Wow...building computers has gotten a little more complicated

[SavageSig]

Back in the day, it was a question between an AMD that kicks out 1 ghz versus an Intel or a Celeron that kicked out that much. Nowadays....i7, i5, i3, Phenom II X4, Athlon II X4, etc etc. What a headache! Made me want to buy a laptop and just forget building my own rig, but the lure of quad core was too much. My current rig is a AMD FX-55 w/ 7900 GTO, and it's very much showing it's age. I can barely play Modern Warfare 2 at the lowest settings and 800x600.

So what do you think of my new system?

-Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition

-2x Nvidia GTS 250 1gb cards (found these for 110 each AR)

-MSI Mobo w/ SLI ready northbridge

-4gb DDR3 1600mhz RAM

-750 GB Seagate SATA HD

-600 watt SLI ready PSU

-Some funky case

All for the low, low price of ~650. I thought about getting a i7, but then you need tri-channel ram, better psu, more expensive mobo...that's in the 1000+ range. The first upgrade, when I get a little free cash, will be a solid state drive, at least 30 GB. Hopefully this rig will last me a few years. It's not DX11 compatible, but I don't really care.

[Guest clsutton21]

If I was you, I'd go with more powerful cards. Myself, I have the Nvidia GTX 285 OCFU. Also, I'd go with a bigger PSU...I had to upgrade mine for the new series of graphics cards.

[SavageSig]

If I was you, I'd go with more powerful cards. Myself, I have the Nvidia GTX 285 OCFU. Also, I'd go with a bigger PSU...I had to upgrade mine for the new series of graphics cards.

Well, I already ordered this stuff and most of it is in UPS's hands at this point. I actually found out that I accidentally ordered a MicroATX Mid-tower case instead of a ATX Mid-tower, so I placed a new order for a case and PSU and I'm going to just refuse the shipment of the other case (that's what the CS guy recommended). 220 AR for a supreme video card setup was just too much to resist.

Also, the benchmarks on the SLI GTS 250 config are very promising. I daresay that it will outperform your 285 by a small margin, and 240 shipped is much better than the price of a 285. I also know from past experience that I will not SLI a card after buying just one. I have sat on my 7900 GTO for about 4 years, even though I could have SLI'd it any point.

[bockey]

I can't really say, I'm one of "those" Mac folks.

[Chucktshoes]

I can't really say, I'm one of "those" Mac folks.

+1

[Alpha7]

Its aight. I would have done it differently but that is me. Where did you buy all the parts? I normally get mine from either new egg or from zipzoomfly

[Defender]

What you talking bout, Willis?

[Steelharp]

You still stuck in quad core? Back in the day, dude... now it's 7 core... 8 on the way...

[Krull]

Your rig is fine, if you want something that will play modern games I would spend money on one 8800 to 9800 card instead of sli those other two. It will run any game ont the market just fine though.

[gnmwilliams]

Just buy an xbox 360!

[SavageSig]

Your rig is fine, if you want something that will play modern games I would spend money on one 8800 to 9800 card instead of sli those other two. It will run any game ont the market just fine though.

The GTS 250 is an updated 9800GTX. Two GTS 250's in SLI will outperform a single GTX 285. Barely, but they'll do it.

Anyways, the newest game I play is MW2. The next newest would probably be Half Life Source titles. I think I'm really more interested in the processing power of this rig, so I can process photos and videos much much much faster. And possibly while playing games at the same time

[Guest Gun Geek]

Sorry going to have to say I prefer ATI over Nvidia/Geforce, I would change the motherboard to allow for ATI Crossfire graphics.

Then get, two of these XFX Radeon HD 5850 Black Edition Video Card - 1GB GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0, CrossFireX Ready, Dual DVI, Display Port, HDMI at TigerDirect.com run them in crossfire mode.

If those are too much try these XFX Radeon HD 5770 Video Card - 1GB GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0, CrossFireX Ready, Dual DVI, Display Port, HDMI at TigerDirect.com

[SavageSig]

Sorry going to have to say I prefer ATI over Nvidia/Geforce, I would change the motherboard to allow for ATI Crossfire graphics.

Then get, two of these XFX Radeon HD 5850 Black Edition Video Card - 1GB GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0, CrossFireX Ready, Dual DVI, Display Port, HDMI at TigerDirect.com run them in crossfire mode.

If those are too much try these XFX Radeon HD 5770 Video Card - 1GB GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0, CrossFireX Ready, Dual DVI, Display Port, HDMI at TigerDirect.com

Sure, let me swap out my 2x GTS 250s at 110 each for 2x 5850 at...375 each. Or 2x 5770 for 179 each. Either way, too much stinking money. 2x GTS 250s blows away 1 5770 for only 40 dollars more. I've fallen prey to the confusing pricing and naming schemes adopted by nvidia and ATI, which is exactly what they wanted. My head hurts from all of the various prices and such, so the GTS 250's are set in stone. Hell, I still have to buy a fancy monitor to take advantage of this horsepower. My 19" Acer screen's native resolution is 1280x1024. 2xGTS250's is way overkill for that.

And I prefer Nvidia products. I haven't purchase a Radeon since a 9600GT back in the day.

[mcurrier]

I can't really say, I'm one of "those" Mac folks.

Same here. I have 16, all operating.

[Krull]

The GTS 250 is an updated 9800GTX. Two GTS 250's in SLI will outperform a single GTX 285. Barely, but they'll do it.

Anyways, the newest game I play is MW2. The next newest would probably be Half Life Source titles. I think I'm really more interested in the processing power of this rig, so I can process photos and videos much much much faster. And possibly while playing games at the same time

Correct but sli +2 is a bit overkill unless you want to render in Maya or something of that nature. Plus there are other issues with sli'ing 2 cards together with some games.Nbut if you have money to burn.