rig building advise

[Inky]

I am planning on maybe building a new desktop in February or March. not a super high end rig but decent.

 

I was mainly wondering about SLI? anyone have any experiance with it? would I get decent performance from say 2 geforce 8400 512mb cards running in SLI?

[Wishdokta]

What you think about having one single 8800 GT? There several types (up to highend with EVGA/Superclocked), but I think some off em won't cost a fortune in 2 months. And you still have the possibility buying an additional GT after summer or next year.

[emwearz]

Your better off buying 1 card then 2 overtly weak cards. What is the price range you want to spend on a graphics card?

[Inky]

no more then 150 bucks. I can get the 2 8500s for around 100 bucks. the entire rig I am pricing out now comes in under 650 bucks.

 

and remember I am not looking to play crisis on high. I have my 360 for high end gaming. this rig would be more for emulation and some games the kids and wife want to play. sims 2 that kinda stuff.

[emwearz]

If you go 20 dollars over your budget you could get a much, much better card in the ATI 3850.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814129101

 

I know its slightly over your max, but it would destroy what SLI'ed 8500's would do easily and not break your budget by much.

 

Those cards SLI'ed would have trouble keeping up with the 8600GTS (Well they would fall somewhere between the 8600GT and the GTS), the 3850 rapes the 8600GTS by a long way.

Edited January 28, 2008 by emwearz

[Inky]

Hmm what about a 8600 gts 256mb then maybe SLI that later down the road? I can get one of those for just shy of 150.

 

I'm not big on ATI.

 

I guess talking graphics cards and prices is kinda dumb for a purchase a month or 2 out. prices can change so rapidly.

[emwearz]

Im not big on SLI in general but even more so for 'Later SLI'ing". I highly suggest you go with the ATI card, I myself have owned 1 ATI product in my life, I generally stick to Nvidia, but for its price it is an amazing card.

 

(I wouldn't let a brand name and 20 dollars stop you from getting a much better card).

 

And yea rumors of the 9600GT releasing in Feb have been strong lately, in 2 months prices / models can change a lot.

[Inky]

hmm. looking over and changing some components I can get a rig with a 3850 for around 650 at current prices. I still have time to mull over things.

[GodPigeon]

Good thing someone else made this because i also need some advice on this. ive been doing MUCH research and i want to build a rig using the Phenom 9500. So heres the Parts i want So far.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819103226 - Phenom 9500

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822152052 - 500GB Samsung HDD

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820220161 - Patriot 2 x 1GB DDR2 1066

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820145034 - Corsair 2 x 1GB DDR2 800

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813130136 - MSI K92A Platinum

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811112040 - Lian Li Case

 

Anything you guys would change to make this Better/Cheaper?

I dont know much about Power supplies so does anyone have any recommendations?

At most all i want to spend is $1000 USD

[Shibathedog]

Garageink: I used to be a diehard ATi guy, they have some great cards. Personally I would wait/save and try and get an 8800GT, but the 3850 should suit your needs. Any GeForce 8 that isn't an 8800 is pretty worthless for anything but video playback.

 

Don Illmatix: Why the phenom? are you sure you don't want to go intel?

 

Anyway, if I where to do a phenom build for under 1000, heres what I would get. Various bits like DVD+-RW Drive not included.

 

Case:No say in this, personal preference really, and theres nothing wrong with the one you picked, its a classic.

 

Mobo:Leave it, this is one of the better Phenom boards

 

RAM:Normally I would say get the Crucial Ballistix 1066MHz, but this new kit just came out and it overclocks to insane levels, like 1400MHz, even its stock speeds are fantastic. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820208343

 

HDD: The one you picked is good, I would go for a similar Western Digital but thats mostly because I just have good luck with them

 

Video Card: 8800GT, with a pretty damn good overclock for a factory OC to make things easy. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814500006

 

PSU: PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610 - Any PSU by this company is fantastic, arguably the best around.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817703005

 

CPU: Again, i'm not going to touch this one since there are so many reasons for picking one CPU over another you may have picked the one you did for good reason.

 

CPU Cooler (skip this if your not going to overclock): Thermalright Ultra-120 or Ultra-90, they are awesome coolers and can be had for cheap now. I haven't been reading the CPU cooler news lately though so you might want to search for a roundup article or just keep reading Dailytech as much as possible until the purchase for reviews. I'm willing to bet those two coolers are still at least close to the top of the list though.

[Inky]

my main sticking point is I wanna build small. I am planning on using a micro atx case like

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Se...mp;Sku=ULT33115

 

small is important for me right now. so I dunno if a 8800 will even fit in there. I do know 8600gts will.