My First SLI System

[Stormblade]

Hey all,

I'm about to upgrade to my first SLI system. I don't have the money to get everything all at once but I'm focusing right now on getting the motherboard, CPU and a new Case.

My Current PSU is:
750 W Silencer Quad Power Supply - Black

Proposed New Motherboard:
EVGA 790i SLI Ultra

Proposed CPU:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 2.66 Ghz

That motherboard and CPU are gonna take up most of the extra money I have coming. So then the case. I was looking at the Antec 900. Looked good. Any thoughts? I'm not really much of an overclocker but I have and probably will overclock at least a little. I'm not extreme enough to need water cooling or something like that so hopefully I'll be ok.

I'll probably use my current DDR2 memory for now until I can afford to upgrade to the good stuff (DDR3 - 2000).

And for graphics cards I plan to put 2 geforce 8800s in there.

What do you all think? See any potential problems or headaches for me?

 

[jaggerwild]

Hello Mr. Storm!
I wanted to chim in as my buddies have had issues with certain DDR3 on this board and figured I'd let you know so you could do the home work before you purchase it.
Good luck.
Regards :beer:

 

[Jax Omen]

You *can't* use DDR2 memory in that board. Period. It doesn't work.

Honestly, your best bet if you're not a hardcore overclocker enthusiast but you want to get into SLI would be the 750i. Uses DDR2, the good ones are stable and quick and decent overclockers, all the other important stuff.


Also, if you're overclocking, save some money and get a Q6600. It's pretty rare to find a chip that can't hit AT LEAST 3GHZ.


Antec 900 is a wonderful case, I just picked one up for Kitty. It's so good, NZXT felt the need to copy them: http://legitreviews.com/article/704/1/

For the GPUs, I hope you mean the 8800GTS 512MB. 8800GTX is a bad buy nowadays unless you're looking at using a 30" monitor, and the GTs tend to have heat issues due to the crappy cooler.

 

[BoboKatt]

Can't go wrong with the Antec 900. I have that case with the same power supply you mentioned (mine is the orange one). I use an eVGA 680i with a e6850 in there. I had one 8800GTX but there was plenty of power and space for another. THe case has plenty of cooling... actually to this day have yet to find a better cooling case... but you really need to play with the fans etc... as anything other than their low setting, gets rather noisy.

You are chosing well with the Q6700. Man for the price it's at now, it's a steal!

Wish I would know more of the newer 790sli mobos, but I know sqaut except what I've read so not much there.

 

[krnmastersgt]

Seriously unless you plan on Tri-SLIing 880ultras/gtx or the 9800gtxs there's no need for a 790i or 780i, like Jax said get the 750i, decent overclocking, nice and cool compared to what I'm running, pretty cheap too considering it's current gen SLI mobo, and you get to use your DDR2 as well. 750i + current mem = $180 total with tax and shipping, 790i + ddr3 mem = $500+ and some of the higher rated memory sells for almost as much as the board, and if you aren't going to be running 3 8800 Ultras, there's no point in it. Still a nice board but not worth it currently.

 

[jaggerwild]

Good after noon all!
As stated above, you can't go wrong with the antec 900. I hear nothing but great stuff about it.
As Mr. krnmastersgt stated you will be wasting money unless going Tri-SLI. Even then if the drivers are working........
The EVGA 750FTW is a pretty modest priced SLI MB for under $200.00 plus it is not an Nvidia reference board either. Even a 680 board would be well suited for you, not sure of there prices currently.
The Q6700 at its current new egg price is good, but clock for clock the $200 Q6600 still holds its own and for less price too.

As far as cards go what ever you buy get EVGA and DON'T buy it on E-bay as there is no life time warranty if you buy it there. The 8800GT basic cards are nice and you can then upgrade the cooler, or even flash the bios to the higher clocked cards too.The 9800 cards are showing nice 3Dmark scores also and for just a little more money.
Regards :beer:

 

[Stormblade]

Hey all, thanks for the info. I did more research and got more advice on other threads. I hadn't realized that the 790i board didn't support DDR2 so that would have also increased my initial cost for no good reason so I pretty much scrapped that board as unsuitable for me personally.

So this is what my new spec looks like today:

MoBo: eVGA 750i SLI
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300
GPU: 2x 8800 GTS 512 ( I've seen ones with more memory but not sure if that's worth it )
Case: Antec 900
Memory: 4 gigs DDR2-800

 

[rgallant]

Originally posted by: Stormblade
Hey all, thanks for the info. I did more research and got more advice on other threads. I hadn't realized that the 790i board didn't support DDR2 so that would have also increased my initial cost for no good reason so I pretty much scrapped that board as unsuitable for me personally.

So this is what my new spec looks like today:

MoBo: eVGA 750i SLI
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300
GPU: 2x 8800 GTS 512 ( I've seen ones with more memory but not sure if that's worth it )
Case: Antec 900
Memory: 4 gigs DDR2-800

CHECK OUT THE CM690 $60-$70-check out the little 80mm fan mounted behind the cpu just put one in today dropped the NB by 4c and cpu by 3c also the powersupply fan sucks air from the bottom of the case from the outside which is great for SLI and the temps of the P\S

JW stated the q6700 multi x 10 , see how the Q9300 relates as quads don't seem to get a easy high FSB on a nvidia chip set,check around .

-my $.02

 

[Stormblade]

Thanks for the info. In regards to the Q6600 vs Q6700 vs Q9300 I'm not a big overclocker so the fact that the Q9300 may not overclock as much as the others isn't a huge concern for me. I've heard that people have OC'd the Q9300 to 3.5 but that seems to be pushing it. If I were to OC and got it to 3 even that would be ok with me. But that's only if I decide to OC. I may not.

Now what would sway me is if I learned that the Q9300 stock was slower than the other two. But I don't believe that is the case or at least I've found nothing that has stated this. Just knowing myself I don't think I'm best served by getting a slower CPU that can be overclocked to be even faster than the Q9300 because chances are I'm not going to OC it that much if at all.

 

[Stormblade]

Just wanted to give you guys an update on what I finally did.
I pretty much went with the spec in my previous post except for one thing. The CPU. I found the Q9450 at tigerdirect for not much more than the Q9300 I was going to get. I paid something like $350 for it. That's when they finally got them back in stock. According to the reviews I read this CPU beats out the Q6600 even though it doesn't have as big of a multiplier. The general consensus was if you already have a Q6600 then don't bother upgrading. If you don't have a Q6600 then get the Q9450 over the Q9300 or Q6600.

I didn't get two 8800 GTS 512 cards though. Just got one for now and I'll probably get the other one next week when I get paid. Then my SLI system will almost be complete. I'll have a few other things to upgrade like my hard drives. Replacing those PATA drives with SATA is a priority. Then get myself a blu-ray compatible drive and I'm all set.

Thanks again for the advice everyone.