Budget Gamming PC Build

[MAD LARKIN]

Im building a budget gamming rig for around $800 USD. I posted once before, but I've made some changes and got a bigger budget. I thought I'd get your take on it, here's what im planning...

Motherboard: MSI K8N NEO4-F
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 512k 90nm Venice Core
Ram: OCZ Value Series 1GB (2 x 512MB) PC 3200
Video Card: eVGA Geforce 6800GT 256MB PCI Express x16
Hard Drive: SAMSUNG 80GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA 133
DVD: LITE-ON 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM
Case: Logisys Black Dracula Case
PSU: THERMALTAKE PurePower ATX 420 watt Power Supply

Question: Would it be better to get a motherboard that supports SLI, a 3200+ or 3500+ CPU and a 6600GT, then later upgrade to dual 6600 GT's?

 

[damasta55r]

No OCZ value, get the corsair XMS 3200C2PT. And perhaps a SLI motherboard yes. No dual 6600GT as a 6800GT would beat it. No 3500+, save for X2 in future and 3000+ can be oc to 3500 speeds.

 

[MAD LARKIN]

What i ment was what would run better in the end:

3500+ with dual 6600gts or 3000+ with 6800GT?

And I dont plan on overclocking, I just have too much bad luck...

 

[Trifid]

The 3500 with a 6800 gt would be better.

You may want to consider getting a DFI lanparty board, but that board will be fine.

That ram won't overclock very far, but if you sre not overclocking it will be fine too.

 

[MAD LARKIN]

Sorry I made the mistake, i fixed it, what i wanted to know is what would give me better performance, a 3500+ processor eventually with dual 6600gt's or a 3000+ with a 6800gt?

 

[Trifid]

Oooo. Toughy. I thought a 6800gt costs the same as two 6600gt's (obviosly give or take, but very close, small change sort of money, with out being rich)

I would have to say the dual 6600gt's even though it isn't a very good way that SLI works (splits up the screen, so one GPU takes the top, and the other takes the bottom, so if there is water on the bottom half of the screen, it would be greatly affected, as only one card can do the calculations for it.)

 

[Hacp]

the 6800GT will obviously pwn the dual 6600GTs.

 

[MAD LARKIN]

Ok thank you, I think it does cost about the same, but i dont have the money right now for both the 3500+ and a 6800gt. Instead of getting a 3000+ and a 6800gt, I thought it might be better to have a better processor and a 6600gt and then dual 6600gts later... I think ill go with the dual video cards now. Heres my updated system.

Mobo: DFI Lan Party UT nF4-D
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 512k 90nm Venice Core
RAM: OCZ Value Series 1GB (2 x 512MB) PC 3200
Video Card: eVGA Geforce 6600GT 128MB PCI Express x16
Drive: LITE-ON 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM
Hard Drive: SAMSUNG 80GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA 133
Case: Logisys Black Dracula Case
PSU: THERMALTAKE Silent Purepower 480 Watt

And in a month or two I'll add on another 6600gt.

 

[Trifid]

I found a benchtest for you to prove my point, (couldn't find it before) http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20050111/gigabyte_3d1-12.html

I just got one more thing to add, get a SATA hdd from Seagate or Western Digital, it will give you a bit better performance, and a nice big chunk better when/if you use RAID 0.

 

[Grayfox]

Stick with ocz value theres a lot of chips going around with bh-5 ic's on them (best chips still manufactured)