Asus M2n32-sli

[Themoniter61]

Im buying a socket AM2 MOBO, Im looking at the Asus M2n32-sli delux wireless edition. Does it pay to buy that one or should i get the other one thats 50$ cheaper? Or is there a better AM2 mobo out there?

 

[The_Prophecy]

DO NOT get an SLI board if you answer no to at least 1 of these questions:

1. Are you going to be gaming at resolutions over 1600 x 1200?
2. Are you going to purchase both video cards within 2 months of each other?
3. Are those video cards going to be at least Geforce 7900GT's?

If you said no to any one of these 3 questions, get the Asus M2N-E instead.

 

[degmar]

DO NOT get an SLI board if you answer no to at least 1 of these questions:

1. Are you going to be gaming at resolutions over 1600 x 1200?
2. Are you going to purchase both video cards within 2 months of each other?
3. Are those video cards going to be at least Geforce 7900GT's?

If you said no to any one of these 3 questions, get the Asus M2N-E instead.

Proph - could you explain these questions a little? I'm planning a new system and you have seemed to answer one of my questions exactly - which mobo to get. I'd just like to understand a little better.

 

[The_Prophecy]

The reason I said not to get an SLI board unless you answered yes to all 3 of those questions is because it would be a waste of money otherwise. There's is no point in getting an SLI board (especially a board with 32 PCI-E lanes) if you're not going to use the feature. The reason behind not getting one with 32 lanes, is because graphics cards don't need that much bandwidth yet, and by the time they do, there will probably be a new slot out. Here are the specific reasons behind each question:

1. SLI provides NO benefit to gaming under a 1600 x 1200 screen res.
2. Every 2-3 months, Nvidia releases a new video card that will beat both of the previous-gen cards in SLI by itself. Different card models (e.g. a 7900GT and a 7600GT) cannot be SLI'ed. They have to be the same model.
3. There is also no benefit to SLI'ing 2 of any card lower than a 7900GT. SLI doesn't provide any extra performance (or a very marginal boost) with 2 7600GT's involved.