Upgrading to new GB Board for best crossfire support - Which one is best for me?

[Jethro777]

I currently have a Gigabyte GA P67A UD3R B3, however now wish to crossfire 2 x R9 290's.  This is not a happy marriage with the board due to the lane speed.

I have the i5 2500 processor, and have two options :

1 - Upgrade to a better board (perhaps used) that uses the 1155 pins that has high speed lanes and stick with the 2500
2 - Futureproof and get a decent 1150pin board and new CPU (i7-4770K?) and put the R9 290's off into the future and use the HD 6870 for a while longer...
3.  Futureproof and get a decent 2011pin board and the i7-4820K and delay card acquisition even longer..

I figure that 2 or 3 is a better choice and I have always been happy with my GB boards.

I will be gaming graphic intense games with Mantle Support (Star Citizen), with 3 screens.

What would would you recommend for my situation?  

[dmdilks]

I would go with #3 and if you do the 4820 just make sure that the board has the latest bios. The 3820 vs the 4820.

That the 4820 is a little easier to OC. Other than that they are the same.  Right at this point the 1150 boards are having their problems.

You have to look at everything and how you want to go. If you what to stay with the 1155 make sure you go with a ivory bridge.

The sandy bridge that you are using it doesn't support 3.0 video cards. The other thing is that 2011 when it comes to memory you don't to fight with it.

Like some of the other boards. I run 32/gb-2133 memory on my 2011 and all I had to do was set the speed and I was running.

The sandy 3820 & the ivory 4820 both support 3.0 cards.

[Jethro777]

Thanks, Are you thinking of the X79-UP4 board then as the pairing with the Core i7-3820 / i7-4820K?
Do you agree that GB is the way to go over the AsRock X79 Extreme6, the MSI X79A-GD65 and the Asus P9X79-LE?  

I guess I should also add that I do want Intel's Hyper-Threading feature as I will be heavily using CryEngine 3 upcoming titles and I see that as another performance increase.

[dmdilks]

This is what I run. GA-X79-UP4 i7-3930K 3.20GHz, G.Skill 32gb DDR3 2133 Quad. I had 2 Ga-x79-UD3.

I have a friend that does reviews and I get the stuff really cheap. Like a 3930K for $375.

I used Abit for years till they went under. I have used Gigabyte for 7 yrs. That is all I use.

If you are going with a x79 go for the 8 slot memory feature. The x79 will take up 64gb of memory on some of the boards.

My backup computer is a GA-990FXA-UD5R, FX-9370 4.40GHz AM3+ 8-CORE, Mushkin 8gb DDR3 1600 at 7-7-7-18

With all the Gigabyte boards that I have bought. I only had 3 out of the 35 to 40 boards that have used. Had any problems.

This is my opinion about Gigabyte. It is up to the person and what they are going to do with it. Just look at all the board.

Then pick one that has the feature you want and are going to use. Plus I had 6 x58 - 1366 boards and to this day all of them are still working.

The only reason I said anything about the 3820 & 4820 was they are about the same. Other then the better OC on the 4820.

There has been people here on the forum that got a x79 and the 4820. The board would not boot. Because the bios wasn't up to date.

Plus one other thing about the x79 boards it will support 2133 memory without any OC.