Comments on this mobo?

[HaLo2FrEeEk]

I'm looking into starting to upgrade my computer (god knows it's about time), and I've chosen a processor:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103692

Seems pretty solid, especially looking at those reviews, but this is the only motherboard I found that properly suited what I wanted:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130223

Now, I've never heard anything bad about MSI, but I've never used them. This seems like a great board, I just wanna kno if anyone here has anything to put in about it. I went with the 4 PCI-Ex16 slots because from what I found only thos with 4 slots can do dual-16x, the boards with only 2 slots can only do single-16x or dual-8x. I hope to eventually put in some nicer graphics cards and SLI them, so I wanted to dual-16x. I also had a question, I should know this but I've been out of the picture for a while and haven't been able to keep up. It says that the memory standard is DDR3, I have 8GB of DDR2 RAM...would I be able to put that in and still use it? I really hope it can, I dont want to have to spend even more money for new RAM, so if I can't use my old RAM, is there another mobo someone could recommend to me that still can do dual-16x PCI-E and can support DDR2 RAM.

Thanks guys!

EDIT: If I do have to buy nw RAM, how is this stuff:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145261

It says that it's perfect for the core i5 and i7, but I'm getting an AMD CPU and mobo, I'm sure this would still work, but would it have problems?

 

[raybay]

Good motherboard. We have installed a number of them with nary a problem.
That board will accept more memory than the DDR2 boards normally do... and the prices are dropping rapidly... We suggest you install 1 GB now, if cost is an issue, then in lat October after the colleges are in session and memory drops drammatically in price, load more of what you need.
It is true that DDR2 is less costly, but over the long term, the new board gives you more options that will mean better operation at a lower total cost.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

The MSI is a decent board; you could do better with the GA-MA790XT-UD4P though, if you are not looking for a high OC. The MSI is better for that.

I would recommend against filling up all the memory slots too; it causes stability issues in most mobos and you will likely have to mess around with the VDIMM settings to ensure proper stability.

 

[Ritwik7]

The board you selected is good. You will however need DDR3 RAM for it. You may also look into Gigabyte / ASUS / DFI boards. The AMD 790FX chipsets are the best for OCing. The RAM modules you linked to are great but like it's been mentioned above just go for 4GB now.

 

[HaLo2FrEeEk]

Is there really that much of a risk going with 8 gigs of RAM? I've had 8 gigs in my current build for almost a year now and I've never had a problem with it. And I'm glad to hear that it's a good board.

Rage, I looked at that board, but I mentiond that I wanted to eventually SLI 2 GPU's together, and I want the full 16x speed on both cards. With the board you recommended I could only do single 16x or dual 8x, which defeats the purpose apart from simply having more graphics RAM.

I think I'll keep looking around though, I'm not in a poition to buy right now, or for at least a few months, I'm hoping an ASUS board will appear that has what I need, I've always been partial to ASUS for some reason.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

That is not an SLI board; this is what you would need for SLI.

x8+x8 is a moot point and simply marketing hype, nothing more. It's been something NVIDIA's been playing up since the nForce 4 SLI chipset. There are no performance gains from an x16+x16 SLI config, compared to an x8+x8; this is especially true if the slots in question are PCI-E 2.0, which makes an x8 PCI-E 2.0 slot equivalent to a PCI-E 1.1 x16 slot. Nothing has yet been able to saturate the bandwidth from the latter, so it is all just hype and nothing more.

I never said 8GB is bad, only that filling up DIMM slots makes it prone to have stability issues due to low VDIMM on some boards, which can be fixed by upping the DIMM voltage slightly to compensate. It won't happen for sure, but there is a possibility. If you know how to tweak voltages from the BIOS, go for it IMO. Just make sure you buy the right kind of RAM, since the board may not support all the sticks being DS. The Memory QVL will usually tell you whether or not you can use DS sticks in all the slots.

Also, do realize that SLI does not give you double the VRAM; the VRAM of the other card is just used as a framebuffer for higher resolutions, which has the same effect as more VRAM.

Hope I helped.