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I was advised to get a P35 motherboard (the ABIT IP35 Pro http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813127030) in an earlier thread in system builders anon. After doing a little research i found out that the p35 mobos with 2 PCI-E x16 only had 4 pathways on the 2nd slot. I read that 680i motherboards could have 2 slots with 16 pathways each and some of them are about the same price as the p35's.

My questions are
A: How big of a difference does that limitation of only 4 pathways on the 2nd slot make for SLI?
B: What about the P35 mobos (specifically the ABIT IP35 Pro) make them better than the 680i boards?

Thanks. (i mostly use my comp for gaming btw)

You can't use SLI on non Nvidia chipsets. If you want SLI, you should be looking at the 780i (since the older models don't fully support the newer intel CPUs) and a pair of high end graphic cards right now. If you plan on getting the second card "some time ahead" then forget about it, usually when your video card is too slow, a single card from a newer generation will offer similar or better performance with more features than two older cards.

Even at 24" it is debatable whether SLI is needed. Your 19" monitor does not need SLI.

Why are you so stuck on this SLI thing? Nvidia fanboy?

Edit: fixed link

After looking at the other thread, I have to agree with FF. Going SLI with a 8600 is an utter waste of money, you should stick to a P35 board and a single better GPU like a 9600 GT or a 8800 GT.

lol I was never dabating whether to get another 8600 or not. I was just trying to leave the option open if i wanted to get 2 8800gt's later instead of a 8800gtx if i decide to get a larger moniter later. I am a bit of an Nvidia fanboy though >.<

Obsidian wrote:

lol I was never dabating whether to get another 8600 or not. I was just trying to leave the option open if i wanted to get 2 8800gt's later instead of a 8800gtx if i decide to get a larger moniter later. I am a bit of an Nvidia fanboy though >.<

By the time you get a larger monitor and all that we would be dealing with 10800 or whatever true next gen which renders 2x8800GT obsolete, not to mention they may quickly EOL the whole thing so you can't get them anyways (remember the 6800?).

If you are that concerned, get the GTS and it should hold you a while longer.

But seriously, get a bigger monitor first, then worry about the GPUs.

Seriously, what is going on with people keep saying "may be SLI" over the past couple of days. Spreading like a flu or something?

So can anyone actually tell me why the p35 is better than the 680i? or at least why the p35 is good?

Why is the 680i a poor choice vs P35? There are several reasons:

Poor quad core overclocking
Inability to run 45nm quads
Hotter (often needs active northbridge cooling for overclocking)
Uses appreciably more power
Historic nVidia driver problems (think IDE/network drivers)
nVidia's poor record of dropping support for older platforms (think nForce3 on Vista)
P35 systems can be quite easily made into a hackintosh

Pick any or all of these reasons as you like. Personally I think the fact that Intel chipsets have been predominantly trouble free is the primary reason to go for the Intel platform.

thank you

crazybus wrote:

Why is the 680i a poor choice vs P35? There are several reasons:

Poor quad core overclocking
Inability to run 45nm quads
Hotter (often needs active northbridge cooling for overclocking)
Uses appreciably more power
Historic nVidia driver problems (think IDE/network drivers)
nVidia's poor record of dropping support for older platforms (think nForce3 on Vista)
P35 systems can be quite easily made into a hackintosh

Pick any or all of these reasons as you like. Personally I think the fact that Intel chipsets have been predominantly trouble free is the primary reason to go for the Intel platform.

And for all those the price is often cheaper.

If you're really crazy about SLI
780i would be better than 680i for the wider range of supported CPU.