EPTOn September 04 2010 13:53 Aduromors wrote:
SLI vs Crossfire is probably the most inane argument ever
SLI vs Crossfire is probably the most inane argument ever
start here
http://techreport.com/articles.x/19404/5
Computer Build Resource Thread - Page 69
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a176
Canada6688 Posts
start here http://techreport.com/articles.x/19404/5 | ||
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JackRipper
79 Posts
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Myrmidon
United States9452 Posts
On September 07 2010 07:14 JackRipper wrote: What do you look for when buying a motherboard? I know that the chipset should match the processor, but I don't know what the other features do. People mention Sata 6Gbps and USB 3.0 for SSD compatibility. PCI-E lanes are connected to graphics cards and it's good enough to have x4 or x8 lane without limiting most cards. Also, where do things like a wireless network adapter connect to? USB 3.0 would be useful in the future for other things like transferring data to/from a digital camera or camcorder, or maybe even a portable hard drive or flash drive. Compared to USB 2.0, the transfer rate is up to 10 times faster in theory, though current implementations are not quite that fast. But you could later on buy an add-on card that gives you USB 3.0, so it's not a huge deal. Motherboards have varying levels of RAID support. For a normal consumer, this is not worth talking about. Motherboards also have different audio chips. Some are slightly better than others. Different mobos will have different BIOS features for things like troubleshooting, overclocking, etc. The most significant feature for AMD mobos these days may be "core unlocking." (See here) Some may be constructed better than others and have better hardware parts--higher quality capacitors and better voltage regulation implementation, for example, but these small differences are usually transparent to the user. Overclocking is usually more stable on a better motherboard, but that also depends on the CPU. edit: somehow I forgot the actual most important feature to many: SLI and CrossFire. SLI is for using multiple Nvidia GPUs, while CrossFire is for using multiple ATI GPUs. You need that support to do a multi-GPU setup. Sometimes, some mobos will not support every processor that can use the socket. e.g. some cheaper AM3 mobos will not support 140W TDP AM3 processors, only the lower-power ones. The most obvious difference aside from CPU (socket) support is just how many PCI and PCI-E slots the mobo has, and how many lanes of PCI-E per slot and their configuration. Also check out the number of SATA ports it has, if you might use multiple hard drives or optical drives. Your wireless network adapter would plug into either PCI or PCI-E. A sound card, TV tuner, video capture card, USB 3.0 add-on card, etc. would all plug into one or the other. Cards requiring a high data rate would use PCI-E (x1 lane usually) rather than PCI, and in some cases PCI-E (x4 lane). | ||
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JackRipper
79 Posts
Just to recap, All the SATA ports are for storage, and SSDs can only use SATA 6 GB/s. So say if a motherboard has 6x SATA 6GB/s and 2 SATA 3GB/s, it would be able to theoretically run 6 SSD and 2 HDD. Would putting a HDD on a SATA 6 GB/s make it faster? and eSATA are for external hard drives? PCI and PCI-E slots are for graphics cards, sound cards, TV tuner, wireless network adapter, etc. PCI-E slots are usually for graphics cards and the others are fine with the PCI slots (most of the time). SLI and Crossfire need at least 2 PCI-E slots that are at least x8/x8 unless it's really high end graphics cards. For memory, most motherboards now support DDR3 and the total amount of ram you can have is limited by the amount of slots you have (the 240 pin one). There are also other features (like core unlocking) in the BIOS that help differentiate between which mobos to buy. Finally, is there a difference between micro ATX and ATX other than being smaller and having less slots overrall? What does RAID do? | ||
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mav451
United States1596 Posts
eSATA is basically equivalent to SATA speeds - i.e. it's like it's hard-wired to the mobo. In no situation, in 2010, should you still be using USB2.0 for external HDs. You sacrifice speed and CPU cycle using the old USB2.0. | ||
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semantics
10040 Posts
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-480-3way-sli-review/15 http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-480-3-way-sli-crossfire,2622-12.html I should notice that Super strong SLI scaling for nvidia is pretty new, it seems sli likes the get Arch they used with the newer fermi chips. Historically Nvidia has always had better scaling and more support for games which always ended up to be a bit more consistent, but this has been smaller then it is currently. Will this matter to most users, maybe it depends what games you are playing. | ||
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semantics
10040 Posts
On September 07 2010 13:11 JackRipper wrote: Thanks, that really helped a lot! Just to recap, All the SATA ports are for storage, and SSDs can only use SATA 6 GB/s. So say if a motherboard has 6x SATA 6GB/s and 2 SATA 3GB/s, it would be able to theoretically run 6 SSD and 2 HDD. Would putting a HDD on a SATA 6 GB/s make it faster? and eSATA are for external hard drives? PCI and PCI-E slots are for graphics cards, sound cards, TV tuner, wireless network adapter, etc. PCI-E slots are usually for graphics cards and the others are fine with the PCI slots (most of the time). SLI and Crossfire need at least 2 PCI-E slots that are at least x8/x8 unless it's really high end graphics cards. For memory, most motherboards now support DDR3 and the total amount of ram you can have is limited by the amount of slots you have (the 240 pin one). There are also other features (like core unlocking) in the BIOS that help differentiate between which mobos to buy. Finally, is there a difference between micro ATX and ATX other than being smaller and having less slots overrall? What does RAID do? Micro atx is smaller then atx for your purposes it just means less slots and mobo space. RAID just links 2 or more hard drives into acting like one hdd, depending on the set up this is usually done for speed or data protection or both. On the consumer end usually all this means is better consecutive read and writes which is usually only good for things like fraps. Most ppl who don't know about raid aren't too worried about write speeds or data integrity. Now of days most consumers that want speed go for an SSD over a raid array as it will in general speed up your computer but it wont be good for something like fraps but the speed increase is much more noticeable due to better 4kb write speeds Sata 6.0 not too important if you get an ssd now you'll be happy for a good amount of time and likely that ssd will be sata 3.0, USB 3.0 some what important new devices will come out i'm expecting alot of gaming headphones will and mice/keyboard so that may be something you may want to look into, but beware not all usb 3.0 are created = on a motherboard and things like add in cards may be a better rout down the road. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nec-controller-usb-3-pd720200,2682.html Pcie are all compatible, you can shove a x4 length card into an x8 length or x16 slot and it will work just fine. | ||
