Need help.. advice on my system upgrade... another 680i death!.

[haloeighty8]

Ok here's my dilemma, my evga 680i died just the other week. So I'm trying to decide whether or not i want to go ahead and get a 780i based motherboard and go with that. Or make the transition to a x38 based board, keep one of my 8800 ultra's and ditch the other. Essentially what's in my sig is what I currently have.. minus the motherboard. I did just sell the dominator ram and replaced it with 4 gigs of 1066 crucial ballistix. This I can sell to one of my friends though.. so that's not a issue.

So my options are a evga 780i board and 8gigs (4x2gb) of gskill 'the ram that everyone seems to be getting right now!'. Or possibly a Asus Striker II... and keeping my SLI'd 8800 ultra's.

Or..

Asus Maximus Extreme and a couple gigs of DDR3, since most I could probably afford is 2 gigs. And ditching one of my 8800 ultra's actually thinking about selling both and picking up a 3870x2. But I'm unsure on that.

I just wanted to see what you guys think, I'm actually leaning towards the x38 based board. Would seem to be nice to go back to a intel chipset for a change, not that I've ever had any major issues with any nvidia chipsets. So any advice/opinions would be great. Thanks!

[BronzeGod]

Get an intel chipset. X48 just came out, roll with that.

[BronzeGod]

Thats right, X48, not X38

[haloeighty8]

Originally Posted by BronzeGod

Thats right, X48, not X38

I heard there wasn't really much of a difference between the 2?

[Amuro]

Are you thinking about getting a 45nm quad some time in the near future, if not, I'd just RMA the dead board for new one from eVGA. You get life time warranty right? Going Intel chipset means you need to get two 3870 X2's to get back to the same level of performance, but who knows how the 3870 X2 Crossfire X performs.

[haloeighty8]

Originally Posted by Amuro

Are you thinking about getting a 45nm quad some time in the near future

Yeah, actually I am like in a couple months. I guess I'm looking for the more future proof plan, I don't game a whole lot on the PC anymore. So I guess I could live without one of the cards, or possibly just one 3870x2. I'm pretty undecided at the moment, dunno.. Striker II does look nice!

[haloeighty8]

You don't think DDR3 with a x48 is a better way to go?

[dxx]

Originally Posted by haloeighty8

You don't think DDR3 with a x48 is a better way to go?

Good lord man, no. DDR3 costs around 6 times as much as DDR2, and will give no performance gain in any application. There are scores of comparison benchmarks on t'interweb, here is just one.

[nekrosoft13]

Originally Posted by Amuro

Are you thinking about getting a 45nm quad some time in the near future, if not, I'd just RMA the dead board for new one from eVGA. You get life time warranty right? Going Intel chipset means you need to get two 3870 X2's to get back to the same level of performance, but who knows how the 3870 X2 Crossfire X performs.

another vote for RMA

here are the reasons:

1) if you RMA, you get a working board

2) when you actually will have a need to upgrade, you can sell that board, and have money

3) if you buy a new board now, you loose money

4) you said, you plan to upgrade to 45nm in few months, there could be better boards then

5) socket 775 will be replaced this year, why invest more into it

[haloeighty8]

Well guys thanks for all the input, I kind of don't want to ditch my SLI setup yet, I usually game at 2560x1600 so I need all the help I can get. It looks like I'll get that board RMA'd and pass it over to a friend of mine. And go pickup some more ram and a 780i based board, I'm liking the striker II. So more then likely go with that.

[Dazz]

Originally Posted by dxx

Good lord man, no. DDR3 costs around 6 times as much as DDR2, and will give no performance gain in any application. There are scores of comparison benchmarks on t'interweb, here is just one.

Agreed, DDR3 is a waste intill prices come right down.

[Lenin]

Yet another nForce mainboard bites the dust

Originally Posted by haloeighty8

make the transition to a x38 based board, keep one of my 8800 ultra's and ditch the other.

You said it already. Save yourself the pain of another nForce mainboard and get an X38 one.

Originally Posted by haloeighty8

Asus Maximus Extreme and a couple gigs of DDR3, since most I could probably afford is 2 gigs. And ditching one of my 8800 ultra's

That would be the best option, given that you have the money. I'd get some pc1600 cl7 ddr3 rams, e.g. the viper ones from patriot.
2gb are fully enough for now - unless you either perform extremely memory hungry tasks like hardcore video editing or the like, or use Vista which is very voracious in terms of memory without any adequate returns

Originally Posted by haloeighty8

actually thinking about selling both and picking up a 3870x2. But I'm unsure on that.

Going from an 8800 ultra to a 3870x2 won't give that you much in terms of performance, but you would have the option to add a second 3870x2 later on (and even a third with the Maximus Extreme )