Building a computer online- two vid cards with SLI or single

[CannonballGB]

So I'm building a "custom" computer online. Should I get dual NVIDIA Geforce 7600 GS 256MB's and use the SLI or one NVIDIA Geforce 7600 GT 256MB? And how hard would it be to set up the SLI if I were to use that?

Thanks

 

[shadowduck]

So I'm building a "custom" computer online. Should I get dual NVIDIA Geforce 7600 GS 256MB's and use the SLI or one NVIDIA Geforce 7600 GT 256MB? And how hard would it be to set up the SLI if I were to use that?

Thanks

Instead of SLI 7600 GSs try and get a 7900GT, it will be faster than either of those setups.

 

[CannonballGB]

Also have a question on mobos. What's the difference between this EVGA nForce4 SLI Chipset SATA RAID Dual PCI-E Mainboard w/GbLAN,USB2.0,&7.1Audio and ASUS A8N-SLI nForce4 SLI Chipset SATA RAID Dual PCIE MB w/Gb-LAN,USB2.0,IEEE-1394,&7.1Audio?

 

[shadowduck]

Also have a question on mobos. What's the difference between this EVGA nForce4 SLI Chipset SATA RAID Dual PCI-E Mainboard w/GbLAN,USB2.0,&7.1Audio and ASUS A8N-SLI nForce4 SLI Chipset SATA RAID Dual PCIE MB w/Gb-LAN,USB2.0,IEEE-1394,&7.1Audio?

The eVGA board acutally works. AVOID the Asus A8N-SLI boards, they are horrible. Looks liek the Asus board has firewire where the eVGA doesn't.

 

[moparman390]

Get one 7900GT, that's your best bet. You can get a good one for around $289 and would be alot better then either setup there.

 

[CannonballGB]

Also have a question on mobos. What's the difference between this EVGA nForce4 SLI Chipset SATA RAID Dual PCI-E Mainboard w/GbLAN,USB2.0,&7.1Audio and ASUS A8N-SLI nForce4 SLI Chipset SATA RAID Dual PCIE MB w/Gb-LAN,USB2.0,IEEE-1394,&7.1Audio?

The eVGA board acutally works. AVOID the Asus A8N-SLI boards, they are horrible. Looks liek the Asus board has firewire where the eVGA doesn't.
Since I'm not doing any video editing or anything like that, will I need the firewire for anything? I intend to use this computer for gaming and school work.

Thanks for the replies, it's a big help.

 

[jaguarskx]

Since I'm not doing any video editing or anything like that, will I need the firewire for anything? I intend to use this computer for gaming and school work.

Thanks for the replies, it's a big help.

Nope, not really.

There are firewire external hard drives that you can use, but that's about it.

 

[CannonballGB]

Alright, so here's what I have now. I have around a $1500 budget. It's my graduation present and the system I'll be using when I go to college. And no, I don't want a laptop.

CASE: X-Cruiser Mid-Tower 420W Case W/ WINDOW, MultiMeter Display & Control
CPU: (939-pin) AMD Athlon™64 X2 3800+ Dual-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
MOTHERBOARD: EVGA nForce4 SLI Chipset SATA RAID Dual PCI-E Mainboard w/GbLAN, USB2.0, &7.1Audio
MEMORY: 1024 MB (512MBx2) PC3200 400MHz Dual Channel DDR MEMORY (Corsair Value Select)
VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA Geforce 7900 GT 256MB 16X PCI Express Video Card
HARD DRIVE: 250GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8M Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive -- Recommended
Optical Drive: LG GWA-4161 16X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER
Optical Drive 2: 16X DVD ROM
SOUND: Creative Labs SB AUDIGY 4 SE
Keyboard: Logitech G15
Mouse: Logitech MX518
Headphones/headset: Turtle Beach Ear Force HPA

This all comes to $1470 not including shipping.

Let me know what you think. Thanks.

 

[shadowduck]

Alright, so here's what I have now. I have around a $1500 budget. It's my graduation present and the system I'll be using when I go to college. And no, I don't want a laptop.

CASE: X-Cruiser Mid-Tower 420W Case W/ WINDOW, MultiMeter Display & Control
CPU: (939-pin) AMD Athlon™64 X2 3800+ Dual-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
MOTHERBOARD: EVGA nForce4 SLI Chipset SATA RAID Dual PCI-E Mainboard w/GbLAN, USB2.0, &7.1Audio
MEMORY: 1024 MB (512MBx2) PC3200 400MHz Dual Channel DDR MEMORY (Corsair Value Select)
VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA Geforce 7900 GT 256MB 16X PCI Express Video Card
HARD DRIVE: 250GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8M Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive -- Recommended
Optical Drive: LG GWA-4161 16X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER
Optical Drive 2: 16X DVD ROM
SOUND: Creative Labs SB AUDIGY 4 SE
Keyboard: Logitech G15
Mouse: Logitech MX518
Headphones/headset: Turtle Beach Ear Force HPA

This all comes to $1470 not including shipping.

