AngelDeath82
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- Jan 7, 2006
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First, the Striker Extreme only has 6 expansion slots (3x PCIe x16 - 2 used by your 8800GTX's, 1 used by the Areca RAID card; 1x PCIe x1 - not used; 2x PCI - 4 used by your X-Fi, KillerNIC, PhysX card and TV Tuner card) meaning that you have 2 too many PCI devices. The slot above your video card is only usable by the ASUS SupremeFX audio card.
Second, you do realize that you will require a water-cooling setup in the machine to take advantage of the single-slot GeForce 8800GTX's, right? If you don't implement a water-cooling setup for them, they will fry. If you're not going to use water cooling, then you will need the standard BFG 8800GTX's which are dual-slot, and will lose 2 slots (one PCI, one PCIe x1).
Third, if you are going to spend ~$1500+ on a RAID setup, make it RAID 5. Otherwise you are wasting the ~$500+ RAID controller card using it for a RAID 0. Better yet, use 2x 150GB Raptors in RAID-0 for system on the nVidia controller, then use the Areca for a 4-drive RAID-5 of Seagate Barracuda 7200.10's of 320GB+ capacity.
Fourth, rather than dropping $250+ on a "Killer NIC", I would suggest looking at some of the Intel Pro/1000 Server network cards, as you can probably find one for cheaper with better support (and likely better optimized TCP/IP offload functionality).
Fifth, wait on the PhysX... until you get about 6 months from now, you won't know what Physics technology is going to become mainstream (assuming it will even be one of the current ones ...). With the Ageia using the PhysX implementation, and ATI and nVidia both buying into the Havok implementation via a tertiary video card running on a x8 lane, it's not worth $250+ without knowing if it will actually be of much use long-term.
Sixth, you won't actually be able to get Vista until Jan. 30/2007, so you may want to purchase a copy of XP MCE/XP Pro with an "Express Upgrade" coupon to assist in your migration to Vista.
UPDATE:
You could probably find the Intel Server network cards in a PCIe x1 variant, which would bring you down to one unsupported PCI card in your build.
END UPDATE
Just my $0.02.
dean7
Distinguished
- Aug 15, 2006
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Well, CUDA does more than physics processing, but, yes, that's one of it's applications. Read more on it here if you like:
http://developer.nvidia.com/object/cuda.html
Anyway, the point is: PhysX has like 3 games that support it (last time I checked, maybe it's taking off but I doubt it). As soon as nVidia/ATI are like "gee, I guess we will do physics processing", every game made will support it, and the PhysX will be an unpleasant memory (maybe one of them will buy Ageia or something).
Since the G80 has CUDA built in to it, it seems like this is in the works now. So, buying PhysX + G80 (especially in SLI) is pointless.
chuckshissle
Splendid
- Feb 2, 2006
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The 8800 has quantum physics so that would be good enough. And besides I think that PhysX card will slow down the system anyways.
rodney_ws
Splendid
- Dec 29, 2005
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Just repeating what someone above this post said... you DO realize you'll need a water cooling system... in other words, the only thing special about that card is that it's already got a water block on it... you'll still need a pump, tubing, a raditor, etc...
Let's be honest... does anyone think this guy is REALLY going to buy all of this?
RyanMicah
Distinguished
- Oct 13, 2006
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I didn't know they incorporated going from point a to point b without going in between. That's amazing! Will the card help me time travel as well or just insta-travel? 😛
Actually, I haven't done much research on the 8800 cards yet. They really come with a water block? I hope it's a good one as I prefer to go quality on things I buy.
A PhysX card can increase productivity! If you jam it into your butt crack you may find you spend less time sitting around. To get back to being lazy, find a chair with a hole in the middle. Try the bathroom. The PhysX card belongs in the pooper. 😛
- Sep 28, 2006
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First, the Striker Extreme only has 6 expansion slots (3x PCIe x16 - 2 used by your 8800GTX's, 1 used by the Areca RAID card; 1x PCIe x1 - not used; 2x PCI - 4 used by your X-Fi, KillerNIC, PhysX card and TV Tuner card) meaning that you have 2 too many PCI devices. The slot above your video card is only usable by the ASUS SupremeFX audio card.
Second, you do realize that you will require a water-cooling setup in the machine to take advantage of the single-slot GeForce 8800GTX's, right? If you don't implement a water-cooling setup for them, they will fry. If you're not going to use water cooling, then you will need the standard BFG 8800GTX's which are dual-slot, and will lose 2 slots (one PCI, one PCIe x1).
Third, if you are going to spend ~$1500+ on a RAID setup, make it RAID 5. Otherwise you are wasting the ~$500+ RAID controller card using it for a RAID 0. Better yet, use 2x 150GB Raptors in RAID-0 for system on the nVidia controller, then use the Areca for a 4-drive RAID-5 of Seagate Barracuda 7200.10's of 320GB+ capacity.
Fourth, rather than dropping $250+ on a "Killer NIC", I would suggest looking at some of the Intel Pro/1000 Server network cards, as you can probably find one for cheaper with better support (and likely better optimized TCP/IP offload functionality).
Fifth, wait on the PhysX... until you get about 6 months from now, you won't know what Physics technology is going to become mainstream (assuming it will even be one of the current ones ...). With the Ageia using the PhysX implementation, and ATI and nVidia both buying into the Havok implementation via a tertiary video card running on a x8 lane, it's not worth $250+ without knowing if it will actually be of much use long-term.
Sixth, you won't actually be able to get Vista until Jan. 30/2007, so you may want to purchase a copy of XP MCE/XP Pro with an "Express Upgrade" coupon to assist in your migration to Vista.
Just my $0.02.
