Is this a good idea?

[Rabidpeanut]

I am going to get myself this motherboard

http://www.sybaritic.co.za/store/product_info.php?cPath=81_231&products_id=7398

Then i am going to get myself one of these

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102671

and then later on when i need a nice 30% performance boost i am getting another

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102671

but this time the crossfire edition.

OR

should i get the crossfire one first and then the other later?

If you know of a better priced/better motherboard i will get that, price is DEFINETLY an issue.

 

[mdd1963]

If you are planning on potentially running Crossfire, you might as well spare yourself the more expensive XTX card and instead opt for the XT instead, as the Crossfire variant is running at the XT's speeds....

($100 extra is alot to pay for 25 more MHz core/mem speed)

If you buy merely the XT now, you might even decide that the 2nd board (one of which must of course be the Crossfire version, at $50 more than the XT) is unnescessary, as even a single 1900XT kicks some serious proverbial framerate butt at all resolutions....

(The Crossfire increases by using two boards was not really that impressive anyway, IMO)

Save potentially $600, and see if you are satisfied with the single card first...most would be!

 

[RichPLS]

The XTX is not a waste since XFire is not like SLI.
It does not downgrade a card to XFire...
S/W evaluates performance of each card at full speed, then distributes the load percentage wise based on performance.
So a XTX CF rig is faster that a XT CF Rig.

 

[RichPLS]

The Asus A8R-MVP I believe is a better board due to the ULi southbridge.

Components I have:
Lian Li PC-60plus Black Aluminum Case (w/TR-3B Black Thermometer/Fan Controller 3.5” bay)
Opteron 175 (2x 2.2 GHz, 2MB cache, Socket 939, .09 micron, E6 stepping, OSA175DAA6CD)
ThermalTake BigWaterSE 12cm liquid cooling system complete kit
Asus A8R-MVP Motherboard (ATI Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire, socket 939, SATA2)
HiS X1800XT Graphics Card (625 MHz/700 MHz OC core/1500 Mhz/1600 MHz OC mem, Dual DL-DVI VIVO 512 MB PCIe)
ATI TV Theater 550 PRO Tuner (PCI TV and FM Tuner)
2x 512MB Corsair Micro Xpert DDR RAM (2-2-2-6-2T (spd 2-2-2-5-1T) TwinXP 1024-3200XL)
2x 74gig Western Digital Raptor Hard Drives RAID-0 (WD740GD RAID0 150gig Boot Drive)
2x 250gig Western Digital Caviar SE16 Hard Drives (WD2500KS storage and data)
Plextor 716AL Black 16x DVD/CD Burner (IDE slot loading type)
Antec TP-II 550 Power Supply (550 Watt ATX12V v2.0 PSU)
Dell 2405FPW 24-inch LCD Monitor (UltraSharp Wide Aspect Flat Panel Display)
Logitech G-15 Gaming Keyboard
Logitech Cordless Optical TrackMan
Case Fans (SilenX 120mm intake, Adda 120mm exhaust blower, SilenX 92mm exhaust and SilenX 80mm Fan)

I get 4,578 marks in 3DMark06 and 9,652 marks in 3DMark05.

 

[mdd1963]

"So a XTX CF rig is faster that a XT CF Rig.
"

I did not realize that, and I formally stand corrected, thanks!

 

[Rabidpeanut]

Thanks for the help rich, i am doing this so that i can get a nice cheap performance boost somewhere along the line as card prices drop like inexperienced para-troopers. Will look for the Asus A8R-MVP though from using my A8V deluxe i am suspicious of asus at the moment, but if you say so i'll try it.

OH NO!

http://www.sybaritic.co.za/store/advanced_search_result.php?osCsid=6a349168b8a0d826050133bd531e09c2&search_in_description=1&keywords=Asus+A8R-MVP&osCsid=6a349168b8a0d826050133bd531e09c2&x=0&y=0

DAMMIT!

WHY!?

I *HATE* SOUTH AFRICA!

It just happens that this year is the year for 21st birthdays for all my friend and i am already broke, and my friends are assholes, they give shitty gifts.
I just bought a guy a 160 gig hdd for his b day and some other guy and his twin Anime(i hate anime) figurines, and a bike form myself, i am likely never going to afford this. No good deed goes unpunished. SCHPER!

 

[dvdpiddy]

i like sli it's much more mature and stable

 

[dvdpiddy]

but if your gonna go crossfire fine by me just remember that a new 7900gtx is about to launch

 

[Rabidpeanut]

Looking at the price of the 7800gtx, there is no way i can afford the 7900 and i like to go for the top of the line, plus that arrival should bump down the price of the x1900xtx.

 

[RichPLS]

With current games combined with the desire for full eyecandy and high res grafix if there are two top cards that do it, but one costs $200 less, and has more features, why pay more for less???
Currently the 7800GTX 512 won't arrive at your door for under $750, yet you can get comparable performance with a X1900XT for under $550 with AVIVO.
Why pay more???
Do you think the 7900GTX 512 will be cheaper? Will it play 1920x1200 res at more than 50fps better somehow?
Will it encode video 5x faster than an FX-60 running a 7800GTX like the X1900XT will?

 

[Rabidpeanut]

My thoughts exactly