Depends on how you look at it. If you don't plan on upgrading your new system down the road, then go with AGP. But if you hope to keep the motherboard for some time, but you think you'll upgrade video later, then go with SLI. SLI is definitely going to take the market over, so I suspect the time is near that you won't be able to find good AGP cards.
I'm assuming you're refering to upgrading your video also right now, because SLI boards aren't really any more than AGP boards. Dual SLI is more expensive, but I wouldn't worry about that right now. Eventually you'll have to bite the bullet to upgrade to SLI though
notman, SLI is not PCIe
SLI is nVidias dual card setup, ATI's equivalent is called Crossfire.
Anyways i dont think its worth it, unless you have like 30" monitor or something. Better buy a single high end card and when its not cutting it anymore sell it and buy a new one.
You propably want to upgrade to DX10 card down the road anyways and with SLI you can only use identical cards...
I don't see it as cost efficient at the moment. If you won the lotto, and you wanted possibly the fastest gaming computer ever made, then it *might* be worth it. I don't know though, it still has some driver issues i've heard.
If I were you, I'd just get one PCIe graphics card, a good one, and spend the extra money you have left over on a faster cpu, or a little more RAM.
Well, you NEED PCIe to have SLI, though. AGP SLI doesn't exist.
If you have PCIe, the best VALUE right now is the Geforce 7950GX2. It's SLI in a single PCIe card, for around $500-600. It's the fastest single-slot card in existence, and it's only a little bit slower than 2 7900GTX cards in SLI. Only downside to the GX2 is that I hear it runs pretty hot. Still a great deal, being about $350 less than 2 7900GTX cards.
I think the investment is more than worth it. You get way faster frame rates in games and apps, which makes for an overall smoother experience.
Buy a SLI compatible mo-bo, and run it with a single PCI-e card for now. Then when you run into a game that you need a second card, you can buy it, install it, and enjoy. I wouldn't count SLI out and say its useless because it could be important in the near future, but most games and apps run just fine on a single PCI-e video card.
I have SLI running at home, its nice because I have two monitors and each card does the processing for that monitor. Before I had SLI I could only run games on one monitor and not move them to the other(while playing), now I can... how neat is that? Not very. I would put my money in one good PCI-e card not two.
Most games aren't optimized for SLI yet, so you get only moderate frame rate boosts for the extra money you're spending. Instead of getting two 6600gts in SLI for example, you should get a 7900gt.
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notman, SLI is not PCIe
SLI is nVidias dual card setup, ATI's equivalent is called Crossfire.
[/ QUOTE ]
DOH, yeah, I knew that but had a terrible brain fart... man I need more sleep these days. I still take his post as meaning PCIe, but saying SLI... like I did in my reply.
If you're asking if you should go for Dual SLI, then I would say no, it's not worth the extra. I've also been hearing that they haven't worked the wrinkles out of Dual SLI yet. I just bought a dual SLI, but only because it was an open box item that was selling for the same price as a regular PCIe mobo. I'm just hoping it will work if I ever add an additional video card (I have an ATI 1600pro, which supports crossover)
*note to Sonic - that article is almost a year and a half old.
There are far more games that are optimized for SLI now, and there are solid drivers to support it.
6800's are already a dying line, anyways. Popping in 2 7900GTX cards in SLI would be double the framerate, easily. 2 7900GTX's cards are actually MORE than double what my 6800GT OC 420/1.15 can do. If you want the best, it's certainly not cheap. But it's worth it, if that's what you're into.
As I said, the 7950GX2 card is a great deal. A single SLI PCIe card. Two GPUs, one slot, cheap.
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6800's are already a dying line, anyways. Popping in 2 7900GTX cards in SLI would be double the framerate, easily. 2 7900GTX's cards are actually MORE than double what my 6800GT OC 420/1.15 can do. If you want the best, it's certainly not cheap. But it's worth it, if that's what you're into.
well im spending £600 (roughly $1K) and looking at buying the full box, my current comp is on its last legs (5yrs old)and doing strange things if backed everything up, but im worried about the old codger.
basically ive built a comp befor, but it wasnt great and needed alot of fiddling. i need this now and cant get it wrong, as i have freelance deadlines ETC so thats why im buying it built.
That's not bad, but I don't know what is available to you since I shop US shops The one thing that stands out to me is the motherboard though. While ASUS is good, they have been having problems with their chipset fans.
I built one for somebody last November and it died about two months ago because the chipset fan died (and killed the chipset). ASUS isn't alone though, I've read the same about some MSI boards also.
Anyways, to help assure you won't have a problem, I suggest upgrading that board.I noticed they had an upgrade option that uses heatpipes for the chipset. Also, I'd personally prefer something before for the optical drive. Just a basic DVD player doesn't cut it for me. I should have a DVD burner... if not dual layer DVD burn.
I do think you should be able to get a better deal if you put it together yourself though, especially since you've done it before.
yeah but ive got work on, and i need it, last time i did it i had planty of probs and i cant afford to do it again
ive got dual layer dvd writter already so im just gonna stick that in.
cheers for the heads up on the board ill look into that. shouldnt be a prob though, ive bought stuff off them befor and they seam to know what theyre doing.
