The Official PC building thread!

SLi is scalable link interface, basically allows two nVidia graphics cards to get slightly better performance. Unless you're a hardcore gamer, it's best avoided. In most instances you're looking at 20% performance increase not 100. Expensive for what you get.

 

And it's 50-70% in most games? Hmm, that's not what I've seen. For the midrange cards, SLi actually has a reasonable effect, such as two 7600GTs, but for anything higher it doesn't do that well, in some games, SLi actually decreases performance.

 

What about the 7900's don't they make those cards?

Wow thats a ton of money for a graphix card thats a 360 right there!!

 

Nephilim , your right the SLI cards are very nice thats what i put in my new build (per my sig) great card!!

 

Well it's pretty clear that this argument isn't going anywhere fast in my favour.....
Taken from the Toms Hardware Graphics card buyer's guide

Age of Empires 3:

7800GT: 70.1 single, 70.1 SLi or 51.4 single, 51.3 SLi or 42.6 single, 42.7 SLi or 29.7 single, 29.7 SLi
6800GS: 44.6 single, 44.6 SLi or 31.9 single, 31.9 SLi or 26.4 single, 26.4 SLi or 18.0 single, 18.0 SLi
OK, but that's just one game that SLi doesn't work at all in, I'll be the first to admit that. However, there's no denying that such a game (alongside others) exists.

Black & White 2:

7800GT; 40.7 single, 50.8 SLi or 34.2 single, 47.5 SLi or 31.0 single, 44.9 SLi or 24.4 single, 37.3 SLi
6800GS: 29.6 single, 48.9 SLi or 23.4 single, 40.2 SLi or 20.9 Single, 34.0 SLi or 15.7 single, 26.3 SLi
Not too shabby here, I make the 7800GT's average performance increase 40.4%, and the 6800GS' average 66.8%

That's two games, I don't intend to go and do that for every game on the THG benchmark, but I think it illustrates the idea well, there are some games like B&W2 that do indeed work well with SLi, but there are others that don't such as AOE3. Imagine the disappointment you get when adding a second graphics card does absolutely nowt to performance in your favourite game...

 

OK, not naming names here, but I've had a tip-off my anti-SLi rants are causing a little stir with my name on it. Sure, go for SLi, I'm not going to murder you, but I'll have no more say on the subject.

 

Hey everyone,

What do you think about this deal?...

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7874222&type=product&id=1149040474235

It's like $830 bucks after rebate. Not too bad. This system is pretty loaded. 320 gb hard drive, 2 gb ram, 4200+ dual core processor, etc. Only thing it would really need is a much better graphics card.

 

I cant figure out motherboard brand from any links. You could make something a little better for the same price, but a friend of mine bought nearly the same thing then put an ATI video card in it because it had ATI chipset (you have NVIDIA maybe want to think about that if upgrading) and it screams!!!

 

okay i was looking through newegg.com and i picked out some stuff. was wondering if this would work for games. dont need SLi or anything they just need to run lol.

processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103562 (same as before as long as price drops)$170

mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131569 $73

graphics: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814131007 $100

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145486 $180

HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148105 $65

PSU:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817148004 (looks pretty cool lol and seems to get good ratings) $60

as for optical drives i ahve some of those

total thats $650 + monitor

 

that CPU is going to drop in price in about two weeks to 160.00 so i would wait till then.

everything looks good but i would go with a better mobo the ASUS A8N32-SLI Premium MB Socket 939 and a better power supply Antec-TruePower550-Watt

 

the thing is some of the things on there say weekend special so i hope the prices dont shoot up while im waiting for the processor to drop in price.

whats the difference in the two mobos and power supplies besides SLi capable and could you provide a link to a specific one? >_> i said i dont need SLi and is 50W really gonna make a diff?

 

Wow, two build queries at once, this thread is busy at the moment!

As for that $899 system, it seems good, but I don't like the sound of it's BTX-ness. I don't know a lot about it, but in a premade system like that I'd expect some hiccup along the way whilst upgrading it so you may want to be careful. In the end the PSU's going to want changing if you're adding a decent graphics card so that's at least two components you're changing, and by that time, it doesn't seem quite such a good deal.



As for the list of components, yes, but as mentioned, wait until the X2 price drop. Such is the nature of the computer industry that special offers aren't ever huge discounts, so you should be relatively safe in waiting, something else may even have lowered in price by then. The A8N5X is pretty good, and unless you want SLi (of course with an ATi card you wouldn't) is exactly the board I'd recommend if you're not an uber-power user. I chose an A8N-SLi SE because they have them in the UK (but not the US), not because I'll use SLi, but because they're just fabulous boards, but to be honest, the A8N5X is more than adequate. The Powercolor X800GTO is a bit of a pikey card from experience, it lacks basic things like a variable speed fan and temperature sensor, and I know one of the two my friend received is faulty, you may want to find a sapphire version instead that uses the stock cooler and has proper features. The X800GTO part is good, the Powercolor part isn't.

RAM is good, HDD is good, not sure on the power supply. Looks good from the reviews, and I know that theonejrs has an Aspire unit that he's impressed with. There's no escaping the fact that it's cheap, but on the experience of others, that doesn't sound like a problem. Be sure to get a case to show it off though, it looks the nuts!
The Antec 550W isn't so much as "you need more watts" although that is important, but Antec is a more respected name of PSU. However, given the experience of other people, I actually wouldn't hesitate to recommend that Aspire PSU,despite my old PC being semi-demolished by a cheap PSU, there is a quality aspect to Aspire Power supplies.

SLi ready on a PSU generally means it can put out lots of power in a stable manner, which is nice to know, that's about it really.

 

ok i picked out a diff graphics card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102014

lemme know what you think

 

If you can manage this, this is MUCH better.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102684

The X1600Pro isn't one of ATi's finest hours, in fact the whole RV530 isn't, an X1600Pro is bested by an X800GTO in numerous cases, and this one has 512MB of RAM.

 

ooo taht 1 looks good must have missed it when scrolling down search list lol.

 

heh yeah, and despite the manufacturer's blurb saying otherwise, these ones have 16 pipelines unlocked and ready to go!

 

uhhhhh... >_> <_< whats a pipeline?

 

A set of connections that graphics commands run down. The more you have the better the card will perform, and more to the point, the better the card will perform in the future.