Buying a Gaming PC with a Budget.

[Outlawed]

Alright, getting straight to business:

The PC I'm going for is currently this: ( will cost me 440 CAD [~ 404 USD] )
- ASUS M3n72-D Mother Board
- AMD Phenom X4 Quad Core
- OCZ SLI-Ready Dual Channel 4096MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Memory
- Western Digital Caviar Green 500GB Hard Drive
- Ultra LSP650 650-Watt Power Supply
- Ultra X-Blaster Black ATX Mid-Tower Case

For the video card:
either:
- BFG GTX 260 MAXCORE (216 steam processors) (at 242 CAD with 20 Dollar rebate = [~ 204 USD] ) ( I probably will miss the rebate because its offer expires before I can order this)
or
- XFX Radeon HD 4890 XT ( at 229 CAD [~ 210 USD] no rebate )

Now.

1- The PC is a kit, so I cant change components and get the same price.
2- The kit is apparently an SLI one. The Motherboard, PSU, and Ram are all SLI compatible.
3- When it comes to the video cards, there is a big dilemma, the GTX > Radeon when it comes to price. The Radeon > GTX when it comes to performance. The GTX > Radeon for my system life time, because I can get another one in the future and rape any game I run on it.

So my questions are now as follows:
1- What do I do in terms of video cards?
2- Can I make a CrossFire switch? and if I do, can I get a PC with the same specs and CrossFire support with the same amount of money.

Appreciate any help on the mater.

PS: I live in Canada, where the mounties roam free. So please, Newegg.ca and TigerDirect.Ca only, as I can't order from American sites.

 

[Muffin Man]

if you were to get that kit, you should probably go with the gtx 260 because the mobo that comes with it only supports sli.

but that kit has some weak points though. the cpu is probably one of the older phenom I's. the phenom II's are better. and for sure you wont be doing sli or crossfire with the psu it comes with. you will likely get better parts building it yourself, or atleast at a reduced cost.

btw, where are you seeing a 4870 for 230 CAD, you can pick one up here for 159 CAD
Newegg.ca - XFX HD-487A-ZHFC Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

whats your total budget, and what else do you need? like monitor, keyboard, mouse, os?

 

[Outlawed]

Total budget is somewhere around 700-800 dollars, excluding shipping.
I know the processor is sucky, but the motherboard can support the Phenom II AM3' socket ones. So if I stick with Nvidia's SLI, I can make a quick upgrade, of simply getting a new card + new processor.
As for the PSU, its a 650 Watt SLI ready PSU.... so I dont see how it will have any problems running an SLI system.
This is the kit:
Buy the Asus M3N72-D SLI Barebone Kit at TigerDirect.ca

if newegg Canada, had a BFG GTX 260 Maxcore with the 216 steam processors, I wont be even asking about this, but they dont =(

As for the mouse, and keyboard, Im not big on that atm. Maybe I'll get the G series new stuff, later on. But for now, 200 Dollars for a mouse and a Keyboard is beyond me.

As for the Monitor, Im thinking of getting this:

Computers: Monitors: Samsung SyncMaster 18.5" Widescreen LCD Monitor (933SN) | Best Buy Canada Web Store

 

[dario03]

I can't find a 4870 xt, did you mean 4890 xt?
4890>gtx260 c216>4870

The only thing I could find different on the 4890 and 4890 xt was that the 4890 xt had a mhz boost from 850 to 900. And since you can easily do that yourself I wouldn't spend any extra money on it. Unless it came with a really great cooler then maybe.

I would go with a gtx since you have a sli motherboard and you should be able to find a better deal on it. And again unless the BFG comes with some really great cooler I wouldn't spend the extra money for a overclocked card (maybe $5 more if other cards are hit or miss about hitting those speeds).

Just to let you know special ram is not needed for SLI. OCZ justs puts that on there to get sales. It is good ram though, I have some.

 

[Outlawed]

I can't find a 4870 xt, did you mean 4890 xt?
4890>gtx260 c216>4870

The only thing I could find different on the 4890 and 4890 xt was that the 4890 xt had a mhz boost from 850 to 900. And since you can easily do that yourself I wouldn't spend any extra money on it. Unless it came with a really great cooler then maybe.

I would go with a gtx since you have a sli motherboard and you should be able to find a better deal on it. And again unless the BFG comes with some really great cooler I wouldn't spend the extra money for a overclocked card (maybe $5 more if other cards are hit or miss about hitting those speeds).

Just to let you know special ram is not needed for SLI. OCZ justs puts that on there to get sales. It is good ram though, I have some.

My bad it is the 4890, not 4870, typo.

So I'm pretty much set for the BFG, no Radeon for me, because two of the BFG product = total win.
Are you saying I should just get the 192 SP version of the card?
I know I can over-clock the card, but I can't add SP's to it can I?

EDIT: I found an EVGA GTX 216 cores here
Its overclocked and is more powerful than the BFG one
Newegg.ca - EVGA 896-P3-1257-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

thoughts?

 

[Trotter]

You sure you are in Canada? Or is that where you will be getting your parts from? Your IP says very different...

 

[Outlawed]

You sure you are in Canada? Or is that where you will be getting your parts from? Your IP says very different...

Im currently not in Canada, but I'm getting my stuff delivered to my dorm in Canada when I get to Uni.

 

[Trotter]

OK. Making sure. We get all kinds of spammers and I wanted to verify you were on the up and up.

Carry on.

 

[v8killaz]

if u want check craigs for a system
i bougt a nice one
q6600
gigabyte mobo
4 gig dominator ram
antec 900
corsair 700
gtx 260 216
and with a mouse and keyboardd
all for 380
which is a pretty good deal to me

 

[dario03]

My bad it is the 4890, not 4870, typo.

So I'm pretty much set for the BFG, no Radeon for me, because two of the BFG product = total win.
Are you saying I should just get the 192 SP version of the card?
I know I can over-clock the card, but I can't add SP's to it can I?

EDIT: I found an EVGA GTX 216 cores here
Its overclocked and is more powerful than the BFG one
Newegg.ca - EVGA 896-P3-1257-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

thoughts?

No definitely get a core 216. I'm just saying don't spend extra money on a card if the only difference is its standard clocks. You can overclock a card yourself and usually you will get about the same clocks.