I'm about to lay down some money on building a gaming rig.

Which is the *best* combination?

A motherboard with an ATI-chipset with a Radeon?

A motherboard with an nForce chipset with an nVidia graphics card?

By all means, please commence discussion and provide suggestions.

How about an Nforce 4Chipset with the newest ATI graphics card...the 1900??
You realize of course that most chipsets run about the same...give or take a
MHz.
So it really comes down to $$$$$$$$$$$$$..........can you afford 2 7800GTX
to run in SLI mode???
peter
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I'm about to lay down some money on building a gaming rig.
>
> Which is the *best* combination?
>
> A motherboard with an ATI-chipset with a Radeon?
>
> A motherboard with an nForce chipset with an nVidia graphics card?
>
> By all means, please commence discussion and provide suggestions.
>

On Mon, 30 Jan 2006 04:25:27 GMT, "peter" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>How about an Nforce 4Chipset with the newest ATI graphics card...the 1900??
>You realize of course that most chipsets run about the same...give or take a
>MHz.

Not quite. Avoid one with the current ATi Southbridge SB480. Poor
USB2.0 performance; no support for 3.0GBit SATA.

John Lewis

John Lewis wrote:
> On Mon, 30 Jan 2006 04:25:27 GMT, "peter" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> How about an Nforce 4Chipset with the newest ATI graphics card...the
>> 1900?? You realize of course that most chipsets run about the
>> same...give or take a MHz.
>
> Not quite. Avoid one with the current ATi Southbridge SB480. Poor
> USB2.0 performance; no support for 3.0GBit SATA.

Yes, this WAS the case. But now Asus has launched the A8R-MVP. It has the
Crossfire chipset, but now combined with the ULi M1575 southbridge!! Check
it out here:

http://www.asus.com/products3.aspx?l...sFire%E2%84%A2

This mainboard is the highest overclocker at Anandtech, check out this text:
" The most important thing that the Asus A8R-MVP brings us, however, is not
the competitive USB and SATA2 capabilities - they are just icing on the
cake. The A8R-MVP is a monster of an overclocker "

The whole article:
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2617

This board has switched me over from looking just at SLI mainboards. It's
twice cheaper than the top-of-the-line SLI's, but overclocks better...
DROOL!

I'm just trying to figure out Crossfire. The first reports were that you
could combine any two PCI-Express cards, but this doesnt work, i think.

--
Thomas.

John Lewis wrote:
> On Mon, 30 Jan 2006 04:25:27 GMT, "peter" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>
>>How about an Nforce 4Chipset with the newest ATI graphics card...the 1900??
>>You realize of course that most chipsets run about the same...give or take a
>>MHz.
>
>
> Not quite. Avoid one with the current ATi Southbridge SB480. Poor
> USB2.0 performance; no support for 3.0GBit SATA.
>


yeah which means soooooo much in real-world usage

>I'm about to lay down some money on building a gaming rig.
>
>Which is the *best* combination?
>
>A motherboard with an ATI-chipset with a Radeon?
>
>A motherboard with an nForce chipset with an nVidia graphics card?
>
>By all means, please commence discussion and provide suggestions.

Speaking from experience I've had compatibility issues with NForce
chipsets (both memory and drivers). I haven't worked on many ATI
chipset boards, however.

-GV

And the built in ethernet controller on nforce 4 causes a major headache for
many! Short of exchanging motherboard I've had to use a separate pci card
for ethernet. The ethernet drivers and specifically the firewall drivers
BSOD the computer. From searching the web it seems to be a very common
problem.

Dan

On Mon, 30 Jan 2006 15:39:53 GMT, GlassVial
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>>I'm about to lay down some money on building a gaming rig.
>>
>>Which is the *best* combination?
>>
>>A motherboard with an ATI-chipset with a Radeon?
>>
>>A motherboard with an nForce chipset with an nVidia graphics card?
>>
>>By all means, please commence discussion and provide suggestions.
>
>Speaking from experience I've had compatibility issues with NForce
>chipsets (both memory and drivers). I haven't worked on many ATI
>chipset boards, however.
>
>-GV


Everyone hopes for the "perfect" trouble-free motherboard,
and it's not going to happen. One person may use board X
chipset Y fine but another won't. We can selectively bash
all the chipsets but it's easier to just recognize the
specific needs rather than think any particular board is
going to have 100% of the features perfect. The industry
moves forward way too fast to spend enough time debugging
and it's unfortunate but it also allows more rapid adoption
of newer tech and lower prices.

>Everyone hopes for the "perfect" trouble-free motherboard,
>and it's not going to happen. One person may use board X
>chipset Y fine but another won't. We can selectively bash
>all the chipsets but it's easier to just recognize the
>specific needs rather than think any particular board is
>going to have 100% of the features perfect. The industry
>moves forward way too fast to spend enough time debugging
>and it's unfortunate but it also allows more rapid adoption
>of newer tech and lower prices.

I will say that I haven't had any issues with a VIA chipset based
board in a long, long time

-GV

On Tue, 31 Jan 2006 15:38:19 GMT, GlassVial
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>>Everyone hopes for the "perfect" trouble-free motherboard,
>>and it's not going to happen. One person may use board X
>>chipset Y fine but another won't. We can selectively bash
>>all the chipsets but it's easier to just recognize the
>>specific needs rather than think any particular board is
>>going to have 100% of the features perfect. The industry
>>moves forward way too fast to spend enough time debugging
>>and it's unfortunate but it also allows more rapid adoption
>>of newer tech and lower prices.
>
>I will say that I haven't had any issues with a VIA chipset based
>board in a long, long time
>
>-GV

I haven't either but some people never forget.