Question about Upgrading Motherboard

[Mike029]

I sent out my hd 5870 for warranty repair as the fan was sticking causing the gpu to heat upto 90's. It will be returning end of next week and I was looking to replace my Asus P5Q Deluxe board with a MB that can handle 3 GPU's. Not sure if there is such a MB for the P45 chipset. Q9450. I want to run the 2 hd5870's and my 4870 in one box. I have a PCP&C 750 PSU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341011and The Azza Hurrican case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811517010

I'm sure it will fit within the case without much problem. The questions I have are;

Is there such a MB that can run these 3 video cards for a q9450?
Could I run 3 Vid. cards with the above psu?

Thanks guys.

[Fire$torm]

Take a look at the following:
ASUS STRIKER II FORMULA nForce 780i SLI 775 (http://cgi.ebay.com/ASUS-STRIKER-II-FORMULA-nForce-780i-SLI-775-MOTHERBOARD-/360288564549?pt=Motherboards&hash=item53e2df3545) - eBay $116.95

XFX nForce 780i 3-way SLI MB w/4GB Patriot PC-8500 RAM (http://cgi.ebay.com/XFX-nForce-780i-MB-Quad-Q9650-SLi-Patriot-4GB-PC-8500-/190491648852?pt=Motherboards&hash=item2c5a2fe354) - eBay $350.00

You will be able to find others on eBay. Just use this Ebay Search Criteria. (http://computers.shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=sli&_sacat=1244&CPU%2520Type=Core%25202%2520Quad&_dmpt=Motherboards&CPU%2520Socket%2520Type=LGA775%2520Socket&_odkw=&_osacat=1244&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313)

Not sure but I would cation against using it. That PSU could probably handle 3 mid-range like ATI's HD 4xxx series or nVidia's 8xxx/9xxx series or nVidia's remakes of those.

[Maxwell]

Where are the fans on your cards? Are they in the middle, or in the rear?

[c303a]

Take a look at the following:
ASUS STRIKER II FORMULA nForce 780i SLI 775 (http://cgi.ebay.com/ASUS-STRIKER-II-FORMULA-nForce-780i-SLI-775-MOTHERBOARD-/360288564549?pt=Motherboards&hash=item53e2df3545) - eBay $116.95

XFX nForce 780i 3-way SLI MB w/4GB Patriot PC-8500 RAM (http://cgi.ebay.com/XFX-nForce-780i-MB-Quad-Q9650-SLi-Patriot-4GB-PC-8500-/190491648852?pt=Motherboards&hash=item2c5a2fe354) - eBay $350.00[/URL]

http://xfxforce.com/en-us/products/motherboards/7series/780i.aspx (http://xfxforce.com/en-us/products/motherboards/7series/780i.aspx)

I have this board in a Black Shark full tower case. I bought it refurbished for $89 but I don't see them anymore. This board has been running for 8 months now without a hiccup. I am running a Q6600, 4 gigs of 1066 ram, EVGA GTX460 (fermi) Overclocked with 1 gig of memory running Win7 64 bit. I looked at several sites for the board and everyone that sells retail except the egg was out of them. Plenty of room for 3 double wide cards on the board. Just make sure you have the cooling. The board can be easily overclocked through the bios. I am running the FSB at 1300 and the Q6600 is running at 2.89 with no voltage increase. Another nice feature is dual LAN connections.
If you need any specs PM me and I can scan the manual and send them to you.

[Mike029]

Where are the fans on your cards? Are they in the middle, or in the rear?

4870 Fan at end deepest in case.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121258

5870x2 Fan in middle
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102883

[John P. Myers]

4870 Fan at end deepest in case.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121258

5870x2 Fan in middle
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102883

With the fans in the middle, those cards will suffocate being sandwiched together. You' need a mobo with the PCI x16 slots at location 1,3,5 and 7. one of the 5870's would have to be in slot 7, so hopefully your case has 8 expansions slots on the rear. Then you could put the other 5870 in slot 1, and the 4870 in slot 5. If slot 4 is a PCI, don't forget to pickup a 9500GT :D

Alternately, a mobo with PCI x16s in slots 1, 4 and 6 would work as well. 1 5870 in slot 1 and 6, 4870 in slot 4. And then your case only needs the standard 7 slots on the back.

As for the PSU, those 3 cards draw 526W under full load, unoverclocked. Doesn't leave much room for everything else in your system. The Q9450 draws another 95W, for a total of 621W. You still have to have some juice left for the RAM, HD, fans, etc. Never a good idea to run a PSU above 80% capacity anyway. Shortens the lifespan, and the efficiency drops off the deepend. It'll cost you less on your electric bill to use 750W of a 1500W PSU (just an example. no need to actually go that high), than 750W of a 750W PSU.

[Dandasarge]

http://xfxforce.com/en-us/products/motherboards/7series/780i.aspx (http://xfxforce.com/en-us/products/motherboards/7series/780i.aspx)

I have this board in a Black Shark full tower case. I bought it refurbished for $89 but I don't see them anymore. This board has been running for 8 months now without a hiccup. I am running a Q6600, 4 gigs of 1066 ram, EVGA GTX460 (fermi) Overclocked with 1 gig of memory running Win7 64 bit. I looked at several sites for the board and everyone that sells retail except the egg was out of them. Plenty of room for 3 double wide cards on the board. Just make sure you have the cooling. The board can be easily overclocked through the bios. I am running the FSB at 1300 and the Q6600 is running at 2.89 with no voltage increase. Another nice feature is dual LAN connections.
If you need any specs PM me and I can scan the manual and send them to you.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188061&cm_re=evga_motherboard-_-13-188-061-_-Product

here is a similar one for sale

[Maxwell]

With the fans in the middle, those cards will suffocate being sandwiched together. You' need a mobo with the PCI x16 slots at location 1,3,5 and 7. one of the 5870's would have to be in slot 7, so hopefully your case has 8 expansions slots on the rear. Then you could put the other 5870 in slot 1, and the 4870 in slot 5. If slot 4 is a PCI, don't forget to pickup a 9500GT :D

Alternately, a mobo with PCI x16s in slots 1, 4 and 6 would work as well. 1 5870 in slot 1 and 6, 4870 in slot 4. And then your case only needs the standard 7 slots on the back.
JPM said exactly what I was getting at. Yay for me not having to type that out! The only other config for the Mobo I can think of is 1, 4, and 7 for the PCIe x16 slots...

