suggestions with Mobo selection

[lordvic]

I've looking around online and locally at some mobos & I've been thinking...
Would there be a major performance difference between x16/x16 and a x8/x8 corssfire mobo? I read that you don't a huge performance difference when you are running x8/x8 compared to a single x16...I don't think this is exactly true at the back of my head, but I wouuld like to make sure.
I haven't really decided on which mobo to get, but I've narrowed it down to an AM3 ASUS or Gigabyte brand one, so suggestions wouold be nice

This is what I've set out the purchase in August:
- AMD Phenom II 955 BE AM3 C3 stepping
- 4GB (2 X 2GB) DDR3 Corsair or G.Skill RAM
- Gigabyte or ASUS mobo Cossfire Mobo
- WD 640GB Black Edition HDD
- Antec DF-85, 902, or CoolerMaster HAF 932
- Corsair 650HX or an Antec PSU (Modular)
- Sapphire Vapor-X ATi Radeon HD 5850

[Draco]

You didn't give a price range so I will start with high to low.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131644


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131655


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131402



I personally only use Asus motherboards . Gigabyte is a great company I just prefer Asus

[lordvic]

Thanks for showing me some Asus mobos. Anybody with other Gigabyte or Asus mobos they like would suggest would be nice...

Price isn't really much of a concern, but keeping it around or under $200 would be good.

I still wish to have my question answered: How much performance imporve would there be between:
1. Two cards running in Crossfire @ x16, x16
2. Two cards running in Crossfire @ x8, x8
3. Two cards running in Crossfire @ x16, x4

There are quite a bit of motherboards out there that run at x8,x8 when two PCI-E X16 slots are used...and some run at x16, x16. There are those odd ones that run at x16, x4. I'm asking this because I plan to get a Corssife mobo & I'll most likely get a 5850, and corssfire it later on with another 5850 when I need it.

[skier]

the GA-890GPA-UD3H is a nice board($125), i've run mix crossfire on it(5770-5750) without any problems, the only thing is the integrated graphics limits overclocking.

can't go wrong with any gigabyte board over $120

as for 16x, 16x16 is obviously the best, but you wouldnt notice a difference between it and 8x8. we're talking like .5-2fps on average

[lordvic]

the GA-890GPA-UD3H is a nice board($125), i've run mix crossfire on it(5770-5750) without any problems, the only thing is the integrated graphics limits overclocking.

can't go wrong with any gigabyte board over $120

as for 16x, 16x16 is obviously the best, but you wouldnt notice a difference between it and 8x8. we're talking like .5-2fps on average

I see, thanks! The Gigabtye motherboard looks pretty nice; USB 3.0, plenty of expansion slots, etc. So basically, getting a x16 x16 board isn't really worth the money..atleast right now.

I've also done a bit of research and it seems that powerful cards -like the 5870- doesn't fully use the x16 bandwith. The only major bottleneck is running newer, better performing cards in x4 mode.

I also read that having onboard graphics (like the 890GX with the Radeon HD 4290) limits your overclocking. Is this true? If so, how much does it limit you by (approx.)? I'll be doing some moderate air overclocking to get a little boost in performance so...