Wishful thinking by a newbie?-SLI

[iamkoza]

Hey peeps,

Just another newbie trying to figure out if should even attempt the daunting task of building my next PC. Never done it before, and I only know the general knowledge when it comes to what's inside a computer. (couldn't tell ya the difference between a FSB and a school bus)

I was hoping to building something similar to the Dell XPS 600, 3.0GHz (Not sure if I should go with INtel or AMD)
2 Gig ram
2 256 mb Geforce 6800's via SLI (x16 not the x8 that limits bandwidth)
250 Gb 7200 RPM Hard Drive


My main concerns is that I won't have proper cooling or adequate power supply since I pretty much know nothing about both topics.

Also not exactly sure how easy it is to get the thing running once everything is installed

Also what are realistic cost savings? I haven't ran the numbers myself because I honestly don't know exactly what I'll need to buy.

My worst fear is to have $2000 plus in computer parts collecting dust in my room. Any suggestions? Thanks and have a nice day

 

[Riceball]

Okay definitely go AMD for gaming, don't do SLI, it is a waste of money. The performance increase compared to the price increase isn't even close to being worth it. SLI is for the future, not for now. Just get one 7800GT and a PSU around 500W along with a decent case and you should be fine.

 

[iamkoza]

Okay definitely go AMD for gaming, don't do SLI, it is a waste of money. The performance increase compared to the price increase isn't even close to being worth it. SLI is for the future, not for now. Just get one 7800GT and a PSU around 500W along with a decent case and you should be fine.

My whole thinking on SLI was that I don't need it now... but in a couple of years it could really come in handy.

 

[Riceball]

Yea but when it does come in handy, you will need better cards. 2 6800's in SLI still can't outperform 1 7800GT. So by the time SLI is needed to play games, you'll need to upgrade your cards anyway.

 

[iamkoza]

Yea but when it does come in handy, you will need better cards. 2 6800's in SLI still can't outperform 1 7800GT. So by the time SLI is needed to play games, you'll need to upgrade your cards anyway.

Would buying a SLI Mobo and using one 7800GT make any sense? I guess I just want to maximize the lifetime of my computer, I thought by having SLI, I could add to the useful lifetime to the computer

 

[003]

On the 90% of games that arn't optimized for SLI, the second card will not even be used, and on the 10% of games that it IS optimized for, it only has about a 40% increase in preformance. You're paying 100% more for a 40% increase on the select few games that even use it. And like it was said above, a single 7800GT will outpreform two 6800s in SLI, and in most cases, two 6800GTs as well. Read this:
http://www.techist.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=79791
It's you're choice if you want to pay extra for an SLI mobo, it won't really hurt anything.

 

[Riceball]

Yea it's not a bad idea to get an SLI mobo and just get one card.

 

[The Kraut]

You could buy a mobo like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136152 and then modify it too accept SLI if you really want it. You would save some money that way. Just a suggestion.

 

[RockyZ]

If you want speeds of 3.0GHZ from a AMD processor, you should OC an Opteron, or OC a higherend San Diego Core CPU.

SLi is an EXCUSE for "future technology" it is not really futuristic technology, it isn't working at its best yet and probably won't be soon. If you want to get dual 7800GTX, then you have advantage over anyone for about 2 months, then a new single card about half the price would basically kill that, better to just stick with one card right now right?

For ram, my only suggestion is to get high quality ones from OCZ, get PC4000, even though your motherboard doesn;t support those speeds at stock, it only means you can OC better and safer when using those rams because they are meant to run at that speed anyways.

 

[Vybuni]

You could buy a mobo like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136152 and then modify it too accept SLI if you really want it. You would save some money that way. Just a suggestion.

I thought you cant those mod to sli anymore.....