To SLI or not....

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kpat99

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I'm planning on building a fairly decent gaming machine in the next couple of months. SSD boot drive, Phenom X4 965 CPU, 4 gigs of good ram.

My question is, should i buy another 9800 GTX+ (I already have one) and run them in SLI, which costs more for a board. Or should i sell it, save some on the board and pick up a GTX 465, or similar?

Any help would be appreciated

thanks

Kevin
 
Look at this GTX 460.
and if you are going to use an AMD processor you should:

A) use this processor instead. It isn't too much more expensive.

B) Use a AMD graphics card. Finding good AMD boards with USB 3.0 and SATA 3 is tough, when you need a Nvidia chipset.
now USB 3.0 and SATA 3 aren't insane important, but It would be a good idea.

C) If you are an Nvidia fanboy, Buy an i5-750. That way you can find an SLI compatible MOBO better.
 
really the peformance gain between the 460 to the 465 isnt worth the extra cash. like slaymate said, get the 460, or save a bit more and get a 470.
 
thanks for the replies, but it is still about 100 more than setting up SLI. I'd really like to put that money towards a 60GB SSD, which are still quite expensive.

I play games on a 22inch, 1650 X 1080, i would have to guess the SLI setup i'm talking about would suffice for the time being????

As for the CPU, i was actually thinking about this processor and unlocking it into a quad core. The 6 core mentioned is interesting, but again it is more money, and probably won't give me a big performance gain for what i'm going to be doing.

Here is my "tentative" build

CPU (unlocked 4 cores)
Motherboard
RAM
SSD
 
I have a chance to get a EVGA GTX 285 1GB for 160 dollars, should i go for it or pay 250 for the GTX 460?
 
Firstly, there is absolutely NO point in getting an AMD quad over a 955BE. They are all the same chips (besides the acclaimed never been seen 960t *cough*) and basically all OC the same amount. I recently did a bench off against a new 970BE with my i5 750 and i still won and my chip is over a year old now. =/ If you wanted to spend the cash, get either a 955BE (or i5 750 setup) or the 1055T. If not, then the 555 should work if you can overclock it high enough.

Now thats taken care of ill fill you in on some performance issues nobody is mentioning yet. Firstly, SLI on a 1680x1050 screen is kinda wasted. A more powerful card would be more beneficial to your resolution because SLI/Crossfire is more for resolutions like 1920x1080 ect. For performance figures SLI 9800GTX+ is about equivalent if not sometimes more powerful than 280. Upon recent benches my highly overclocked 465 is only a notch more powerful than my old 280 but with DX11 support. A GTX285 for so cheap would be (IMO) your best bet out of all options. I say this because its still a very powerful and capable card, and there arent really any "true" DX11 titles yet except maybe Metro2033. So on the video card front id say either that 285 if you can, or a 460. Either way is a great option.

Next, please oh please do NOT get an Nvidia chipset AMD board. I used to be a huge fan of them but after i reviewed a 750a, then 780a, and finally about 6 months later a 980a ive been highly disappointed. They are hot, not as quick as the AMD counterparts, and not really worth it for the SLI considering you can do the SLI hack on literally almost any board out there. (No seriously, want the link ill get it for ya).
Instead id recommend this for almost the same price.
Newegg.ca - ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 AM3 AMD 890GX HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
You will have almost a top end board on the AMD front. (Yes i used the CA site)

On the same order you can spare that extra cash you need for the board by getting these instead for RAM
Newegg.ca - Mushkin Enhanced Silverline 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model 996947

Finally to trim a few more bucks off your purchase you can get this SSD instead with TRIM support with the same Sandforce controller for the same speeds one would want with a fresh gen SSD.
Newegg.ca - Corsair Force CSSD-F60GB2-BRKT 2.5" 60GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

If you wanna go cheaper the G.Skill Phoenix Pro will prolly perform about the same.
 
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