Newbie PC Build

[wesoprock]

This is basically going to be my second PC build and it looks like I'm behind the times. I was thinking of going AMD 64 x2 4400, (hard drive and optical drives are taken care of), 2 Gigs of Ram, a 7900 card, and a 19'' lcd (thanks to anandtech's LCD forum).

Now my question would be, what would be a good mobo? If I were to buy a mobo that's capable of SLI, would it hurt performance if I'm ony running one card? I was trying to decide between an ASUS or DFI.

I don't plan to OC too much, just a little push, but nothing too drastic. I have heard with AMD cpus that the kind of ram (value or special, ex. xms, hyper-x) doesn't matter, is this still true?

And finally, out of the 7900 family of cards, if you were going to go single, which one would you get? SLI, which one would you get?

Thanks in advance. -Newbie

 

[LOUISSSSS]

you've just answered all your questions... 4400 like you said, 2gb ram aka ocz platinum, 7900gt 7900gtx if you're a baller, asus for noobs, dfi if you've put together at least 2 computers in the past...and know a lil about bios

 

[Tig Ol Bitties]

DFI is best for OC, make sure to frequent dfi-street.com if you plan to go this route, lots of help there. You will have no problems or performance depletion running 1 card in an SLi board...SLi is an option, not a requirement :laugh:

With RAM, the better quality gives you better performance and more OC capabilities, but I guess value would be fine for small overclocks...dunno really, dont use value stuff.

7900gtx hands down if you got the dough for it, check out ATI's X1900XTX as well. If you can afford 7900gtx SLi, then get the ASUS A8N32, Premium, or Deluxe mobo or the DFI Expert because the PCI-E spacing is far apart, which you will need for those fat fans on the cards

 

[Luckyboy1]

Hate to be the wet blanket here. but what do you have now and what do you hope to be able to do with the new rig that the old one ain't makin' it at?

 

[alimoalem]

Originally posted by: Luckyboy1
Hate to be the wet blanket here. but what do you have now and what do you hope to be able to do with the new rig that the old one ain't makin' it at?

actually that would be very good to know

get the 7900gt if you want a decent gaming rig...get 2 gigs value. if it doesn't overclock too well, run a divider

go with the asus if you won't go all out on the overclock. it's more stable and they don't overclock bad

 

[wesoprock]

I am currently running an AMD 2400 XP, 512 megs of ram (PC2700 - Kingston Value), and a 6600GT. I was just playing the single player demo for F.E.A.R. and I don't know whether or not it was because it's a demo, but it would somewhat skip at points in the game. Otherwise, it looks like a good game to pick up. So, my question would be, even if I did purchase a mobo capable of running SLi, would it hurt performance if I only ran one card?

 

[smopoim86]

no, although if you aren't planning on going sli then i wouldn't fool with the sli board, by the time you would want to go sli it would be more logical to get the new socket system.

I wonder if a couple of high end 6800s in sli mode would be comparable to a 7900gt. Cause they would be about the same price