Thanks, you've been more help than most.
I'm well aware of water cooling.
My set up now is:GIGABYTE "GA-8IK1100" i875P
Swiftech Extreme Duty all-copper MCX159-CU chipset heatsink on the
Northbridge, plus Microcool Silver SouthSink & both Microcool ChipSink
Cooling Kit and microsinks
Intel Prescott 3.2E
Aquagate Water cooling System
OCZ 4GB (4 x 1GB) PC 3200 Dual Channel Platinum System Memory
Supertalent memory cooler
HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X850XT IceQ II Turbo VIVO 256MB AGP
Maxtor 200GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with 8MB Cache
Seagate 200GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with 8MB Cache
CREATIVE Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS
StarTech PCISATA2U5 - Storage / USB2.0 controller - SATA-150 - 150
MSI SATA 52x CDRW/DVD
Benq 1655 DVD-RW with Lightscribe
Logisys FP206BK Black 3.5 Inch LCD Thermal Controller (to monitor Hard
drives)
VANTEC NXP-305-BK Black Fan & Light Controller Panel
Koutech SOHOUSB IO-FPM220 3.5" Floppy Drive & Multi Card Reader Front Panel
Epower Jaguar 450W PSU
Windows XP Pro w/sp2
Dell 1800fp UltraSharp 18" LCD Flat Panel Display
Logitech cordless Laser Mouse
Logitech g-15 back lit gaming keyboard
SuperMax usb 56k modem
Wacom Graphire Digital Tablet & pen
Canon i9900 printer
Microtek v6usl Scanner
Canon Pro1 Digital Camera
and recently available AT&T DSL Pro. Elite isn't available yet.
I usually research a lot before I jump into something and this is research.
I've read reviews that the Killer NIC card isn't worth the expense now but I hoped it's price would drop when I was ready to add it to a system.
The PhysX card? most high-end PC builders include it as an option, and reviews I've read have been promising. I read that the G80 would handle PhysX but then why is it still a build option if it's a redundant technology? I know the obvious answer would be money, but I wish someone like THG would look into it and review it. The PhysX card is still a new idea but if your building a system that will cost several grand then it should still be an option.
As for the Raid card. The December issue of CPU Computer Power User has an article on hardware raid.
"A Necessity Or Novelty?"
Hardware Raid vs Software raid, Regardless of the type of RAID Array they employed, "the Areca hardware controller dominated the ICH7R. In regard to RAID 0 performance, the hardware and software controllers were comparable in Random Access and Read performance and in the various PCMark05 tests, but the hardware controller more than doubled the performance of the ICH7R in the Burst Read and Write Average tests. In RAID 5 configuration, the deltas get even larger, especially in regard to average write performance in which the Areca card offered a 25 fold increase in performance." Also, Velocity Micro includes a raid card in their high end PC builds. So I think they agree.
As for cost? I found the card for a little over $300.00 on line.
I guess if I can wait till this time next year, I've read that PCI Express 2.0 will be equiped on motherboards by next summer, DDR 3 memory is due out next year and Intel on the 45nm in the second half of 2007.
rodney_ws
Splendid
- Dec 29, 2005
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Once you're buying all top-end components and still have money to burn, I guess certain products like that KillerNIC don't seem as wasteful/pointless...
I've never found myself in that situation so I can't really relate. Because that PhysX card uses the PCI bus, it'll be sharing bandwidth with a sound card and possibly that KillerNIC among other things... I just don't think it's a good idea. Believe me... I had high hopes for that card... the only good thing I can say about it is that it was a good wake-up call to NVidia/ATI and as a result we'll probably have better physics in our games. Probably not how the company wanted to be remembered, but that's just how it goes.
I've never found myself in that situation so I can't really relate. Because that PhysX card uses the PCI bus, it'll be sharing bandwidth with a sound card and possibly that KillerNIC among other things... I just don't think it's a good idea. Believe me... I had high hopes for that card... the only good thing I can say about it is that it was a good wake-up call to NVidia/ATI and as a result we'll probably have better physics in our games. Probably not how the company wanted to be remembered, but that's just how it goes.
RyanMicah
Distinguished
- Oct 13, 2006
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I read that the PhysX card actually messed up the physics in a game they were using for the review. It offset the graphics too much. Either the software company didn't know how to use the card, or the card really wasn't necessary. If a current GPU has enough power to do extra calculations, then why bother with another card? If you want more explosions and life-like objects, you just need a more powerful card really. They can always make a check box on the game or application to turn the feature off. If they standardize, they can make it automatically adjust to your hardware setup. They should be doing that anyway. We should be able to get maximum features and graphics, without having to tune our video cards for games. They could just allow a couple of slider bars for graphics/textures vs frame rates and objects vs frame rates. That way if we want more robust explosions at the cost of frame rates we can adjust how the explosion looks, i.e. more debris or more smoke.
AngelDeath82
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- Jan 7, 2006
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Actually, it's i975X... the only chipsets which aren't prefixed with i then suffixed with a capitalized X, Xx, P, Px, G, Gx are the following:
P965
Q965
Q963
G965
In addition, while that board does support 4x PCIe x16 slots, all 4 of them are one right above the other, therefore you would be highly limited in terms of which cards you could install in it. Also, it only has 2x PCI slots, therefore it would not solve his problem due to this very limitation. It also does not support SLI, therefore nullifying it as an option as well.
Synthetickiller
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- Aug 25, 2006
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Mine too, what a rich noob :roll: , anyone who knows anything, knows that the Killer Nic and the Ageia physx are a joke.
Too bad we haven't seen a question asking if you can do "dual audio cards in SLI".
I guess no one's been that "creative" yet. :lol:
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