New system (56K Warning at Page 4)

[Michowski]

Well winter was approaching, my laptop just doesnt want to play games anymore so I figured it was time to upgrade to a desktop again. Let me first start out saying that I have always built my desktops myself or my brother in law my entire life. Its the only way to do it to make you happy. Im building this kick *** desktop but I have never built anything like this so I would just like some general guidance. Its a dual vid card system and ive never done that. Il post up specs......

Motherboard= MSI K9A2 Platinum
Processor= AMD Phenom 9850 Black Edition Quad Core 2.5ghz
Power Supply= Antec 650watt SLI cert.
Video Cards= (2) Visiontek Radeon HD 4870 512mb memory
Memory= (2) OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 1066
Harddrive= WD Raptor 150GB 10,000rpm
OS= Vista Ultimate 32bit
Thermaltake CL-P0464 80mm CPU Cooler
Thermaltake A2427 Hard drive blue LED cooler
COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

First off im not a noob to building computers. I repair em all the time and have built a dozen or so in the past year just from word of mouth. Now I have never built a computer this state of the art before. My biggest concern is the dual video cards. I have never even seen a system in person with dual cards. Im not even entirely sure how to set it up. To my knowledge its just plugging them both into a slot, connect the sli cable, power, and just install drivers once windows is loaded. Is that even close? Also were do I screw the moniter into? Theres 4 connections between the 2 cards.


EDIT: I hope this link works, everything I got comming saved in a wishlist. https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.aspx?ID=10938068

 

[stalin90]

Re: New system

how about this, give us ur budget for how much u want to spend and we will give u the best bang out of ur buck. also chances are its gonna be intel instead of amd because at this moment intel is king, makes better cpu's clock for clock and better chipsets.

as for 2 video cards, i personally have never done cross fire but as for what port to screw monitor into, put it in the card closes to the cpu and either port will do.

but chances are its gonna be a:
intel q9550
biostar p45
4870
4gb cz hpc 1066
vista premium 64 bit
corsair 750 watt

 

[Michowski]

Re: New system

Il have this stuff friday. No worries on the processor man. Ive build all intel since socket A amd days and there good but not great. Im just an amd guy and I have no problem going back to em since ive always been happier with AMD. Just my preference.

 

[Hussein19891]

Re: New system

Il have this stuff friday. No worries on the processor man. Ive build all intel since socket A amd days and there good but not great. Im just an amd guy and I have no problem going back to em since ive always been happier with AMD. Just my preference.

Dude go with the new X4 9950 125 Watt Version then. It may not be much of a difference in temperature then the original. But I guess more mother boards support the 125 watt CPUS.

Or just go with the X4 9650 (2.3ghz) 95 Watts and overclock it to about 3.00ghz. Since thats pretty much the frequency everyone is aiming to achieve when it comes to Phenoms. The 400mhz hyper transport difference you probably won't even notice.

 

[stalin90]

Re: New system

looks like he already ordered it

 

[Michowski]

Re: New system

Dude go with the new X4 9950 125 Watt Version then. It may not be much of a difference in temperature then the original. But I guess more mother boards support the 125 watt CPUS.

Or just go with the X4 9650 (2.3ghz) 95 Watts and overclock it to about 3.00ghz. Since thats pretty much the frequency everyone is aiming to achieve when it comes to Phenoms. The 400mhz hyper transport difference you probably won't even notice.

My chip is 125watt at 2.5ghz. Im not going to overclock because I have no idea how to even do that and make it stable. This will be adequete enough for anything im doing.

My question is how do you setup sli. Ive never done dual video cards so no idea how it works. Do I just plug it in with the 2 cables and install drivers?

 

[Michowski]

Re: New system

OK I dont give a crap about nvidia or intel. I happen to like AMD and ATI. Its not like the human eye can even notice the difference of the milliseconds of speed difference between the 2 brands lol. The reason I didnt get the 4870x2 was because its double the price. My system im building will be able to handle any game at full settings and more importantly have quality. ATI always had better quality over nvidia. Now its the best of both. Another thing is that manufactures arent even getting the newest nvidia chips because they still have a huge stock of the older chips they cant sell so it might be a while before the new nvidia cards are out.

 

[Michowski]

Re: New system

Dude either way these dual cards will be able to handle any game and max settings without any lag. Thats all im looking for.

 

[aspire]

Re: New system

So you have 8 gigs of ram with a 32 bit os...

/facepalm

It's a shame you'll only be able to address 2.5 gigs of it...

 

[lukas]

Re: New system

he suggested the 4870x2 because its around the same price and would make it easier for you since your knowledge with SLI/crossfire isnt very good, like you said, hes just trying to help.