hello, while I continue fighting with RMA's on my present PC, a friend wants me to build him an nvidia based gaming computer for around 1400.00 USD. He mainly wants Nvidia because they have better performance video cards, but if you have reasons for sticking to X38/X48 please let me know! If you can recommend a motherboard/video card, and then RAM that is appropriate I would appreciate it! My preliminary decisions are below: mobo: EVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 ATX Intel Motherboard 259.99 gpu ??: XFX PVT98FYDF9 GeForce 9800 GTX(G92) 512MB 329.99 gpu2 ??: EVGA 768-P2-N831-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit 289.99 cpu: Intel Q9450 349.99 RAM: CORSAIR 4GB(2 x 2GB) TWIN2X4096-6400C5 75.00 This totals to under 1000.00 which will give me plenty to buy the remaining parts (PSU, case, HDD, DVDRW, keyboard/mouse, etc) Okay I don't know which of the 2 video cards to go for, so I listed both... please let me know what you think... Also, if you have thoughts on other motherboards/or going with DDR3 please tell me which board is good, I think I'm still well within budget to be able to handle a DDR3 upgrade... Note that I am only ordering 1 card right now, but he wants to add another one for SLI in the future. (not part of current budget) Thanks
nforce chipsets aren't really all that good,if you're not using SLI, there's no reason to have one. Go with a Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3R, it'll save you money, and it's a better board anyway. Make sure you have a decent PSU for the graphics card, they draw quite a lot, I recommend using a Corsair HX 520W. Never skimp on a PSU, or it will cost you. As for which graphics card, the 9800GTX isn't really worth the extra $40 over the 8800, but EVGA have had a dodgy track record with faulty units lately, so I'd go with the 9800GTX purely for guaranteed performance, XFX are very good for warranties. As for adding a card in future, nvidia fans always use that excuse, but they never bother because either they don't get the money, or because the card they need to add becomes obsolete, since nvidia release a new GPU pretty much every week. Unless you get two graphics cards from the start, you won't end up using two at all.
thanks sam thats a good point about getting either both video cards now, or don't bother with SLI... I'll pass that along to him. As far as brands though... you're saying evga 8800GTX is iffy? If so, then is the XFX version better? I'm assuming that I should stick with the 8800GTX and NOT the 9800GTX, but another brand correct? I got a little confused by your wording... lol... unless you're saying spend the extra 40... now, assuming he has his heart set on getting an SLI motherboard, is the one I picked out good? I don't know anything about brands etc for nvidia, but it seems to have very good reviews on newegg...
The EVGA card may be fine, but there have meen more reports of faulty EVGA cards of late than other brands, certainly more than XFX. If you see a different good brand 8800GTX for the same price, snap it up, but if it means spending the same amount as the 9800, then don't bother and get the 9800, it is faster, just not $40 faster if you see what I mean. The board you've picked out is quite a good one, but it's over $100 more than the board I've recommended, and that one has even higher reviews, and is known around afterdawn as the board to have for a single graphics PC.
yea I know I really like the motherboard you suggested earlier, but this dude's got his mind set on making sure he's SLI/crossfire ready... He's not much of an upgrade every year or so type of guy like I am so he's intending to use this computer for like 3895745 years LoL that's why he wants to pay more and be as "prepared" as possible... There's no future proofing as far as I'm concerned... but his old computer's been running for like 9 yrs... so for him this computer will probably pull another decade!! as far as vid card, I decided to go with the 9800GTX instead because I can get them for close to the same price without worrying about rebates, and some of them include a free game. thanks for the help!
I'll tell you now, I recently upgraded to crossfire and it really doesn't live up to the hype. A few critical games see decent performance gains, but in most games you actually lose performance, significantly. If you want futureproof you'll also want to stick to one card as single card setups will last an age, whereas SLI will probably stop working with modern games in a few years time because they'll probably change the system. If his old PC has lasted a decade, he obviously isn't a hardcore gamer, so there's no need to go for SLI!
