MB for mid grade C2D gaming rig

[oslama]

I am looking to build a gaming system around these components and need advise on which motherboard to get thats @ $100 <> $125

I have a C2d 6300, 2 XFX 6600GT (SLI enabled ?), a gig of ddr2 (PC5300/667) and a couple of PATA HDs. I am a casual gamer and mainly play HL2, COD2, and some RTS games on medium settings (1024X768). I will be sticking with XP so Vista and DX10 are not that important but futureproofing would be nice.

Would i gain anything with having 2 lowgrade gpus(by today's benchmarks) paired with a C2d and regular speed memory on a 570 or 650 SLI mb? or should i just sell and start from all new components. If so then what would be Low, Mid or High end in Video and MB?


My gf has a c2d 6300 on a intel all in one motherboard. although its stable and quite, i have not been impressed with its performance interms of its a C2D @1.8ghz but i have not "gamed" on it.

 

[AstroDogg]

Here first of all check these out.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130082
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131142R

The 6600's are pretty low on the totem pole and having two is really going to be a benefit. Since they are XFX I'm assuming they are factory overclocked. What I never liked about the 6600's is the memory interface is only 128bit, But two GPU's working together is going to significantly help raise the lowest frame rates when gpu and cpu load is at the highest. At $220 a single X1950XT would be a great improvement and at about $289 an 8800GTS would be just short of awesome.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102067
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814127278

 

[sxr7171]

Honestly if you are building a mid-grade system you don't need SLI. Heck even a high grade system doesn't need SLI with an 8800GTX. That card can run almost anything at 1920x1200 with 4x AA and 16x AF at 60fps. If you have an LCD you don't need higher than 60 fps. Only "extreme" systems built for benchmarking might actually need SLI or Crossfire these days or if your favorite game is Elder Scrolls III on the PC and you must have all settings on max. Even a 8800GTS will murder 2 6600GTs.

 

[moosey]

I'd get rid of the 6600s and get 1 new card as recommended above.

 

[oslama]

Hmm.... good points and brought up some insteresting Qs.

The MSI looks good and meets all my requirements (C2D, SLI, Pc5300 and IDE). I have had good luck with the amd K8NGM2-NBP.

If i were to get rid of the 6600s then SLI would not be an issue

 

[oslama]

what would the 2 6600gt be equivelent to in terms of speed?

 

[nexgenbuilder]

I'd ratehr go with a 7900 if I were you.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: oslama
what would the 2 6600gt be equivelent to in terms of speed?

Originally posted by: nexgenbuilder
I'd ratehr go with a 7900 if I were you.

Tom's Hardware VGA charts

HL2 Ep1
6600GT SLI 57FPS
7950GT 142.4FPS

3DMock06
6600GT SLI 668
7950GT 1819

Oblivion
6600GT SLI 13FPS
7950GT 25.3FPS

Yeah, I'd say that a single faster card is much better. The card I choose is the 512MB 7950GT, but the 256MB version would be similar. Also, most 6600GT cards have only 128MB memory so even the 256MB 7950GT would have double the available texture memory. Also, the 256MB version has been available for around $200. You may be able to sell your 6600GT for $50 each, thereabouts.

 

[AstroDogg]

That chart at tomshardware is more than misleading to say the least. Do not go by it. It is compised of differnt systems some overclocked and some not with different hardware. It also shows the max fps which in itself is very miss leading to a SLi configuration. You would have to have an honest chart with all the same hardware and bios settings only changing the graphics card and do a lowest fps test on all the setups to get an answer to your question. In a SLi setup dont look to gain a faster max framerate but instead the award will come in a higher lowest framerate during the highest load of the gpu when the performance of your graphics system is most critical.

 

[AstroDogg]

Remember the human eye can only see 30 frames per second. A standard of running an average speed of 60fps or higher is to prevent a dip during high gpu load that will go below 30fps during high graphic demands of the game. A game is still playable if it ocassionally drops to 20fps but irritating to me, under 10fps it is unplayable. So what good is 1810fps when you can only see 30fps? I'll answer that for ya, A higher max framerate should mean a higher lowest framerate, and a Max Framerate of One Thousand Eight Hundred and Ten sounds more impressive than a lowest fps of 79 when advertising the video market(even reviewers advertise they want you on thier forums not someone elses). Many games have a max framerate allowed.

 

[AstroDogg]

This is only a guess and I shouldn't even do it and haven't replied to your question because I don't like offering unsupported information, But as an educated guess I would put your real world performance right around that of a single 7800gt or a touch higher, depending what the versions of the cards are(stock/OC'd). Of course you will not get a max framerate as high as a 7800 and pixel shading might not be as good as 3.0 but your playability and lag-free operation should be about the same.

If you want to future proof your system. I would run the two 6600's for now and then when more DX10 cards are availible from all the manufactures upgrade.

 

[oslama]

the question of video has been settled i will just go with a single card, probably the 8600, a cheaper iteration of the 8800.

Now, The mother board q remains. I want to keep my existing pata drives. I have heard a lot bad things about the 965 chipset and ide/sat aissues. Is there a non sli 650i mother board?

 

[moosey]

Might as well go with the SLI 650 board. There technically is a 650i Ultra but it hasn't been released yet, AFAIK, and I don't know when it will be. Search this forum b/c I think someone asked when it was being released a little bit back.

So if you want to get your system sometime soon, you'll be fine with the SLI version.

Also, 2 P965 board that don't use the Jmicron IDE controller are the Abit IB9 and the Biostar P965 board....if you wanted a few more options.

 

[Spanki]

Originally posted by: oslama
the question of video has been settled i will just go with a single card, probably the 8600, a cheaper iteration of the 8800.

Now, The mother board q remains. I want to keep my existing pata drives. I have heard a lot bad things about the 965 chipset and ide/sat aissues. Is there a non sli 650i mother board?

Ahh... as I was reading this thread, I was going to suggest that you just wait a bit on the gfx card, to get one of the newer 8600s, but I see you're already looking into that .

As for the mb, personally, I don't plan to use SLI on my MSI P6N SLI Platinum, but it's nice having the option if I change my mind in the future. The reason I bought this (SLI) board was because of the chipset... which has native PATA IDE support (no external controller needed, so no 'additional drivers' need to be installed before using them). The reason I went for the 650i in particular is because it has 2 IDE connectors, so you can hook up 2 IDE hard-drives and still have one free to hook up a CD/DVD device or two.

As mentioned above, the 650i Ultra chipset drops suppot for SLI, and will be a bit cheaper to produce, but those boards aren't out yet.

If you're looking for a little more info on the MSI boards, see this thread.