SLI? I do not understand.

[dvdljns]

I bout a new intel motherboard with SLI but when I buy a SLI vidio card do I need to buy two. If I only need one why do I have three 16x pci slots. and how do I be sure my memory is SPA or whatever. Is ther anything else I need to know about hardware.

[Zertz]

When you install two video cards in a SLI-certified motherboard, it makes it act like if there was only 1 card, therically it would double your graphics performance. In reality it's somewhere between nearly no improvement to like 50-60%, I'm not too sure about that though.

2 of your PCI-E slots are for video cards and the third one is for a Physics card, which is near useless.

Not too sure what you're asking for about the memory, but depending on your board (list it, if possible) it's probably DDR2.

Other than that, you just have to make sure the CPU you buy is the same socket as the motherboard ;)

[dvdljns]

Ok! thanks. Then I need 1 X16 vidio card. The cpu. and any DDR2 800mhz memory.
Will any ddr2 have SPD "serial presence detect data structure"
Oh by the way I bought a D975XBX2 Extreme series. I thought it came with the cpu but did not read the fine print. Came with a real cool case though.

If anyone has any advise or warnings specific to this board please give it

Thanks for the info.

[dicecca112]

That intel board does not support SLI. SLI is NVidia's version of using two graphics cards to render the screen. It gives you better framerates and thus faster Frames Per Second in games. SPD is common on all memory of any kind. Just take a look at the Intel Motherboard forums, some people have a ton of problems with that Intel Board, others have none. Its hit or miss

[dvdljns]

I probly just messed up because I just bought an sli card. The motherboard was advertized as a sli motherboard. Will the vidiocard still work.

[Sparky]

One video card will work just fine. The 975XBX2 board supports dual video cards as long as they are ATI (Cross Fire). Only NVIDIA supports SLI.

What video card do you have?

[dvdljns]

The 975XBX2 board supports dual video cards as long as they are ATI (Cross Fire). Only NVIDIA supports SLI.

[/quote]
I think I am allright I went back and checked the site Bought the card from and all the pci express card say sli. I already decided to only use one card so maybe I do not need crossfire.

[dvdljns]

The 975XBX2 board supports dual video cards as long as they are ATI (Cross Fire). Only NVIDIA supports SLI.

I think I am allright I went back and checked the site Bought the card from and all the pci express card say sli. I already decided to only use one card so maybe I do not need crossfire.[/quote]

I bought a geforce 7600. and since I do not need two cards it should not be an issue.
Most of the the problams listed with this board seem to be with raid. I do not use use that so hopefully I am ok. does anyone out have the extreme edition cpu. the one I boght is not but I was wondering if the extra price is worth it for the extreme cpu.

[Zertz]

The only difference with Extreme processors is that they have an unlocked multiplier. Which allows overclocking without playing with the FSB... Unless you have all that extra money laying around, you don't really need it. If you're interested in overclocking I suggest you read this thread.