P45 or x38

[Thumbs Up]

Well i will be buying a new computer shortly, and i am wondering which Motherboard i should be getting. I went for two products; the Gigabyte G-A P45-DS3L and the ASUS x38 P5E3. I was looking at the P5E3 since it is fairly cheap for a board which has two video card slots, i was thinking about doing a GTX 260 SLI in the future.

What would be the better Motherboard to go with now, the Gigabyte P45-DS3L or the ASUS x38 P5E3?
Or are there better motherboards which have two video card slots and cost around at the same price?

[MomijiTMO]

Can't SLI on either of them.

Go with the P45 mobo.

[WhiteFireDragon]

you won't be able to use two GTX260 because it requires SLI. you can only crossfire ATI cards on intel chipsets. they're same concept to multiple GPU, but different platforms, just like how inte CPU's are not compatible on AMD boards and vise versa

[screwtech02]

I have a P5E X38, and a MIIF P45, I would have to say that the MIIF is the better performer of the 2, saw almost a 3000 point increase in Mark03 with the same 3870's...

You will have to use ATI cards for a dual-card setup in either chipset board also....

[Thumbs Up]

Which motherboard do you guys suggest for SLI?

[zanzabar]

you won't be able to use two GTX260 because it requires SLI. you can only crossfire ATI cards on intel chipsets. they're same concept to multiple GPU, but different platforms, just like how inte CPU's are not compatible on AMD boards and vise versa

not exactly, sli has software/firmware to force it to not work unless its signed and to make xfire not work on the MB side

but the x58 dose sli and xfire, and is the only good sli platform

[rockfella]

For SLI Evga 750 is a good option. For CRossFire Gigabyte EP45-UD3P imo...

[zanzabar]

no it isnt the 750/780 are bad, vary vary bad and unreliable. the only usable is the 790i but that is the same price as going i7

[DavidNJ]

SOME X58 do SLI, not all. Your question is are you going dual core or quad, DDR2 or DDR3. Basically, on a totally new from scratch system in January 2009 you are looking at a price differential of US$200-300 from an equivalent P45/X38 DDR2/Quad to an bottom end X58/DDR3/Quad. If you interested in performance, that is the cost of a single GTX and would money well spent.

If you already have the processor and memory, the equation is different.

[hoodlikegaza]

I vote for p45 also, but really I would just make the jump to x58