XFire, Worth the money?

[Hessian]

I'm a complete beginner when it comes to building my own PC, I have quite a tight budget of about £450-£500. I'm going to be going the ATi graphics card route, so just wondering whether going for a XFire enabled MoBo would be worth investing in, if I'm not going to be using to Gfx cards straight away?

As mentioned before I'm a complete beginner and am looking at this GfX card http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-141-SP and this processor http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-168-AM
Could someone recommend me a Mobo, with them components?

Regards,
Hessian

 

[waso_dude]

First of all,

Are you overclocking? If so get a Intel Core 2 Duo.

2ndly,

Crossfire/SLi doens't give a major boost over a single card, so it isn't worth it.

 

[Hessian]

I most likely won't be overclocking, as I said I'm new to all this, so I don't even know how to overclock

Edit: Just looked at the Intel Core 2 Duo's and they seem to be much more expensive for similar stats?

 

[Pipe & Slippers]

@ stock speeds, the price points for amd vs intel are similar for similar levels of performance. Intels come into their own when you start overclocking and generally run cooler

As for the graphics card - nothing wrong with that apart from the fact that it's dropped in price by £25 since I bought one 5 weeks ago
What resolution monitor are you using, if it's 1024 x 1280 or less you may only want 256 MB, although admittedly, it won't really save you much by downgrading

Be aware that you won't be playing DX10 games on it - it's DX9 only - this may not be a problem for you since no DX10 games are out at the moment and they will be Vista only

<<Edit>>
As for X-fire, I wouldn't bother, one powerful card is on the whole better than 2 high-ish ones. I see it as being a useful way to boost graphics perfomance very cheaply in the future when my system's getting old. Plus bear in mind that X-fire is Ati so power demands will be high - if you decide to go with it, make sure you have a decent power supply

 

[Hessian]

Currently I have a widescreen and the resolution is only 1440x900. Is that worth dropping to 256 or staying with 512?

Ok I won't bother with XFire for the moment, like you said, maybe at a later time.

Looking at the AMD's with AM2 socket, they're all fairly cheap, which is best out of them:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=5&subid=805

DX9 games only doesn't bother me too much at the moment.

Also wondering is, is there any recommendation for a Motherboard, that would be good for video rendering, etc. seeing as I do a lot of graphics work as well as gaming on my computer.

 

[Pipe & Slippers]

Don't know much about AMD mobos nowadays, surprised at how cheap they are!

Wait for someone else to come along, or maybe close this thread and start a new one asking for a mobo recommendation

Steer clear of the AGP one - old tech

 

[Big.Wayne]

Crossfire/SLi doens't give a major boost over a single card, so it isn't worth it.

Looks pretty good to me!

Rage3D.com ATI Radeon X1950 Pro Crossfire Review [Introduction]