Let me know what you think. Thanks.

Not bad- I would try to get 2GB of RAM if you can. For the mouse get the Logitech G5 (or G7 if you like wireless) the best mouse EVER for gaming (or anything really).

 

[invictus25]

for one, i would suggest that u use 1X1 gig of ram or if u have some extra cash, 2x1gig of ram... next, u can also consider ati x1900xt for the g card...lastly, u might consider improving on the psu. ur system might not be stable with such a setup with limited power...mayb 480 or 500 watts would do... of course, there are also other things to consider when getting a psu. u might wanna ask some of the experts on that...but i feel that 420 is just not enough...

 

[invictus25]

For the mouse get the Logitech G5 (or G7 if you like wireless) the best mouse EVER for gaming (or anything really).

i think razer copperhear still rocks! with 2000dpi, and 1000hz of polling rate (thx to the gold plated USB connection) and on-board memory and many more features that u will just love to have in a gaming mouse...

 

[nigelf]

CPU: (939-pin) AMD Athlon™64 X2 3800+ Dual-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology

You might want to use an opty 165 or 170 and overclock them (they do that really well)

 

[sojrner]

The eVGA board acutally works. AVOID the Asus A8N-SLI boards, they are horrible. Looks liek the Asus board has firewire where the eVGA doesn't.

just for a contrasting opinion: IMO Asus is the better maker. I have been a fan for 4 years now and built many w/ them. None have had issues. Solid performers and Asus has MUCH better email/customer support than most. Their website sucks, but they trat you right in email for fixes/rma's.

also, I think for the $ that 7900 is a great card. Not sure where the x1900gto will fall next to it (whenever is hits retail/etail) but for now that 7900gt is great at that price. Closest ati to it is the 1800xt, which is better overall quality (picture) but still cant complain about that 7900.

I also have the mx518, its a great mouse. much better $ that the G series, but not laser. Still great performer.

I would second the idea of getting 2 gigs of ram. (2x1 gig not 4x512) you will see better performance in newer games like fear or even bf2 that simply EAT ram. Less page file swapping.

Another idea would be if you plan on headphone gaming alot (i assume w/ those 'phones) I would get the x-fi over the audigy4. If it is too much $ then save up while using the onboard until you can get the x-fi. It will make your 'phones sound so much better! Just a thought though, it's your $ man. Overall good system though.

 

[CannonballGB]

for one, i would suggest that u use 1X1 gig of ram or if u have some extra cash, 2x1gig of ram... next, u can also consider ati x1900xt for the g card...lastly, u might consider improving on the psu. ur system might not be stable with such a setup with limited power...mayb 480 or 500 watts would do... of course, there are also other things to consider when getting a psu. u might wanna ask some of the experts on that...but i feel that 420 is just not enough...

Don't know why it didn't include this in the system summary, but I upraded to a 500 watt power supply. I learned that 400 and 450 watt supplies suck the hard way.

Since I found the turtle beach headset on newegg for a bit cheaper than on their website, I'll probably invest the money I saved into more RAM. Not sure if I'll have enough money for 2 X 1 gig, I'll probably just got with 4 X 512.

 

[CannonballGB]

Alright, so here's what I have now. I have around a $1500 budget. It's my graduation present and the system I'll be using when I go to college. And no, I don't want a laptop.

CASE: X-Cruiser Mid-Tower 420W Case W/ WINDOW, MultiMeter Display & Control
CPU: (939-pin) AMD Athlon™64 X2 3800+ Dual-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
MOTHERBOARD: EVGA nForce4 SLI Chipset SATA RAID Dual PCI-E Mainboard w/GbLAN, USB2.0, &7.1Audio
MEMORY: 1024 MB (512MBx2) PC3200 400MHz Dual Channel DDR MEMORY (Corsair Value Select)
VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA Geforce 7900 GT 256MB 16X PCI Express Video Card
HARD DRIVE: 250GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8M Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive -- Recommended
Optical Drive: LG GWA-4161 16X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER
Optical Drive 2: 16X DVD ROM
SOUND: Creative Labs SB AUDIGY 4 SE
Keyboard: Logitech G15
Mouse: Logitech MX518
Headphones/headset: Turtle Beach Ear Force HPA

This all comes to $1470 not including shipping.

Let me know what you think. Thanks.

Not bad- I would try to get 2GB of RAM if you can. For the mouse get the Logitech G5 (or G7 if you like wireless) the best mouse EVER for gaming (or anything really).
I think I'll be fine with the MX518. I've played tons of games just fine with my IBM optical mouse. The G5 and G7 are just too expensive.

 

[waylander]

I have to also suggest the 2 x 1gb vs the 4 x 512mb. It's not just about how much memory but also about the speed at which it communicates with your other components. They may all be PC3200 but that's just the speed at which it can operate, in this case it is not the bottleneck. With 4 dimms instead of 2 your command rate will default to 2T instead of 1T. Basically even if you have the same amount of physical ram you can't access it as quickly.

