How does everyone rate these crossfire boards

[FrankJH]

Ok guys I am thinking of going crossfire, I need to get a replacement mobo anyway as my Ultra-d is driving me crazy;

Most people seem to really like the dfi R580 board but at £160 its too expensive for my blood - and there isnt that much on any of the others apart from the Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe which itself is boardering on the obscene in price.

So what about the rest:

Abit AT8-32X ATI RD580 Crossfire
Sapphire PURE RD580 CrossFire Advantage
Sapphire PURE RD580 CrossFire

Is there that much difference between the two Sapphire boards and is it worth the doubling in the price?

I dont want to spend as much as the 2nd sappire or dfi board but I will go to the Asus if necessary but what will it bring me ontop of what i get from the Abit for example (or the Advantage)

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Coolasmoo]

I think it would be best if you read through the latter parts of the threads on the rd580 boards.

There are a few knocking about now.

Crossfire still isnt perfect on any 3200 board. a lot of the problems seem to point to the ULI Chipset and has been confirmed by some degree by ATI themselves.

I dont think too many people here have tested the Sapphire boards with the older 480 Southbridge, so i cant comment on them

Clocking wise , they all seem to vary but general stability seems fine with some tweaking here and there.

If you want my honest opinion from a Crossfire user.

If you can game fine with one card then i would sit it out and wait to move onto dual cards. Like i said , they work fine on games that are supported to a certain degree. but they consume so much power, have a huge amount of heat that needs to be dissapated and the drivers need to mature more.

Some problems may never be fixed on this generation of Chipsets and Cards, (screen wobbles and interference) so take your time, and research before you spend a whole lot of money that you may regret.

 

[FrankJH]

I take your point, but there are two factors you may have missed;

1) I need a motherboard right now

2) the two sapphire boards are rd580 based rather than the earlier 480 ones you mentioned

Is there a decent clocking board in comparison to the Ultra D that I have now that is recommended?

Anyone else have any comments on the rd580 in OP?

 

[LoadsaMoney]

I would'nt touch the Sapphire's with the dreadfull SB450 Southbridge, i used to have the DFi LanParty RDX200 board with it, absolutely dreadfull, no SATA2, dreadfull USB speeds etc... the ULI doesn't have any problems at all as far as i know, id go for any RD580 board that has the ULI tbh, but i would'nt touch the DFi as thats a right royal rip-off.

Out of those you mentioned id go for the ABit, or the Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe Crossfire which you havn't mentioned.

 

[Nelly]

If you can, maybe wait till Conroe comes out? Quite a few people will be buying them I guess, will probally have to wait another month for guinea pigs to test them etc & if its definitly true about Conroe being 20% faster than the FX-60 which would be like running an FX-65 if there ever could be one! depends on gaming, pricing etc.

Ok guys I am thinking of going crossfire, I need to get a replacement mobo anyway as my Ultra-d is driving me crazy;

What is wrong with your current motherboard?

 

[FrankJH]

If you can, maybe wait till Conroe comes out? Quite a few people will be buying them I guess, will probally have to wait another month for guinea pigs to test them etc & if its definitly true about Conroe being 20% faster than the FX-60 which would be like running an FX-65 if there ever could be one! depends on gaming, pricing etc.


What is wrong with your current motherboard?

Not going to change my cpu just yet, I have got a really good Opty 170 and I dont do anything really that requires any more cpu power.

My current mobo just has really annoying problems, like it doesnt restart properly - from off its ok but on a warm restart it just hangs before producing the bios screen and it never loads. Once its powered off and back on its fine.

Little things like that that I have just had enough of it, even though its a good clocker.

 

[Coolasmoo]

I take your point, but there are two factors you may have missed;

2) the two sapphire boards are rd580 based rather than the earlier 480 ones you mentioned

Sorry it was a typo, i meant 450 Southbridge

 

[andyr]

If you can afford it go for the cfx3200 as it clocks higher than any other mobo i have had , coolasamoo is right in i would hold off x fire for a bit till it settles down i am running mine on one card and it is still awesome
btw i hope you were thinking of changing that tagan when you upgrade coz a 3200 board will bleed it dry

 

[FrankJH]

If you can afford it go for the cfx3200 as it clocks higher than any other mobo i have had , coolasamoo is right in i would hold off x fire for a bit till it settles down i am running mine on one card and it is still awesome
btw i hope you were thinking of changing that tagan when you upgrade coz a 3200 board will bleed it dry

I was going to do the upgrade in stages;

1st get the mobo, then get a 700w+ PSU and then the 2nd vga card

Even just changing the mobo will cause problems on a 480w psu? The 3200 based boards cant require that much more power than an Ultra-D (with a single vga card), surely?

 

[andyr]

hi , you should be ok with 480 and a single card just about i recon , i tried my 480 tagan on a a8r-mvp with two 1800's and not much else and it couldnt cope though. and the 1900 is a bit more thirsty than the 1800 , the cfx3200 is a wicked board though but they all seem to have issues no matter which one you choose but i think what i have read the dfi probably has the least