EggXpert

I recently purchased this MB with the AM2+ socket.  I have read on newegg that some people have had issues with this board making it go SLI.  I also have heard in person from my computer tech that this board has some issues with the gForce 9800 series vid cards.  I am in the last stages of getting the componets of my gaming computer together and I want to be sure to get somethig that I know won't be an issue from the start up.  I also can wait on purchasing multiple cards for SLI for now, but will be going that direction soon and as money allows.  I have looked through the threads and really didn't find anything along this nature of a querry.  
 
This is what I got so far for the build:  
Power Supply : Ultra X3 1000w modular  
CPU : AM2  AMD 6000+ 3.2 gig w/ a Zalman 9700 CPU fan  
Ram : 1 gig 800 mhz of OCS SLI x4 (4 gig total)  
Hard Drive : 150 gig WD Raptor 10,000 rpm - the plan is to use this for the OS only but may change my mind(may get one more)  
 
Need to get:  
Case - Looking at the Antec 900  
Vid Card - Looking at the best bang for the buck I can get for about $300 +/-.  9800GTX or better?
CD/DVD - Need to get this but they are cheap  
Hard Drive - May get the 300 gig Raptor for more storage (for games)  
 
The primary usage will be for gaming.  Some web surfing.  
Any advice or knowledge shared will be highly praised.  Sorry if this is not in the proper thread.  I did look, but since there is overlapping of questions/issues I picked the Motherbard Forums as this is kinda the root of the question.

edited:  misspelled the case brand. :P

Your gonna regret the Antec 900 for SLI its only a mid tower case, kinda small. you might consider the Antec 1200 or something like a Cooler Master Stacker 830 SE.

I haven't heard of that board having 9800 problems, you might try to google the problem to see what pops up.

Why no quad core? (haha)

Your main question is about the main board, so you posted in the right area. It could fit in the Video area a bit better though, I'll move it if you want me to.

 

 

Thanks for the reply GmsCool.  This "rumor" had me a bit concerned after I reciently purchased the board from a local retailer (traded in K9N SLI Platnium w/ 570 chipset that I purchased earlier from them).  The reason I went with the Diamond is the fact that when running 2 vid cards in SLI, the PCI lanes are a full 16x for each card instead of one 16x and the other 8x.  Figured that I would get better usage from the second card when in SLI.  The other reason I went with the board is the upgradeablity.  I purchased the CPU early in the year when the priceds for the quad cores were higher and also heard there was some issues (don't know if that ws true now either).  This way I can change the CPU instead of changing the MB & CPU.  I will also have to upgrade the RAM when I do make that change, buit RAM is easy and not too expesive to upgrade.

Also thank you for the info on the case.  I picked the 900 due to its cooling attributes.  That and I saw a computer build video using this case as well as using the 8800's in SLI.  But if the 9800's are longer, then a more roomier case wil diffenatley be helpful.  When I do get the second vid card for SLI, I just wanted to be sure that I had the air flow for cooling the case available.

Another question.  I saw on Newegg for this board, a purchaser commented that the board did not come SLI ready.  He made mention about having to do something with the BIOS and several calls to MSI and then updating the BIOS.  Will I or should I update the BIOS after the build or can I wait to do this later when I get the second vid card?  I am thinking that I should wait as plan on using only 1 video card at first.

Feel free to move this thread to whichever catagory it best fits.  I am seeking advice for this build as it is my first complete new build.  I have rebuilt my current system and replaced everything except for the case and 3.5 floppy.  So I have some experience with this, but I am alsways unsure.  So many things can throw a wrench into the works and make the build a nightmare.  Don't want nightmares.  :P

Easiest way is see what BIOS version you have, the go to there website and see what updates are available, and what they are for.

Your major concer still seems to be main board, so guess it fits here.

You wouldn't need to update the BIOS untill you need to apply the updates.

IMO Raptors are over priced and really don't perform any better. So with that said don't waste your money on another one. Get a big 640 or 750gb drive for your data.

As stated the 900 will be a real tight case with the 9800's in there infact a gtx may rub up against the hd cage. I would look at either the coolermaster cosmos or the antec 1200. Stacker is not bad but I like the other 2 cases better

Thank you for the additional info on the cases sparker366.  I think I will go with the Antec 1200 again due to the good air flow.  Now if only to find it cheaper! lol.  As for the Raptor....I think I will get a regularSATA drive for the storage.  The only thing I was concerned with is if there is some information that the game I'm running would need to access the program files.  If I store them on a regualr 7,200 rpm drive then I was thinking that it would be slower.  Since I am trying to build a faster/better gaming machine, then slow data transfer would not help the speed part of the other componets that I got.  Now I could be wrong, but that was the theory behind getting the 300gig Raptor.  But I do believe that if I put my OS on a dedicated drive the bootup and other stuff would be faster.