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SLI PCI Express or AGP for AMD 64

C

Cow Fly

Member
I am planning to build my first computer sometime next week and am still unsure what would be with best way to go with the motherboard and videocard.

If I went with PCI Express then I would have to get the ASUS A8N-SLI DELUXE MOTHERBOARD NFORCE4 since it is the only one currently available, but I would have to wait for the video card which would probably be the eVGA GeForce 6800 GT 256MB. However this comes to around $668.35 without shipping. If I went AGP then I would get the MSI "K8N Neo2 Platinum" NVIDIA nForce3 ULTRA Chipset Motherboard and the eVGA nVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra Video Card, 256MB GDDR3, 256-bit. I have been waiting for a long time so I would rather not wait a few more months for the price on the PCI Express motherboards to come down. Anyway there will be even newer technology then that I will want to wait for. So my question is should I go the SLI route and add another 6800 gt later or get the cheaper MSI motherboard with the 6800 Ultra. I am worried about upgradeability. I do not want to not be able to upgrade my video card in a year or two finding out that there are no AGP video cards available.
 
In 1-2 years you would likely be upgrading again no matter what you get today. How much power do you really need?

There will be AGP cards in 1-2 years. They may not be the expensive FPS crown holders though like the X850 XT PE which the availability upon release is still under question. By expensive I mean in the 500-600 dollar range.

Your main concern is SLI. However I find it hard to contemplate anyone other than a complete benchmark nutt wanting to stuff two 6800 Ultras in their system with a 500 watt quality PSU. But that choice is yours to make. Who says in a year from now they might be making a cheaper dual core video card that uses less the power draw than any other SLI set up? SLI in my opinion is a risk to anyone other than the people wanting to stuff two 6600 GTs in their box.

But I must restate my first sentence. You will be likely upgrading again no matter what you get today in 1-2 years. If you are willing to spend that much cash now, you will have the exact same itch to upgrade to the latest and greatest that almost all the populous of Anand suffer from.
 
X850XT PE for 500-600 bucks? Not to be biased, I love ATI, but I can't trust them with pricing and availability anymore. Not with what they've been showing with the X800XTs...
 
It's is not that I reall need SLI it just that the ASUS board is the only one available now and having the option to use SLI if I ever want to is comforting.
 
Well the thing is, by the time you need to upgrade your 6800GT with another one, video cards better than 2 6800GTs will be out by then. That's what happened to the 6600GT, two 6600GTs is a waste (even a single 6800GT beats it by a lot).
 
If I can't find a reasonably priced PCI Express card then I may have to go with AGP.
I don't really want a 6600GT when I can get a 6800Ultra for AGP.
 
ATI is about to release a bunch of PCIe cards (X850XT, X850Pro, X850XL <--this is the one you want). The XL is supposed to be like 300 bucks, is PCIe, has 16 pipes, and is neck in neck with the 6800GT (even beats it at a few games). As long as ATI can promise availability and reasonably close-to-MSRP pricing...
 
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