Sonic, 5 games don't make the "majority". There are plenty of SLI optimized games.
Most of the games are 30-60fps higher in most cases, and with further optimiations and drivers, they will be even higher.
In particular, look at the score differances when you are using high AA and AF - the SLI framerate is nearly double that of the non SLI. That's not too shabby!
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whats sli ? im kinda nonety to pc specs..eheh...Are AMD athlons ok ?
[/ QUOTE ]
With the risk of starting a CPU war...
Yes, athlons are ok. Though there are some faster chips out there right now, an athlon will get you the speeds you need ^.^
Johny, if you plan to buy a new cpu, think twice
Intel just released their new one, called core duo 2 if im right, and they are cheaper / faster then amds. (even tho amds are great cpus too)
About Asus motherboards, i have a terrible eperience with em... i melted two motherboards of the same model by plugging smthg in the front usb ports. But its maybe just that model, however im not going to check it myself I bought an intel then, and had no problems so far.
And about SLI, i wouldnt try it myself, as it's kind of expensive, and i do not need the extra fps. Also, i read that the single sli nvidia card had some video issues at the time, like AA not working properly. Dunno if they didnt fix it however, but i would avoid it as well.
Anyway, i think SLI is for the hardcore gamer, or the ppl who wants to brag. I think you want to work Shep (?), not play Crysis @ 100 FPS
yes, that could have been it! in my case, my company was pissed b/c of the downtime - and the lead artist who let me use his machine. oops!
btw. i use an intel/ibm mobo these days as well. that works, but i still sometimes get the panic when plugging usb-devices in. asus nightmares.
I'm a Gigabyte fan these days. I still think ASUS makes a good board, but I've seen a lot of RMA posts on the net. I'm surprised to hear about USB issues though.
MSI still seems to be pretty good also, even though I had an issue with my MSI board. Capacitors started exploding on it... literally. I found out afterwards that many manufacturers used the same caps though, so it wasn't necessarily MSI's fault. Some capacitor company had been ripping off the industry. I replaced the caps myself and it's been running fine since.
As for AMD/Intel... AMD has always performed great for me. It's what I've always used in my desktops since they appeared on the market. My laptop is an Intel and to be honest, I've notice nothing special from it to make me rethink which brand I should use. In the CPU wars, I say just let your wallet guide you. Most people aren't going to be able to afford the new Intels for a budget machine. And hell, if you were going to wait for the new Intels, then why not wait for the Quad cores?
Again though, if you go ASUS, I really can emphasize enough how you should get one without a chipset fan. It seems to be the weakest link in most computers that I've seen these days... as far as causes of failures.
Intel motherboards seem to be very stable afaik. About AMD / Intel, i bought an AMD once and had a bad experience with it, so i came back to Intel, but tbh, i really dont think its a big deal choosing one or the other. You're just right, let your wallet guide you. (althou i dont think AMD leads in this area now )
My first PC was Intel. Pentium II 400, back in 98. Since then, I've only used AMD. But with the recent turn of events with the Conroe, I'll be building an Intel system once again.
This site wont say what PSU they use, from that i would conclude its some no-name or crap-name one rated at 550W by the manufacturer which means its like half of that or something.
You would be lucky to get a single high end card run stable on it let alone two.
And right now Conroe is the way to go for cheap performance.
ill check it out, although they tend to use quite good components (my last comp from them has lasted 5 years with major updating and alot of messing) thanks for the heads-up
Replies
I'm assuming you're refering to upgrading your video also right now, because SLI boards aren't really any more than AGP boards. Dual SLI is more expensive, but I wouldn't worry about that right now. Eventually you'll have to bite the bullet to upgrade to SLI though
SLI is nVidias dual card setup, ATI's equivalent is called Crossfire.
Anyways i dont think its worth it, unless you have like 30" monitor or something. Better buy a single high end card and when its not cutting it anymore sell it and buy a new one.
You propably want to upgrade to DX10 card down the road anyways and with SLI you can only use identical cards...
If I were you, I'd just get one PCIe graphics card, a good one, and spend the extra money you have left over on a faster cpu, or a little more RAM.
If you have PCIe, the best VALUE right now is the Geforce 7950GX2. It's SLI in a single PCIe card, for around $500-600. It's the fastest single-slot card in existence, and it's only a little bit slower than 2 7900GTX cards in SLI. Only downside to the GX2 is that I hear it runs pretty hot. Still a great deal, being about $350 less than 2 7900GTX cards.
I think the investment is more than worth it. You get way faster frame rates in games and apps, which makes for an overall smoother experience.
I have SLI running at home, its nice because I have two monitors and each card does the processing for that monitor. Before I had SLI I could only run games on one monitor and not move them to the other(while playing), now I can... how neat is that? Not very. I would put my money in one good PCI-e card not two.
Most games aren't optimized for SLI yet, so you get only moderate frame rate boosts for the extra money you're spending. Instead of getting two 6600gts in SLI for example, you should get a 7900gt.
