I spent so much time looking at CF motherboards, I don't have a clue about SLI boards.
What is a cost effective motherboard to pair with a 260 GTX?
I don't mind going AMD processor either if I must, but I will most likely go with a E8400.
What are the diffs between 790i and 780i/770i...etc?

The 790i is ddr3 and is more expensive. The 780i is what I have and is more cost friendly for the most part and has the availability of going 3 video cards but as I understand 3 cards dont scale much better than two to justify going more than two.


I currently still run the old faithful 8800GTX ANS3 video cards and will likely stay with them until the next generation cards make it worthwhile to upgrade. Two of my cards together are comparable to the top end cards of today so no need to waste the money just yet.

If you go with the 780i you will want to pick a video card that can go 3 way sli. The way to tell is they have two tabs instead of one to allow the connection of the tripple connection wafer board that usually comes with the motherboard to connect the video cards.

You can narrow your search to X48/X38 or P45 for Crossfire. These are intel chipsets that will support the E8400 you mentioned. I believe there are a few Crossfire MB's that support AMD processors, but those are not mainstream.

Nvidia chipsets support SLI. LIke the 790i, 780i, 750i. So Nvidia chipsets like these do not support Crossfire with ATI Radeon GPU's. Nvidia cards like the 260GTX are supported in SLI configuration with Nvidia chipsets.

The Intel P45 chpsets (Any MB manufacturer) will support one 260GTX. ATI Radeon cards are supported and in Crossfire iif you have two with the Intel P45 chipset. The P45 chipset is the price/performance model currently. Check newegg for price of MB's with the Intel P45 chipset.

Ha, finding a reasonablly priced MB with support for an E8400 is pretty simple. Newegg has a boatload of them.

The price and a little research.

for sli, EVGA 750i FTW is FTW! cheaper than P45's at tigerdirect atm which is a surprise! really good quality, nice overclocks, updated BIOS is fine, not reference, all solid cap capacitors... the list goes on and YES I AM A EVGA FANBOY! EVGA FTW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! omg wat have i been smokin'..

My Abit a9b pro P965 chipset board has an E8400 in it with proper bios support.
If your gona SLI you need an nVidia chip set.
But with the video card you want you really don't need SLI.
So go with a mid line board with an X38 chip on it. I like DFI.
Asus sucks because of their F*ck up RMA service.
Now If you feel that you need to SLI a good 790i board is the way to go.

The EVGA 132-YW-E178-A1 NVIDIA 780i FTW is a good solid SLI board. It is a newer board built on the 780i. It supports the Intel 45nm Dual and Quads right out of the box.

My friend had the MSI P7N Diamond with the 780i and had nothing but problems with that board. He purchased the EVGA board and he is really happy with it.

Also if you want to Crossfire and get a AMD CPU get the 790FX northbridge and the SB750.

1Haplo

If you are going to SLI get the EVGA. If you are going to Crossfire get the X48 Chipset

Quick note... I noticed you said "a 260". If you only plan on using one card, then a board that supports either SLI or CF won't matter. You could use an Intel chipset the same as an Nvidia chipset.

Not sure what you've been smoking, but I don't want any! I have had nothing but really good experienes with Asus and their RMA. I had a MoBo that got hurt when the PSU decided to fry the 4 pin CPU connector. Asus RMA'd the board pretty quickly and with no more cost to me then the shipping. ASUS FTW!!!!

is this a good board for nvidia SLI!?
http://accessories.dell.com/sna/pr [...] u=A1465826
seems pretty cheap for a 780i!

That board looks good to me. It has three X16 slots.