SLI, Crossfire or Neither advice for new build please.

Hi guys,
I am planning a new gaming rig and like most people im on a budget.
I have decided to go for an intel E6750 (or possibly something lower down but O'clocked).
I have read that its best to stick to intel chipsets such as p35 for an intel CPU but the chipset would also decide whether I go with SLI or Crossfire. This would be with a view for expansion if needed further down the line. It also affects my PSU choice unless i change that later aswell. Further more I have read that there is often poor Game/driver support for multiple GPU's especially with crossfire. (that bit confusses me a little)

Anyway, I am finding M/B choice to be difficult enough as it is so my qustions are:

Should I focus on a single GPU board with an intel chipset and probably an 8800GT G/fix card and be confident all will be fine?
Or, dont worry too much about the chipset and go for either SLI support or crossfire support.
Also, should I be worrying about choosing PCI-Ex16(ver 2)or not.

Thanks in advance
Byngo.

 

Your best option right now:
CPU: E6750
Motherboard: Gigabyte P35-DS3R
RAM: 2x1GB corsair XMS2 PC6400 CAS4
Graphics: nvidia Geforce 9600GT <SINGLE CARD>
Power supply: Corsair HX 520W

 

that a good choice you got the sam. I would also recommend that build...well thats like the "Afterdawn Budget build" LOL!

 

Yeah, it's pretty much "the official afterdawn build"

 

Thanks for your responses,
Two further questions,
If I could stretch to a Q6600, would I see much advantage for gaming over the E6750 not bothered too much about benchmarks for other stuff.
Also, you said ,"right now my best bet is"
That leads me to ponder what I should be waiting for, to buy the new wolfdales or am i waiting for a price drop on the previous because of the new models??
Thanks again.
Oh shxt, one other question, I have a nearly new 250Gig PATA HDD, is it practical to get a PCI IDE controller card so I could use it an internal storage drive. (The IDE on the board will be used for two DVD RW drives)

 

To the first: A quad core won't be quite as fast as a dual currently, but in a year or so's time it will be more worthwhile.

Second: yes, that's a good solution.

 

thanks, its an e6750 then.

 

I'm curious. Why are E6750, and E6850 processors being recommended over the E8xxx series? From what I know they're better processors in I think every aspect at very similar prices, so what's the point of buying the 6xxx series these days???

 

You can actually find them lol, and they're half the price. In the UK an E8400 is £200, versus £125 for an E6750.

 

and the only difference is the cache size.

 

Er... no.
Go find some benchmarks

 

what i mean is that one has more cache than the other, not the performance difference, and E8400 is a 45nm chip!

 

And the clock speed difference as well.

 

oh right forgot about that.

By the way, why more cache the better? what does the cache do?

 

holy crap there's that big of a price difference for you guys? that sux... I bought my E8400 for 189.99 which is essentially the same price as the 6xxx series! Not trying to rub it in or anything...

 

Hey im thinking of updating my pc with

780i
E8800 (if newegg gets more)
sli 8800GT x2

how much power do you think i would need? do you think I should go with watercooling my cpu to gry past the 4ghz or just leave it at that? and is the SLI worth it?

 

Um, you mean the E8400? There is no E8800...

SLIing 8800GT cards isn't worth it imo. Believe it or not, it is actually worth it with 9600GTs, since they pull proper figures in most games. As for the CPU at 4Ghz, it's doable on air cooling, and in your case should be relatively easy, but you'll needa cooler of Thermalright Ultra-120 performance.

 

yeah i meant the E8400, and I was thinking of watercooling it to get to 4.5ghz

 

I personally think you'd have to be quite lucky to make 4.5 out of one, but you could certainly get above 4 gigs with watercooling, for sure.

 

well following my original post, and thanks again for the advice, I have semi-completed my new build to the point it is up and running with compromised GFX for now. (PSU and CPU cooler upgrade in pipeline too. Still not sure about SLI but its there if I want it).
See my sig.
By the way I got the E8400 in the UK for £130 over the counter.
Not done much testing and no O/clock yet but it plays Crysis well enough at medium settings.