Building a pc...

[Slab]

So I've been building pc's for awhile but haven't built a new one in about 5 years, so I'm a little behind on these new fangled devices. :)

Here's what I'm thinking of buying next week. I am mostly a gamer playing WoW and a few others. I also have a Raptor hard drive ready to throw in here. I'm trying to stay right around $600.00 and I think all together I'm at $580 with these parts. My biggest question is with the video card because I hear so much about Crossfire but I don't know if it's necessary to have 2 cards right now.

Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated.


MSI K9A2 Platinum AM2+/AM2 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard
AMD Phenom 9850 BLACK EDITION 2.5GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Processor
mushkin 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Desktop Memory - x2
MSI N9800GT 512OC GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16

Thanks!

[Slab]

Re: Building a pc...

I should also mention that although I'm not opposed to OC'ing I'm not too familiar with the process so I tend to run stock.

[randomness]

Re: Building a pc...

r u trying to buy 2 gefoce 9800GT graphics cards in an AMD board?! how can u run SLI on an aMD board anyway? :S

If ur only playing games lyk wow, then i dun tink crossfire would be needed, try to get at least an ATI HD4850/70 if ur budget allows it.

[Slab]

Re: Building a pc...

My bad, it's PCI Express not SLI.

I did look at that HD4850 too. I even read a review on this website comparing it to the 9800gt. The HD4850 did out perform it, but not by that much. Thanks though, I'll certainly consider it.

[BongWizard]

Re: Building a pc...

???? PCIe is an interface, SLI is (Scalable Link Interface... i suppose its an interface as well) a means by which multiple cards may be used to render the same graphics... its nVidia's answer to CrossFireX.

and the review you're thinking of is comparing the GTX (or the GTX+) to the HD 4850... in that case, yes, the 4850 just outperforms the 9800... but the 4850 will rip **** on the 9800GT because of the number of shaders and rasterisers which allow it so many more calculations every second.

CF or SLI is not really necessary if you're only playing games like WOW... if you want some degree of future proofing, i'd recommend getting an ATI card (the 4850 is great... but the new 4830 will serve you well, better than the 9800GT in fact) so you have to option to setup CF later if need be... you won't be able to do SLI, however, because you must be using an nForce based board to do SLI.

EDIT: also, the OEM Phenom 9950 BE 140W (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103285) will get way better OCs than the CPU you've got there, and its actually $10 cheaper on NewEgg, but you'll have to get an aftermarket cooler, which you would have needed anyways if you wanna OC... i'd recommend the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16835186134R) or the Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...tact%20freezer) or the Noctua NH-U12P

[Slab]

Re: Building a pc...

Thanks for the info! The board I listed shows uses PCI Express slots, so unless I'm missing something that's the kind of card I would need???

I think you've also changed my mind and I will go with the ATI HD4850.

Thanks again!

[fredvon4]

Re: Building a pc...

Slab
The MSI K9 Platinum MB comes in two flavors

K9N2 using Nvidia North bridge nforce 750a for SLI in the two PCIexpress slots

K9A2 using AMD 790FX North bridge for CrossFire in 2 of the 4 PCI express slots
Yes virginia you could use 4 VGA cards... theroritically

SLI is the scheme for using 2 Nvidia video cards ganged together
Crossfire is the scheme for two using ATi (AMD) video cards

either scheme uses PCIexpress slots and a umbilical cable linking the two video cards

In my opinion the new high speed video cards every 3-9 months makes SLI or CF a waste because you can always find equal or cheaper singel card solution then the CF or SLI dual card solution and use less system resources and power.

CF and SLI really shines where money is no object and you are linking two of the top line bleeding edge fastest video cards...

[Slab]

Re: Building a pc...

Thanks alot for the clarification. Makes good sense!