Hi there,

Looking at getting a core 2 duo e6600 and was looking for reccomendations for a good motherboard. Should also support nvidias sli, dual channel ddr 2 pc6400 ram (im not too bothered about max memory it can take, 8gb should be fine). Also need support for 2 disks in RAID 0 and 3 in INDIVIDUAL JBOD's.

Price range £100-150

Thanks

While you are entitled to your reasons for insisting on an SLI based system, the fact is, it has been proven time and time again to be cost ineffective and borderline impractical for mainstream gaming and even some mid-high end gaming rigs.

Also, this route limits your options (good or bad) since the technology is not *officially* supported by arguably the most popular C2D chipsets out there namely the 975 & 965 series. Although there is now the nForce 680i SLI from Nvidia that edges out both of the Intel chipsets mentioned earlier, but it comes at a pretty HEFTY price for most gaming enthusiasts before even factoring in the SLI cards.

If I were you, I would go the single graphics card route and with your budget, I would say the P5W DH Deluxe from ASUS or if you don't have to have a 975X to go with the P5B Deluxe also from Asus. It’s far less expensive compared to the 975X P5W DH Deluxe motherboard, but it does feature the ICH8R Southbridge and consumes less power compared to the 975X, and performance wise, it will give roughly 95-100% of the performance of the 975X without overclocking.

And while it may not be the best board in terms of price vs performance vs features vs overclockability, it’s above average in all of them, which IMO is a good thing overall.

Lastly if you do not even mind setting your sights much lower, there is the GA-965P-DS3 & GA-965P-S3 from Gigabyte.

Goodluck!

http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/pro...

http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/pro...

http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/pro...

Thanks for the reply saber. My main reason for wanting sli is I have one 7950gt already am contemplating another so ill check out those boards or may consider going down the one GPU root.

Orbital, as far as i can see those 3 boards either support no multiple GPU's or ATI's crossfire if they do..

Sell your 7950GT, and put the proceeds towards a faster card or give it to me ;-)

Bleeding edge technology is called that for a reason - the flame usually doesn't last very long but it continually burns a skin deep hole in most pockets...............LOL

Give? You mean sell i hope :P

One more quick question:

If a mobo says it supports RAID 0, 1,0+1, 5 etc, yet doesnt specify JBOD do you think it would support it and just isnt listed or wont support it? Is it possible JBOD has a RAID 'number' and I just dont know it?