New and Confused

[Daniel Griffieth]

As directly as I can be to the point I'm looking to build a new PC and I'm unsure of where or how to find out if the motherboard and video cards would be compatible to run in a dual video card set where they are working together to produce one image through both cards.

I was looking at an ASUS M2N AM2 NVIDIA nForce 430 MCP ATX AMD Motherboard and the
XFX PVT86SYAFG GeForce 8400GS 512MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 video card. I haven't worked with PC for years so I'm not entirely in touch with what works with what anymore.








Mr G

 

[g-paw]

What is your budget and how will you use the machine? That is an older mobo chipset.

 

[Daniel Griffieth]

Sorry bout that I dunno where my head is today I should have said I've already found a place for ram case powersupply and processor for about 250, so I guess I'm looking for video cards and motherboard. As it goes I'd like to have a decent motherboard and start with one video card thats capable of running as a pair if I decide I want/need more power in the graphics area. So around 250 for a board and 1 or 2 vid cards. I'll probably get a HD and DVD from a local computer warehouse after I get the other parts worked out.

 

[teh_boxzor]

i suggest any of the older nvidia 570 or 590 sli chipsets or the AMD 6 series with xfire support. i bought my biostar tforce 570sli on newegg for about 80 dollars and its rock solid and oc's pretty good. as for the video card i'd suggest waiting for the new ati line up as they will be around the 200 dollar range.

 

[Daniel Griffieth]

It looks as though the computer warehouse near my place will build me a complete system discounted below the price of all their individual parts. They are offering me a PC with 2 gig of ram, GeForce 8600 GT 512 MB ,Athlon64 X2 4200+, 250G 7200 rpm w/8mb Cache, Windows XP and DVD+RW in the $700s. They didn't list the exact motherboard only that it was Asus and compatible with all the other components. Think that would make for a good gaming system?

 

[g-paw]

It looks as though the computer warehouse near my place will build me a complete system discounted below the price of all their individual parts. They are offering me a PC with 2 gig of ram, GeForce 8600 GT 512 MB ,Athlon64 X2 4200+, 250G 7200 rpm w/8mb Cache, Windows XP and DVD+RW in the $700s. They didn't list the exact motherboard only that it was Asus and compatible with all the other components. Think that would make for a good gaming system?

Depending on the case, mobo, and PSU that may not be a great price. Suggest you price a similar system on newegg. Given you want to run 2 video cards, I would guess the machine is for gaming and the X2 4200+ would not be the best CPU, it's pretty much an entry level AMD. If you want to go with AMD, you'd probably be better off with the X2 Black Edition of the 5000, which is supposed to be easily overclocked with no significant increase in heat and an AM2+ mobo for AMD's upcoming quad and triple core CPUs. If you'll be running dual video cards, you're going to need a very good PSU. There is certainly nothing wrong with buying a machine with upgrading in mind but I think you need to build on a good foundation including the mobo, PSU, RAM, and a good CPU unless you're planning on replacing it in a couple of months.

 

[cfvh600]

Very good advice from g-paw.Good luck with your build. 🙂

 

[Daniel Griffieth]

I'll keep looking around try to get a lil more grasp of what would be considered a good board ect. I've been out of the PC thing for close to 8 years so a good bits changed. Hell my first PC ran with a single 8mb graphics card. Thanks for the info though.

 

[Seikent]

Why do you want to use 2 video cards? Normally 1 video card performs much better than 2 cheaper video cards.