New build - advice please

OK, so I'm guessing the chipset on the P55 boards are limited to lower speeds compared to the X58 chipset boards?

I guess what I want to know is whether going SLI eventually would be worth it (considering the boards seem to be "castrated"), or just getting a more powerful single card up front?
 
Yes they are dual 8x, but I think the performance difference is around 5% ~ last time I herd when people were discussing performance difference.
 
Rhodan said:
OK, so I'm guessing the chipset on the P55 boards are limited to lower speeds compared to the X58 chipset boards?

I guess what I want to know is whether going SLI eventually would be worth it (considering the boards seem to be "castrated"), or just getting a more powerful single card up front?
Click to expand...

the difference between 16X/16X and 8X/8X isnt worth worrying about, there was a review comparison(cant remember where, so dont ask) it was small.

as for sli, check these out.

GTX460 sli vs 5970 - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/gf-gtx460-sli.html

GTX470 sli vs 5970 - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/geforce-gtx470-sli.html
 
Full speed would be 16x/16x but I dont think any 1156 or AM3 boards will do that - only 1356. But 8x/8x is shown in benches to make a negligable difference - i.e. isn't bottlenecking the cards. What you really dont want is one slot to have to run in 4x such as in the cheaper £110 Asus you had in your initial build. That would result in one card not pulling its weight. Unfortunately the 'supports x-fire' tag isn't enough - you'll have to look at the detailed spec on the manufacturers website to find out if it's 'proper' 8x/8x or just 16x/4x.
 
As to whether it's actually worth considering SLI/x-fire, in my experience all the best laid plans for 'I'll SLI later' have never come into fruition. I intended to with my Voodoo 2, and my Geforce 4 and my Radeon 9800, and my Geforce 6800... never happened. But I still think I might with the 5850 :). The fact is when the time comes it almost always makes better sense to sell the old and upgrade to a new efficient single card. I'd put my money on most SLI/x-fire setups having been built like that from day one by power users, or very shortly after the initial build. If you plan to SLI literally a few months down the line when you have some more cash, then fine. If you're thinking you'll do it a couple of years down the line - I bet you a GPU you never bother ;)
 
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