Choosing a Board

[Orison]

I'm trying to choose a board for the following components:

Core 2 Duo E6400
Corsair Dominator DDR800 C4
2x 320GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10's (intended for RAID0)

I'd like to be able to overclock somewhere in the 400-440 FSB range, so I'd like a board with good overclocking options.

The problem is with graphics card support. Once R600 launches, I intend to grab a DX10 card in the ensuing price knockdown. However, if I ever intend to go Crossfire/SLI, I come unstuck. I imagine R600s are liable to need two native x16 slots, like G80s. The only boards that offer Core 2 support and twin x16 PCI-E slots are made on nVidia's 680 chipset and don't support Crossfire. You could download hacked drivers, but Vista's software-monitoring routines are likely to take exception to them as unlicensed/hacked content.

So is there any board available that will give me good overclocking options and leave the avenue open to Crossfire DX10 cards in the future? Or should I just get an Intel 965-based board and save myself the money?

 

[Jumping]

You dont need to have 2x16 for SLi on the 8800gtx they worked on the 650 SLi board.

But if you are going for a high end system like you talking about with SLi two 8800gtx you really should get the top of the range board which at the moment seems to be the Nvidia 680's.

With amd/ati adding support for Crossfire on the P965 boards you would have thought it should be possible to Crossfire on Nvidia chipset boards, but I'm not sure.

I really wish they would stop limiting people from running SLi and Crossfire on the competitors chipset as it's bloody annoying when you are thinking of upgrading your system, and you don't know what's coming out in the near future and how it will work on your new mobo.