Associate
Hi all,
Due to the ever more woeful looking specs of my current PC (see my sig - bought nearly 3 years ago before going to uni btw =P), im looking at building a new one.
However, I need some help deciding on what dual graphics card setup to buy, SLI or Crossfire. Ive always been a fan of ATI gfx cards, but I also like Nvidia's motherboard chipsets.
As I understand it, if I'm to buy two 7900GT's / X1900's, performance is going to be limited to my CPU regardless which cards I buy (and which CPU).
Primarily, I use my PC for gaming & usually play FPS, driving games & the odd other thing, (egs - FEAR, Farcry, UT, NFS-MW, WoW). As ive found, regardless how big hard drive you buy, IT WILL GET FULL! So, i guessed something around 1tb will keep my lust for downloading random junk happy for a good while.
Im looking at spending a total of around £1600, pushing up to £1800 if I really have to. This is my budget just the box & the stuff in it, I have a 17" Sharp TFT, but it will soon be tuning into 2x 20" TFT's. Another influencing point is a dual screen setup: is this possible with either SLI or Crossfire, as I will be soon upgrading my monitors too. I have a Creative X-Fi Platinum already, so no soundcard is needed, nor will the onboard stuff be used.
Im not looking for overclocking parts, nor suggestions to buy opterons & OC them, since I'm not really into blowing up 300 quid gfx cards & cpu's - id rather buy it fast, rather than mess about in an attempt to make it faster.
Oh im also not buying Intel stuff =P
Proposed specs are something like this:
FOR SLI
2x XFX GeForce 7900 GT Extreme Edition 256MB
Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe
FOR CROSSFIRE
Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe
2x Something, please suggest =P
THE REST
2x Corsair Memory VS2GBKIT400C3 PC3200 2x1GB CAS3
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+
Arctic Freezer 64
4x Samsung 250GB S300 7200RPM 8MB (SP2504C) (RAID 0 or 1, I forget which, the faster one =P)
Antec P180
Tagan 530W TG530-U15 PSU
So, what you guys think? SLI or Crossfire? & what about the rest of the spec, any changes?
Cheers,
Al.
Due to the ever more woeful looking specs of my current PC (see my sig - bought nearly 3 years ago before going to uni btw =P), im looking at building a new one.
However, I need some help deciding on what dual graphics card setup to buy, SLI or Crossfire. Ive always been a fan of ATI gfx cards, but I also like Nvidia's motherboard chipsets.
As I understand it, if I'm to buy two 7900GT's / X1900's, performance is going to be limited to my CPU regardless which cards I buy (and which CPU).
Primarily, I use my PC for gaming & usually play FPS, driving games & the odd other thing, (egs - FEAR, Farcry, UT, NFS-MW, WoW). As ive found, regardless how big hard drive you buy, IT WILL GET FULL! So, i guessed something around 1tb will keep my lust for downloading random junk happy for a good while.
Im looking at spending a total of around £1600, pushing up to £1800 if I really have to. This is my budget just the box & the stuff in it, I have a 17" Sharp TFT, but it will soon be tuning into 2x 20" TFT's. Another influencing point is a dual screen setup: is this possible with either SLI or Crossfire, as I will be soon upgrading my monitors too. I have a Creative X-Fi Platinum already, so no soundcard is needed, nor will the onboard stuff be used.
Im not looking for overclocking parts, nor suggestions to buy opterons & OC them, since I'm not really into blowing up 300 quid gfx cards & cpu's - id rather buy it fast, rather than mess about in an attempt to make it faster.
Oh im also not buying Intel stuff =P
Proposed specs are something like this:
FOR SLI
2x XFX GeForce 7900 GT Extreme Edition 256MB
Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe
FOR CROSSFIRE
Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe
2x Something, please suggest =P
THE REST
2x Corsair Memory VS2GBKIT400C3 PC3200 2x1GB CAS3
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+
Arctic Freezer 64
4x Samsung 250GB S300 7200RPM 8MB (SP2504C) (RAID 0 or 1, I forget which, the faster one =P)
Antec P180
Tagan 530W TG530-U15 PSU
So, what you guys think? SLI or Crossfire? & what about the rest of the spec, any changes?
Cheers,
Al.
(I want one with a reasonably quiet fan on it, since ive heard the normal one is rather bloody loud =P). But, when it comes to buying it, I might just think 'sod it' =P