If you want to save money so that you can upgrade to the 2 x 1gb ram then get a non sli motherboard. You never said that you wanted SLI and in this case you may want to get a non sli board. That second slot may be nice in the future for something like a physix card but....

 

[invictus25]

I have to also suggest the 2 x 1gb vs the 4 x 512mb. It's not just about how much memory but also about the speed at which it communicates with your other components. They may all be PC3200 but that's just the speed at which it can operate, in this case it is not the bottleneck. With 4 dimms instead of 2 your command rate will default to 2T instead of 1T. Basically even if you have the same amount of physical ram you can't access it as quickly.

If you want to save money so that you can upgrade to the 2 x 1gb ram then get a non sli motherboard. You never said that you wanted SLI and in this case you may want to get a non sli board. That second slot may be nice in the future for something like a physix card but....

couldnt agree more...it;s not about the total amount of them memory... because 2 stick of 1 gig definitely communicates better than 4 sticks of 512...that's y i suggest that if u are trying to save, get 1 stick of 1 gig first...then when u have extra cash, get another stick of 1 gig. btw, a stick of 1 gig works fine for me (now i have 2 gig tho). it is more than sufficient despite playing many high end games.

someone else posted in the forum about the peak commit charge in the task manager. if the number is less than 1 gig, u should be doing okay with one gig ram. and i realise that even after upgrading mine to 2 gig, my peak commit charge hardly reaches 1 gig. almost reaching 1 gig but not there yet.

IE, if i were u, i will just buy 1 X1g ram first

 

[CannonballGB]

So I'm building a "custom" computer online. Should I get dual NVIDIA Geforce 7600 GS 256MB's and use the SLI or one NVIDIA Geforce 7600 GT 256MB? And how hard would it be to set up the SLI if I were to use that?

Thanks

Both suck. For the price of dual 7600, you can get a 7900GT or X1800XT, which will KILL dual 7600. Only get SLI if you're getting two 7900s.

I would recommend getting a good power supply. Usually, power supplies that come with cases suck, and you will regret using them. A good quality 450W PSU will be more than enough.
Yeah, I'm going with the 7900. I also added earlier that the originial system configuration had a 500 watt power supply but for some reason it didn't include it in the system summary. Again, thanks for the replies.

 

[shadowduck]

Alright, so here's what I have now. I have around a $1500 budget. It's my graduation present and the system I'll be using when I go to college. And no, I don't want a laptop.

CASE: X-Cruiser Mid-Tower 420W Case W/ WINDOW, MultiMeter Display & Control
CPU: (939-pin) AMD Athlon™64 X2 3800+ Dual-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
MOTHERBOARD: EVGA nForce4 SLI Chipset SATA RAID Dual PCI-E Mainboard w/GbLAN, USB2.0, &7.1Audio
MEMORY: 1024 MB (512MBx2) PC3200 400MHz Dual Channel DDR MEMORY (Corsair Value Select)
VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA Geforce 7900 GT 256MB 16X PCI Express Video Card
HARD DRIVE: 250GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8M Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive -- Recommended
Optical Drive: LG GWA-4161 16X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER
Optical Drive 2: 16X DVD ROM
SOUND: Creative Labs SB AUDIGY 4 SE
Keyboard: Logitech G15
Mouse: Logitech MX518
Headphones/headset: Turtle Beach Ear Force HPA

This all comes to $1470 not including shipping.

Let me know what you think. Thanks.

Not bad- I would try to get 2GB of RAM if you can. For the mouse get the Logitech G5 (or G7 if you like wireless) the best mouse EVER for gaming (or anything really).
I think I'll be fine with the MX518. I've played tons of games just fine with my IBM optical mouse. The G5 and G7 are just too expensive.

MX518 $39
G5- $44

Plus the G5 comes with adjustable weights .

 

[sojrner]

my problem w/ the g5 is the new button placement. It is a great mouse but I like the "forward" and "back" buttons on the left side like the mx518. The g5 only has one on the side, the "back" button and no others. The only good thing I like about the g5 is the removal of the application button. on the mx518 it is right on top and too easy to hit. (just works like alt-tab) but annoying until you get used to it.

the g5 just doesn't have enough buttons for me though, laser or not. I like my 518.

 

[shadowduck]

my problem w/ the g5 is the new button placement. It is a great mouse but I like the "forward" and "back" buttons on the left side like the mx518. The g5 only has one on the side, the "back" button and no others. The only good thing I like about the g5 is the removal of the application button. on the mx518 it is right on top and too easy to hit. (just works like alt-tab) but annoying until you get used to it.

the g5 just doesn't have enough buttons for me though, laser or not. I like my 518.

I miss my second button! Oh well, just a minor thing for me, I go back most of the time anyway.