchasing something in the x2 5200+ to 6000+ range. I would not worry about a new mobo so much if it were not for my current mobo being a 939 socket... this is severely limiting with upgrade possibilities. This is all contingent on whether or not I can find reasonable prices. I was looking on ebay and found some auctions for new sli mobo combined with a x2 5800+ for approximately 175$. That seemed like a good deal, still investigating though.
So, what it comes down to then is that I will end up purchasing new cpu, mobo, ram and... (sigh)... operating system. I should get direct deposit directly into my pc >.>;.
Since we are on the topic of mobos... is there anyway to salvage pc3200 ram on a newer mobo that supports ddr2? or is that not feasible due to the ram being dependant on cpu and socket etc etc.

temeteus82

DDR2 and normal DDR1 have different connectors so if you get AM2 mobo you must get DDR2 ram for it.

kris23

since you are planning to go AM2..... you will need DDR2 800, not too expensive

the SLi board.....dont think its even worth it but they arent too expensive for what you get

the processor 6000+ kinda sucks as it pulls over 130 watts or so vs 60-80 watts and is inferior to the now cheaper Core 2 EXX50 series

the ATi card should work just fine but dont expect to run Crossfire as they are totally different implementations...

the 8800card i dont think is the best thing to get as there should be the 9800series coming out in novermber or at least a refresh 8900 series.....

either way, the new cards will use the new G92 core and that core will be over twice as fast as an 8800 Ultra....

but its your money.... your choice, as of now i seriously recommend intel as they are far more efficient processors, very overclockable, cheaper, and better....

or you can wait for Phenom, AMD's new line in December, although there have been reports of it completely sucking compared to intels Kentsfield quad core..... and even worse to intel's penryn stuff

with intel, you get the new P35 chipset and upcoming X38 which has PCI-E 2.0 that has twice the bandwidth

dorkismaximous

Frankly I did not know that Intel core 2 duo exx50 was cheaper. Inexpensive and better quality are the quintessential ideal pair What do you mean by "the SLI is not worth it", could you suggest something else that would be better? I hope that does not sound rude, I am just not quite sure what you mean.
I doubt I will be able to afford anything upon its initial introduction into the mainstream, ie the new processors in December. What is the x38?

temeteus82

X38 is Intel's new chipset that is coming some time before xmas. SLI boards are costly since nvidia only makes chipsets for them ... you are better of with that c2d and P35 chipset

dorkismaximous

Well after reading the previous posts I took the liberty of looking up processors on ebay and their respective reviews. The quadcore is not even remotely close to a reality for me due to their immense cost however, after reading the reviews and gaming capabilities of the c2d E660, E 6700 and X6800, I was suprised at how much they out perfrom AMD across the board. x6800 might be a bit out of my price range so what are all of your thoughts about the c2d 6700 and 6600? Would I be better off purchasing the E6600 and overclocking it or should I just shell out a few extra dollars for the next up cpu?

kris23

yea the e6600 is a good CPU to start with or the even better e6750 CPU with the new stepping,

also i messed up saying that the Core 2s were cheaper, i forgot that the 6000+ dropped down in price from 220 to like 160 dollars so the Core 2s are a few dollars more expensive (the e6550 is 180)

the one thing is that the Core 2s, clock for clock are superior to the A64 X2s, not only that, the maximum overclock is greater, one can easily get 3.6GHz and higher to around 4.0GHz easily compared to the 3.2Ghz on the 6000+, 3.6 in you are lucky.....

if you have the wallet for the e6750 or even better e6850 then get them!