How would this 1156 motherboard work for gaming?

My last computer was kinda destroyed in a fire and I'm just getting around to building another one. I have a limited budget and I'm getting an i5 for free so I can splurge a bit on a motherboard. I plan on getting two 9800gt cards and using SLI. I do know that the p55 chipset usually only supports 1 PCIe slot at 16 or x8/x8 but I heard this one can pump out two way SLI (or xfire) at 16x/16x. That said, how would this board fare for gaming?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131594

 

sell the i5 get an i7 with the 1366 mobo so you can future proof unless you wanna get another mobo in a few years again

but yea the board is good but really just get 1 good card dont mess with SLI unless you really looking to OC and such

 

The thing is, I have the case, HDD and DVD drive but I have like $350 for the PSU, mobo and windows. I got lucky getting the student offer but still, I'm a bit in the hole. That said, really, this week, it's buy or bust. Very long story but either I get a system now, or I wait a year and I'm stuck with a laptop a tad more powerful than a netbook.

 

then by all means get what you can now

 

Check this every day.

http://www.hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=17

 

Does the $350 budget include the GPUs? Or do you just need an 1156 mobo & psu? What about memory? What about cooling?

If all you need is the psu and mobo, what gpu are you currently running so we can make sure you have enough power for it, while getting something as cheap as possible?

When I was in school all Microsoft products were only $10 at the Student Union so you should be able to get that for next to nothing.

 

Like I said, just the PSU and mobo. I have everything else ATM

 

u have double chan DDR3 already?

 

Then what type of Ram do you have, and what socket is your cpu cooling device designed for?

 

I have dual channel memory (DDR3 1600). Like I said, I'm all set spar for the mobo and PSU and I'm not going to OC or anything so I'm just using the the fan that comes with the processor

 

Okay so for the PSU my math was:

1 Basic Motherboard
1 I5 750 Lynnfield
3 Sticks of DDR3 1600
2 NVidia 9800 GT in SLI
1 HDD Sata 7200 RPM
4 USB Devices

If I'm forgetting anything please let me know. But, thus farm you're only gonna be running 300W with a 90% load, so a 500W should suffice.

So on my $350 budget I would pick:

Asus Motherboard

Corsair Power Supply Now this is an 850 Watt, BUT, its 50 bucks off right now, and 109.99 for a Corsair PSU is a fantastic price. 100,000 hour guarantee.

It's $7.56 to ship to Chicago, I don't know where you're at as it's not listed in your CP. But, with the PSU also being under free shipping right now, it's going to run you around $267.54, depending on where you live. Now if you want to spend more for your mobo, you definitely could. I tried to leave you some serious wiggle room, in case there is something more you need.

You could also, downgrade your PSU, but I would highly suggest against that, as you will get over a decade of usage out of this. Even if you don't want to use it in your main system in the future its perfect for an HTPC or just a backup box down the road.

Hope this helps.

 

I just did a quick calc and i'm showing 459 Watts. That 850 Watt PS is a bit of overkill for that price you can't beat it.

 

Hmm, I must be missing something, as with 4 more fans added and my usage upped to 100% I'm still only getting 371. With the Nvidia 9800 GTX, I get 430, but I thought he was using the GT, if that's where our discrepancy lies.