The Official Budget-Conscious Dream Machine!

Ebuyer are prone for having stuff arrive one or two days late, but apart from that they're not bad, they're very cheap (usually they're only beaten often by Scan), while they're website's not great it's liveable, and their tech support do actually answer calls... eventually!

 

hey guys i have noticed that most of crossfire/Sli mobo have 1x PCI-E x16 and 1 x PCI-E x4? why won't that be slower compared to 2x PCI-E x16? I just wanted to know

 

It will indeed. The top end SLi boards have a double bandwidth chipset so they can run 16x and 16x together. A lot of boards will typically have 16x but share it between the slots (16x if you use one, 8x for each if you're using both). It's another of the downsides to dual graphics.

 

so there is a difference, that sucks then why bother having dual gpu, since it won't be running a full speed...don't get it, but if having high end pc then it's quite good like this one:

http://www.sybaritic.co.za/store/product_info.php?cPath=81_226&products_id=14505

how much do you guys give for this board? I give it 8.5/10

 

btu if your going dual GPu, you'd obviously have a high end mobo, aka x38, for xfire. which has two 16x lanes

 

gtr:
get this if you want dual graphics...
http://www.sybaritic.co.za/store/product_info.php?cPath=81_226&products_id=13555

 

Yeah but one slot is 4x.

 

From what I hear though that doesn't really seem to make much difference...

 

Dude I asked you the same freakin thing you said that it will screw up crossfire.

 

Yeah well my bad on that one, I've just done some reading on it, can't find any major complaints.

 

Well that's good so I don't need to get a X38 chipset board now. That should have me about 70 bucks lol.

 

I just looked it up and the conclusion is DON'T USE THE 4X PCI-E SLOT!

 

Hmm, maybe this affects newer graphics cards. The X1900XT takes a 25% performance hit in a 2x slot, and a 5% hit in a 4x slot. I suppose the amount of bandwidth used really has gone up in the new generation.

 

As cards get more powerful they also use more bandwidth. That's why PCI-E 2 was needed. Sure no cars use all 16x of bandwidth but we're getting there.

 

Of course, in a BUDGET PC thread, Crossfire/SLI should be academic anyway.

 

It's budget CONSCIOUS. I mean you can build a Xfire system for about 1400. I've seen some people spend over 5.5 thousand so I guess 1400 might be budget conscious for those people lol.

 

Realistically though, when do you see a build for over 1200 in this thread?

 

@Sam
My "budget" dream machine is over lol!

ok guys, can someone build me a Extreame Budget machine and extreame power concious machine, not for gaming, for like 24/7 downloading, web surfing.

 

the thing is, you wont need an EXTREME system for that. BUT if you do, then get the intel skull trail. (if you do, please remember to use folding, as it will help ALOT.

 

well i dont know what would consist of a budget machine?each person has his own budget. but i think the build im in the middle of right now would fit you GTR35. what you say you want it for is exactly what i plan on useing it for plus burning dvds like theres no tomorrow.

GA-P35-DS3R = MOBO
E8400 cpu
2gb crucial ballistic mem
EVGA 256-P2-N615-TX GeForce 7600GT 256MB
really your choice of case
seagate 250gb sata HDD
only $653

i allready had a PSU and CPU cooler (not that you would need one of those)