Check out this page for an example:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/05/24/vga_charts_vi/page8.html
Two 6800gts in SLI only get 20 fps better than a single 6800gt.
notman, SLI is not PCIe
SLI is nVidias dual card setup, ATI's equivalent is called Crossfire.
[/ QUOTE ]
DOH, yeah, I knew that but had a terrible brain fart... man I need more sleep these days. I still take his post as meaning PCIe, but saying SLI... like I did in my reply.
If you're asking if you should go for Dual SLI, then I would say no, it's not worth the extra. I've also been hearing that they haven't worked the wrinkles out of Dual SLI yet. I just bought a dual SLI, but only because it was an open box item that was selling for the same price as a regular PCIe mobo. I'm just hoping it will work if I ever add an additional video card (I have an ATI 1600pro, which supports crossover)
There are far more games that are optimized for SLI now, and there are solid drivers to support it.
6800's are already a dying line, anyways. Popping in 2 7900GTX cards in SLI would be double the framerate, easily. 2 7900GTX's cards are actually MORE than double what my 6800GT OC 420/1.15 can do. If you want the best, it's certainly not cheap. But it's worth it, if that's what you're into.
As I said, the 7950GX2 card is a great deal. A single SLI PCIe card. Two GPUs, one slot, cheap.
6800's are already a dying line, anyways. Popping in 2 7900GTX cards in SLI would be double the framerate, easily. 2 7900GTX's cards are actually MORE than double what my 6800GT OC 420/1.15 can do. If you want the best, it's certainly not cheap. But it's worth it, if that's what you're into.
[/ QUOTE ]
Are you ready to re-evaluate your statement?
http://it-review.net/index.php?option=co...mp;limitstart=1
basically ive built a comp befor, but it wasnt great and needed alot of fiddling. i need this now and cant get it wrong, as i have freelance deadlines ETC so thats why im buying it built.
this is the best deal that ive found.
The GFX cards arnt the best, but these are an easy upgrade, and hey from what im running at the mo its a big leap forward. + ill be getting 2gig ram
what do you think? anyone know of better deal in £££££ please
I built one for somebody last November and it died about two months ago because the chipset fan died (and killed the chipset). ASUS isn't alone though, I've read the same about some MSI boards also.
Anyways, to help assure you won't have a problem, I suggest upgrading that board.I noticed they had an upgrade option that uses heatpipes for the chipset. Also, I'd personally prefer something before for the optical drive. Just a basic DVD player doesn't cut it for me. I should have a DVD burner... if not dual layer DVD burn.
I do think you should be able to get a better deal if you put it together yourself though, especially since you've done it before.
ive got dual layer dvd writter already so im just gonna stick that in.
cheers for the heads up on the board ill look into that. shouldnt be a prob though, ive bought stuff off them befor and they seam to know what theyre doing.
Most of the games are 30-60fps higher in most cases, and with further optimiations and drivers, they will be even higher.
In particular, look at the score differances when you are using high AA and AF - the SLI framerate is nearly double that of the non SLI. That's not too shabby!
whats sli ? im kinda nonety to pc specs..eheh...Are AMD athlons ok ?
[/ QUOTE ]
With the risk of starting a CPU war...
Yes, athlons are ok. Though there are some faster chips out there right now, an athlon will get you the speeds you need ^.^
Intel just released their new one, called core duo 2 if im right, and they are cheaper / faster then amds. (even tho amds are great cpus too)
About Asus motherboards, i have a terrible eperience with em... i melted two motherboards of the same model by plugging smthg in the front usb ports. But its maybe just that model, however im not going to check it myself
And about SLI, i wouldnt try it myself, as it's kind of expensive, and i do not need the extra fps. Also, i read that the single sli nvidia card had some video issues at the time, like AA not working properly. Dunno if they didnt fix it however, but i would avoid it as well.
Anyway, i think SLI is for the hardcore gamer, or the ppl who wants to brag. I think you want to work Shep (?), not play Crysis @ 100 FPS
btw. i use an intel/ibm mobo these days as well. that works, but i still sometimes get the panic when plugging usb-devices in. asus nightmares.
MSI still seems to be pretty good also, even though I had an issue with my MSI board. Capacitors started exploding on it... literally. I found out afterwards that many manufacturers used the same caps though, so it wasn't necessarily MSI's fault. Some capacitor company had been ripping off the industry. I replaced the caps myself and it's been running fine since.
As for AMD/Intel... AMD has always performed great for me. It's what I've always used in my desktops since they appeared on the market. My laptop is an Intel and to be honest, I've notice nothing special from it to make me rethink which brand I should use. In the CPU wars, I say just let your wallet guide you. Most people aren't going to be able to afford the new Intels for a budget machine. And hell, if you were going to wait for the new Intels, then why not wait for the Quad cores?
Again though, if you go ASUS, I really can emphasize enough how you should get one without a chipset fan. It seems to be the weakest link in most computers that I've seen these days... as far as causes of failures.
You would be lucky to get a single high end card run stable on it let alone two.
And right now Conroe is the way to go for cheap performance.