Gaming Computer

[jamiesalter]

Hi all.

I've got round to that stage when you realise you need a new computer. I thought i'd bite the bullet this time and built it myself. Budget - a smallish total of £500 ($950).

My first question was AMD or Intel. I've always been a fan of AMD, but looking at the facts Intel is my choice using one of their Core 2 Duo chips.

Anther question then faced me: ATI or nVidia. Again I looked at the facts and have chosen nVidia.

Decision wise that is as far as I have got. The next big question is whether to go for SLI or not. With my budget SLI would be possible, but I'd miss out on features from using cheaper motherboards and other components to stay in budget. What is your experience of SLI? Two reasonable nVidia cards in SLI or one good one alone?

If I went with SLI, I would then probably go for the ASUS P5NSLI because it's cheap and has alright features. Downsides are that it lacks overclocking abilities, lacks some features and runs hot. Other options are the ECS NFORCE 570 SLIT-A (V5.1) and Jetway 775GT2-LOG.

In short, should I go for SLI or not or a mid-range/budget gaming rig?

Any comments appreciated,

Jamie Salter

 

[Ronnie]

there is already a thread just like this
http://www.techist.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=130324

just go through there

but core 2 is they way to go for now and for a long time

 

[keyser09]

Just go with one good vid card then you can sli it with another l8ter when u get the funds and fade dont count amd out just yet

 

[Ronnie]

im not counting them out i do believe they will be on top once again just not for awhile

i mean AM2 is a joke you have to pay almost $300 for 2mb l2 cache
while intel core 2 you can get 4mb l2 cache for the same price with a higher fsb.

i dont think amd will be on top again for at least a year or so

 

[keyser09]

Yeah well....Go amd!

 

[Trotter]

For gaming on a budget, go for either an AMD 939 or AM2.

Socket 939's use DDR memory, AM2 use DDR2. Other than having to choose a motherboard that matches your socket choice, the rest of the system would be the same.

 

[NosBoost300]

amd is a great choice for cheap gaming, if you don't need number crunching or care about super pi and burning cd incredibly fast you can make a socket 939 computer for incredibly cheap

 

[jamiesalter]

I've decided to up my budget a bit, stick with intel and not go with sli.

What do you think of the following setup:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 (BX805576400)
£147.63 - www.ebuyer.co.uk

Motherboard: Gigabyte P965 DS3 (GA-965P-DS3)
£93.99 - www.scan.co.uk

Memory: 2Gb(2X1Gb) CorsairTwinX XMS2 Dominator (TWIN2X2048-6400C4D)
£218.14 - www.scan.co.uk

Graphics Card: MSI GeForce 7900GTO 512MB (NX7900GTO-T2D512E)
£189.16 - www.scan.co.uk

Hard Drive: Western Digital 250GB SATA 300 (WD2500KS)
£50.51 - www.dabs.com

Optical Drive: Samsung DVD±RW (SH-S182D)
£24.48 - www.dabs.com

PSU: Akasa 550W (AK-P550FH)
£78.60 - www.scan.co.uk

Total without extra cooling and case = £802.50

What do you guys think?

All comments welcome.


Oh and one more thing, is it possible to run two SLI nvidia cards on an intel 975X based motherboard? I saw something like it in this link: http://www.techenclave.com/forums/7900gtx-half-price-only-msi-nx7900gto-81716.html (scroll down the page a bit).

 

[KBlair]

Don't know about that power supply; how about this? It's a great power supply for the money. (And is cheaper)

 

[andrewsvalesen]

Man, thats a really good computer. It's crazy how so little money can get you medium high parts..

But yeah get a different PSU. It's something you need not be hesitant in price about.

Get maybe a 600/650W
So when you run SLI if you do, you won't need to upgrade that.