Opinions on my potential upgrade: SLI with DFI Infinity 975X/G (a crossfire board)

[DerekOldschool]

YES it is possible to run SLI on this DFI crossfire board!

Read about it from someone who did it here:

INF 975X/G - Infinity 975X/G running with SLI... - DIY-Street Forums

He used some hacked drivers (there's a link in the thread) and states that it was a simple matter to get it to run.

This is great news for me. I love my DFI N4 Expert and was looking for a DFI product that is SLI capable for the upgrade I'm planning for the fall:

DFI Infinity 975X/G $207.63
OCZ Gold Xtc PC2-6400 2GB 2X1GB DDR2-800 $164.99
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 $265.99

I was looking at the ASUS P5N-E - it's $50 cheaper, but the DFI board is a proven OC champ and ASUS board has the 650i chipset which has potential, but there seem to be some bugs to get ironed out yet out of the 600i series of chipsets.

Anyhow, I plan to swap the CPU, RAM and MB out of the Cyclops for the above hardware - but not until the fall.

My roommate/goodfriend is moving out of our house after 5 years and I'm paying the whole rent myself over the summer - OMG he just handed me the $300 he owed me without having to ask - no kidding!!! AND I got a $100 bonus at work today! - With no heat/gas bill to pay in the summer, it's do-able.

So, I'm just researching my components a bit early - they may change as prices/availability change, but knowledge is power, so feel free to throw your 2 cents worth into the fray .

I want to make an educated purchase instead of wasting my money - and feeling bad about it.

[Eldonko]

I recommend waiting for DFI LP UT 680i SLI-T2R/G if you want SLI, it will be avail shortly. LP board w/ 680i chipset will be much better than infinity 975x and hack drivers.

[DerekOldschool]

Originally Posted by Eldonko

I recommend waiting for DFI LP UT 680i SLI-T2R/G if you want SLI, it will be avail shortly. LP board w/ 680i chipset will be much better than infinity 975x and hack drivers.

I'll bet that board will sell for near $300 can when it first comes out - but like I said, I'm waiting for a few months anyway

thanks for the input!

[sswilson]

If you're bound and detirmined to go the hacked driver route... what about the new version of the infinity 965-s? They're reporting some crazy FSBs and it is listed at NCIX for $178. (The second PCIe is only 4X though......)

[DerekOldschool]

Originally Posted by sswilson

If you're bound and detirmined to go the hacked driver route... what about the new version of the infinity 965-s? They're reporting some crazy FSBs and it is listed at NCIX for $178. (The second PCIe is only 4X though......)

Well, I wouldn't say that I'm "bound and determined" - this is a "potential" build and is not final until I plop down my hard earned dough.

I just read that SLI was possible on that MB. The author of the thread, "Oldguy", knows his shit. I pretty much learned how to build and OC my Cyclops rig by reading the DIY forums (formerly the DFI support forum).

Besides that, it seems its hard to get a good SLI board that works x16/x16 for under $200 - the DFI is $207 at Direct Canada, so its still somewhat cheaper than the other conroe sli boards that have that. Anyone else finding it difficult to get a decent priced 16x/16x SLI conroe board that OC's well? The only one I could find was the ASUS one I mentioned earlier in the thread and I'd rather get the DFI Infinity and use the modded drivers.

As far as the "Hacked" drivers go - they are modded drivers modded by those Xtreme guys (Tweaks R Us - Home) They have all sorts of modded drivers there. If you look at the Benchmarks that OldGuy pumped out in that thread, it seems that the modded drivers work fine - according to him, installation was the same as with non-modded drivers

I'm definitely going to wait - as I mentioned, I'm on a tight budget this summer. We'll see what that DFI board with the Nforce 680i goes for once its released. And hopefully the problems I've read about that chipset will be taken care of by the time the DFI board comes out

[Schwarz]

Yah the old hacked drivers work.
That sad thing is I tried to get SLI working on my Commando board...
It works but not with G80.
Now i'm stuck with a P965 board and 2 8800GTS...
I wouldn't go into all the trouble of waiting for hacked drivers and all and just get a 680i mobo.

[Babrbarossa]

Originally Posted by Schwarz

Yah the old hacked drivers work.
That sad thing is I tried to get SLI working on my Commando board...
It works but not with G80.
Now i'm stuck with a P965 board and 2 8800GTS...
I wouldn't go into all the trouble of waiting for hacked drivers and all and just get a 680i mobo.

As I said in the otehr thread- if those GTSs are 640MB, I'll take one off yer hands!

[DerekOldschool]

Originally Posted by Babrbarossa

As I said in the otehr thread- if those GTSs are 640MB, I'll take one off yer hands!

@Barbarossa - you seem to have high praises for that mobo of yours (EVGA 680i) but I'm getting mixed reviews on the board. I'm definitely considering that board for my fall upgrade. see thread (im sure you've already seen it...lol)

[DerekOldschool]

Any comments on experiences with the EVGA 680i?

Its the one that seems to be the one of the best mobo out there for conroes and I'm hoping to work it in to my fall upgrade.

[Babrbarossa]

Well there definately were a few serious quirks at first, although I've had two now (bought one in early december when they were pretty new too) and they both worked great- the new hardware revision and the many bios updates have made it a solid board, although I still hear the odd story about people going through four RMAs before giving up- I'm a little skeptical though- just sems like it's too big of a coincidence for one person to have that much bad "luck".

That p5ne is a good board too though