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Myrmidon
United States9452 Posts
That's all the difference between mATX and ATX mobos, yeah--the size and therefore the amount of stuff that can be put on it. RAID is a way to combine drives to work together. Most mobos support at least RAID types 0 and 1, but standalone RAID controllers have better performance and support the other types--for which you need lots of disks. Some people use RAID 0 or 1, but it's usually not worth it. Either just get an SSD (though you can RAID SSDs) if you want to improve performance or use a traditional backup instead of RAID 1. edit: it's more like enterprise or high-performance-computing scenarios where RAID is more useful. When you buy lots of hard disks and have technicians maintaining the system anyway, need high performance, and need high reliability, you can use some of the other RAID configurations to good effect. | ||
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semantics
10040 Posts
Due to overhead and other things it's more like 270-280mb/s is the max I think it's crucial's Cx00? SSD that supports sata 6.0 and can do above 300 but you have to take into consideration it's not that big of a deal esp ssd suffer from used memory being alot slower and long writes which is what fraps does wear it down and something like 2 or 3 mechanical drives will do better longer. And who really needs 350 mb/s sequential read speed mostly it's the random things that slow down your mechanical drive and that's what a ssd most benefits a computer for. | ||
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swanny_11
Australia46 Posts
My Setup Anything i should be changing?? Going to be used mainly for starcraft and uni work. And will i be able tio upgrade to a second 460 with the setup i have there?? | ||
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semantics
10040 Posts
On September 07 2010 15:40 swanny_11 wrote: Made a post a few pages ago and this is what I've come up with. Came in at about the budget i have. My Setup Anything i should be changing?? Going to be used mainly for starcraft and uni work. And will i be able tio upgrade to a second 460 with the setup i have there?? AM3 board with AMD chipset will not run 2 460's in sli, in general ppl don't sli on AMD systems because you need to use Nvidia's chipset which although has it's perks it's not as good as an ocer and there are sometimes unique issues just to the chipset. Want to sli You'll be spending like 130+ USD on a board with the SLI certification And likely will be running a Intel CPU, and i noticed the .au so parts could be different and conditions much different for buying parts. PSU can handle 2 460's in sli if i read it right you have a corsair 650HX. | ||
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swanny_11
Australia46 Posts
On September 07 2010 15:45 semantics wrote: AM3 board with AMD chipset will not run 2 460's in sli, in general ppl don't sli on AMD systems because you need to use Nvidia's chipset which although has it's perks it's not as good as an ocer and there are sometimes unique issues just to the chipset. Want to sli You'll be spending like 130+ USD on a board with the SLI certification And likely will be running a Intel CPU, and i noticed the .au so parts could be different and conditions much different for buying parts. PSU can handle 2 460's in sli if i read it right you have a corsair 650HX. If i upgraded my current mobo to this would it be compatible with my setup?? http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=138_803&products_id=15290 | ||
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deconduo
Ireland4122 Posts
On September 07 2010 17:11 swanny_11 wrote: If i upgraded my current mobo to this would it be compatible with my setup?? http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=138_803&products_id=15290 Yes that would be fine for SLI, it just doesn't have USB3/SATA3. Whatever you go for you do you have to give up some future proofing. SLI/Crossfire is overhyped imo. By the time your current GPU is outdated enough that you'd need to SLI/crossfire it, theres almost certainly going to be a single GPU on the market that is more powerful that your current one in crossfire for a similar price probably. I'd stick with just a standard board and not bother with worrying about SLI. | ||
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crayhasissues
United States682 Posts
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128425 | ||
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deconduo
Ireland4122 Posts
On September 07 2010 23:06 Scruffy wrote: I have a quick question. Would this mobo take two HD 5850s? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128425 No, not really. You want a motherboard that supports x8/x8 or x16/x16 | ||
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crayhasissues
United States682 Posts
On September 07 2010 23:29 deconduo wrote: No, not really. You want a motherboard that supports x8/x8 or x16/x16 Can you recommend a mobo on newegg that is x16/x16 (for crossfire) has USB 3.0, and is LGA 1156? | ||
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skyR
Canada13817 Posts
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crayhasissues
United States682 Posts
On September 08 2010 00:34 skyR wrote: The P55 chipset can not support x16/x16, the best it'll do is x16 / x8. You would need to get an x58 (LGA 1366) board for x16 / x16. Okay, thanks for the info. Gonna end up paying a few more dollars for a 1366 processor, which is fine. I think this mobo will work: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131665 | ||
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DadE
Canada44 Posts
maybe possible to upgrade? http://cgi.ebay.ca/AMD-Athlon-II-X2-240-2-8G-Dual-Core-gaming-PC-Computer-/250628230040?pt=Desktop_PCs&hash=item3a5a9b4b98 would this run SC2? if so how well? | ||
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zekie
Canada380 Posts
before myrmidon made me a $400 computer (canadian dollars) but I was wondering is it possible to get a fairly reliable computer for SC2 that could be upgraded later when I got a bit more money ( probably a year or 2). is it possible to order one for like $300? and if it is would it be a lot worse than a $400 computer? hoping to run SC2 on medium too. | ||
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