Legit Reviews

Hey guys I need some hnelp. K7 ended a very short while ago and now im focusingon k8

Here's my thought

Zalman CNPS9500 LED 40 bucks

Gigabyte 6800gs 190 bucks

Msi k8n SLI platinum 120

athlon 64 3000 VENICE 1.8 140bucks

That makes about 500 including shipping. But tell me, is this a good sli board and is the 6800gs SLI capable? i should get some 2.4ghz outta that 9500?

This'll all get along with my already existing 1gb xms pc3200
my 2x80 s-ata seagate barracuda's and my 480 psu.

Advise plox

I have never used an MSI board but I know the DFI SLI boards OC very well. I have one of those Zalmans (without the LED) and they do an average job of cooling. In comparison, the SI-120 does a great job. I have a DC Opty 175 (they run hot) 20% OC'd with one and my temps get mid 40's at load. Those XMS 3200's are golden

Ah thanks for the advise mate. I know these Xms's were powerfull lil babies. Yeah I heard about the DFI overclocking phenomally but the MSI's is 30 bucks cheaper So is the 6800gs SLI capable?
Would the 6800gs+3000++1gb 3200xms ram be a good combo?

If that's so, i'm gonna go for it

yeah, definitely a good bang for your buck with that vid card/CPU/RAM combo......I've built a couple of systems around the MSI mobo, and didn't really like them because I've had nothing but problems out of em in concerns with stability.......gotta go help a buddy this weekend who I built a system for who has a MSI KT6V-LSR mobo.....he keeps getting BSOD's, or at least he was anyways, haven't talked to him much as I've been busy. Now, the Diamond series I've heard good things about, so I wouldn't even put them in the same boat as the low-end board I put in his system (I guess there are a few manufacturing discrepancies between the low and high-end mobo's by MSI, but I think that's the truth with almost all manufacturers).

but yeah, great combination of parts there......and 500 bucks doesn't sound shabby at all......you have a good PSU to go in that system? You'll need it if you plan on OCing, if you're looking at saving some money, go with the Antec TruePower II, it has dual 12V+ rails rated at 19A, and it's 550W, so I think you'll do well with that considering the memory and video card you will be using.

as for being SLI compatible, I'm not sure about that card model......I would do a little poking around about that....happy building

I would highly recommend not buying a MSI board. With all of the capacitor issues they've had, I wouldn't use a motherboard of theirs if they gave it to me for free! I worked in computer repair for a while and I saw more bad MSI motherboards by far than anything else combined!

Yes, the 6800GS is fully SLI capable. I would suggest either the DFI NF4 SLI Infinity if you want a basic SLI board on a budget or the DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-DR if you want something with a little more features and a better bundle. The Asus A8N-SLI also seems to be a solid board for SLI and is reasonbly priced.

And for the price of that Zalman, I would honestly just rather save a few bucks and go for the Thermalright XP-90. It's a solid performing heatsink and you can choose whatever 92mm fan you want for it. So you can get something silent or powerful beast depending on your needs.

I would suggest that you go with the 3200+ Venice they have a much better OC success rate and speed than the 3000+ and you can get them just as reasonably say within $10 of what you have listed for the 3000

gvblake22 wrote:Yes, the 6800GS is fully SLI capable. I would suggest either the DFI NF4 SLI Infinity if you want a basic SLI board on a budget or the DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-DR if you want something with a little more features and a better bundle. The Asus A8N-SLI also seems to be a solid board for SLI and is reasonbly priced.

And for the price of that Zalman, I would honestly just rather save a few bucks and go for the Thermalright XP-90. It's a solid performing heatsink and you can choose whatever 92mm fan you want for it. So you can get something silent or powerful beast depending on your needs.

Yep.....if you have a budget....get the DFI infinity SLI....great board....give you nearly all the memory options as the Lanparty Bios....Supports SLI....great value and OC's well

If $$ is no prob...get the Lanparty board or the new ASUS board...

Well my friends

I've found a DFI Lanparty UT NF4 Ultra-D for an exact 2 bucks cheapers
I think this is the one I need right?

And what about the 3000 vs 3200, is the 3200's overclockability really that much more? They cost 30 bucks more.

Oh wait, I was wrong, this board DOes have an extra 16x slot but its some other tchnology than SLI.

The sli board is 148 bucks lol

You can mod the Ultra D to SLI - Pastor Jay has one for sale in the Legit Trader section already modded.

Is that safe. I mean, I don't want incompatibility problems later you know am I sure it works?

Yep, a ton of people have done it on DFI-street. DFI basically used the SLI-D board and disable the SLI. You can read it here - http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10736