[c303a]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188061&cm_re=evga_motherboard-_-13-188-061-_-Product

here is a similar one for sale

This is an i7 1366 board with DDR3 ram. The XFX board is a 775 with DDR2 ram.

[Fire$torm]

http://xfxforce.com/en-us/products/motherboards/7series/780i.aspx (http://xfxforce.com/en-us/products/motherboards/7series/780i.aspx)

I have this board in a Black Shark full tower case. I bought it refurbished for $89 but I don't see them anymore.......

That was a really nice deal you got on that board. Too bad your source went dry. BTW, there is no need to go through the effort to scan the user manual as it can be DL'd from here. (http://www.evga.com/support/manuals/files/132-CK-NF78.pdf) The XFX 780i is a rebranded EVGA board.

@Mike: I would suggest that you keep checking that link I gave you every 2 days or so. There are always new deals being added. The 780i looks like a really sweet board. Happy hunting.

[c303a]

I got the board fro CompUSA on their refurbished link. I haven't seen the board available on Pricewatch or through any other source for quite a while. Here is a comparable board on E-bay. The big difference is that the 790i uses DDR3 memory.

http://cgi.ebay.com/EVGA-nForce-790i-SLI-FTW-132-YW-E179-TR-motherboard-/300516387471?pt=Motherboards&hash=item45f82c2a8fhttp://cgi.ebay.com/EVGA-nForce-790i-SLI-FTW-132-YW-E179-TR-motherboard-/300516387471?pt=Motherboards&hash=item45f82c2a8f

[Mike029]

@F$ Thanks. I'll keep an eye out. I have an available pci slot open now. What could I crunch and what could I expect from dropping a 9500GT in my board now? Will I be able to run ATI and Nvidia with Vista Ultimate or will I need Windows 7?

[Fire$torm]

@F$ Thanks. I'll keep an eye out. I have an available pci slot open now. What could I crunch and what could I expect from dropping a 9500GT in my board now? Will I be able to run ATI and Nvidia with Vista Ultimate or will I need Windows 7?

I believe you can do that with Vista. I have a 9500GT in Thor and I get between 27k~30k a day on PG. It can't do MW since its not DP :( but it should be able to run Collatz or any other nVidia app that only requires single precision.

[Mike029]

I got the board fro CompUSA on their refurbished link. I haven't seen the board available on Pricewatch or through any other source for quite a while. Here is a comparable board on E-bay. The big difference is that the 790i uses DDR3 memory.

http://cgi.ebay.com/EVGA-nForce-790i-SLI-FTW-132-YW-E179-TR-motherboard-/300516387471?pt=Motherboards&hash=item45f82c2a8fhttp://cgi.ebay.com/EVGA-nForce-790i-SLI-FTW-132-YW-E179-TR-motherboard-/300516387471?pt=Motherboards&hash=item45f82c2a8f

I'd have to buy memory as well. Great board just not worth having to get new memory as well.

[Maxwell]

I believe you can do that with Vista. I have a 9500GT in Thor and I get between 27k~30k a day on PG. It can't do MW since its not DP :( but it should be able to run Collatz or any other nVidia app that only requires single precision.
PG is by far the best. About 3k on Collatz, about the same on DNETC, fairly crappy on Einstein, and not sure about DistRTGen.

[c303a]

After a lot of research I have finally come up with a 780i SLI board and it is the only one I could find.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0012MF4GU/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&redirect=true&qid=1295967488&sr=1-1-spell&condition=allhttp://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0012MF4GU/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&redirect=true&qid=1295967488&sr=1-1-spell&condition=all

[rgathright]

After a lot of research I have finally come up with a 780i SLI board and it is the only one I could find.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0012MF4GU/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&redirect=true&qid=1295967488&sr=1-1-spell&condition=allhttp://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0012MF4GU/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&redirect=true&qid=1295967488&sr=1-1-spell&condition=all

Wow, I tried finding another mobo that had 2 PCIe slots in Socket 775 and could find nothing at NewEgg or Directron. I would jump on this if you really want to go this route since the offer will likely not stay around for long.

[c303a]

I sent an e-mail to xfx support and their answer was that the board is out of production and no more refurbished are available. If I had need of another board I think I would get the Striker 780i. You have to be careful, there is also a Striker 750i and it will not run the newer GPUs. I believe it will run the 9xxx cards but not the 2xx and up.

[John P. Myers]

I believe you can do that with Vista. I have a 9500GT in Thor and I get between 27k~30k a day on PG. It can't do MW since its not DP :( but it should be able to run Collatz or any other nVidia app that only requires single precision.

I also have a 9500GT in a PCI slot and am getting around 27k-30k credits/day. It's well worth it. Those extra credits from just a 9500GT are a nice bump to your production and the card uses very little power. Won't even have to give any thought to upgrading your PSU because of it.

[Dandasarge]

775 is out the only place to get a deal is ebay

evga 780i /790i has 3

I think all brands if you look up 780i is a 3 PCI-E card.

Same with the 680i series