Help needed for new build.

[Sqrl]

Biggerboat said:

TheRealMafoo said:
@Biggerboat

Here is something most people on this site will disagree with, but I will throw my 2 cents in.

If you buy your computer with one video card, and are happy with it, you will never buy a second. First off (unless something is new that I don't know about), you will have to buy the exact same one (XpertVision GeForce 8800 GT 512MB in your case). Second, the delta between what you have and what two videos cards provide in real gaming is small. Unless you are an extreme personality that freaks out as soon as you can't turn every on, by the time you get annoyed enough to make the investment, a better option will be out there (like a card that's the same price but as fast as two of yours with more features (DX 11 or something).

I understand where you're coming from though I kinda disagree on the impotance of 2x the power. For instance if that wasn't a significant gulf then why not save myself a lot of dough and just settle for a 8600? The 9600gts are supposed to work very well in SLI, a step from pretty much any othe nvidia card out there, that's why I'm kind of sold on the idea. I'm also going to be doing some 3d stuff next year in college so want the option of beefing my setup up. I do share your concern that I could find it hard to track down another Xpertvision card and will give it some thought. I'm going to be running xp so the appearance of new DXs doesn't really figure in my reasoning.

It may be a moot point anyway, as if the mobo I'm looking at doesn't support 2x16 performance or I can't get bumped up to the 700w OCZ PSU for free then I'll be reverting to a single card setup.

 

You don't need the exact same card actually. You need the same chipsets and thats pretty much it. Outside of that the hardware will automatically lower the clock speed of all hardware assets so that the faster one lowers to the slower one. Even different RAM will just restrict one of the cards to make them identical. Generally speaking this means tha you can run two 9600s in SLI regardless of manufacturer, ram, or factory OC etc. When you pick out your second card if you can't find the exact same card you can just check online for compatability to be sure, the SLI forums on nVidia's site is a great place to sign up and ask SLI related questions if you have them.

Personally I love my SLI setup, but I wouldn't recommend it for everyone. It comes with a lot of hassles and while I enjoy the challenges of solving the problem and learning something new about my PC I suspect that most people do not. On the plus side with the nice monitor you are getting you can take advantage of SLI, most folks don't seem to understand that SLI is most beneficial when used at higher resolutions or with high AA (and/or both).

 

PS -@Biggerboat,

Oh and I actually agree about the processor, its a damn nice processor and the price really isn't that bad overall. Its probably the best Intel CPU available right now in terms of bang for buck....and it definitley has some bang.