upgrading questions

[xinsomniacboix]

Hi there,

This site has been pretty helpful so far as I'm not as experienced with hardware as a lot of people, so I have a couple of questions about upgrading my rig (supposed to be mid range) I'm not exactly sure if it's in the right subforum, but my main question is about motherboards so I think I'm ok.

Ok, so I want to perform some strategic upgrades so I can have a noticable performance increase without spending too much money. Currently, I'm running:

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Ram: 1 Gig (2x512) DDR333 (really slow i know)
GPU: evga GeForce 7600GT
Mobo: a pretty basic socket 939 board i'm replacing
HD: old IDE drive
CD/DVD: 2 old IDE drives and 1 usb dvd burner (slow)

So, what I'm thinking is for sure:
CPU: AM2 AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Brisbane 2.5GHz x2
Ram: 2 Gigs(2x1Gig) G-Skill DDR2 800

These parts are pretty decent and come out to about $150, well worth the money in my opinion compared to my old parts.

Now my dilema comes when I consider my other options:

I can get 1 of 2 motherboards:

I can get this pretty basic board,
BIOSTAR TF560 A2+ AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA nForce 560 MCP ATX AMD
Motherboard
so that I'll be able to support AM2+ when I want to upgrade in the future and won't have to deal with getting a new mobo like I have to now

or

I can get this
GIGABYTE GA-M57SLI-S4 AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard
which does not support AM2+, but does support SLI

With either (similarly priced) board, I will have to get a SATA dvd drive probably because they both only have one IDE port and I don't want to get a new hd with a new copy of windows.

so, another 30 bux for a burner so i'm not just running on one usb drive

or

I could get another evga GeForce 7600GT for like another hundred (probably later on since I don't have the money now) and run sli

I definitely can't afford all of this crap, so should I go with the AM2+ board and forgo sli? or should I get the other board so I can run two gpus? which would be smarter in your opinion? also, my evga GeForce 7600GT is an older model, but it shares the same specs as the one being sold. Is that a problem? will they run together ok in sli? Or could I even get a newer card and run it in sli with my older one?

I know that's a lot of questions. Thanks for your time guys.

 

[Wolfshadw]

If this is supposed to be a mid-range system, why are you even worried about SLI? Go with the AM2+ board/processor and be done with it.

-Wolf sends

 

[KyleSTL]

SLI is dumb. AM2+ all the way. 8800GT or HD 3850/3870 when you can afford it. Tigerdirect had a deal this morning for the 5000+ Black Edition for $99, you might want to give that a thought if it's still available.

 

[xinsomniacboix]

I've been looking at some motherboards on my own and I'm really confused.

There are two boards that I have been eyeing because they support SLI and also have two IDE ports, which I really would prefer, and the reviews are generally great for them, but some people say that the pcie16 slots only run at x8 speed really because of the sli capability. Isn't that a really bad thing? How come the reviews still score it so well, is that just how sli works? They said that it was still only 8x speed for one card though. I'm guessing I really need two cards or else it'll be really slow?

 

[KyleSTL]

Honestly, you should not be looking at SLI boards, IMO. Get a 690 board or an AM2+ and upgrade to a much better GPU when you can afford it. Really, in your case SLI is not worth it.

Edit: To answer your question - A 8800GTX barely floods a PCIe 8x, so a 7600GT won't even come close.

 

[xinsomniacboix]

oh wow I see, thanks for clearing that up, I was really confused about it