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Wait till GTX280 comes out and get 3 for TRI-SLI

MraK

MraK

Senior member
Hello Everyone, I am currently building a new gaming rig for myself and I was leaning to make use of a high-end video card, by Nvidia of course, to last me at least 2 years since the trend of game requirements aren?t so demanding every few months, well that?s just me.

Question: Should i just wait till the GTX280 comes out and get 3 of them for Tri-SLI?

My current budget right now is around $4500 grand, including the Monitor

CPU: Possibly Core 2 Duo extreme, since Quad is not popular for gaming yet
Motherboard: Was thinking of the 790i SLI boards or probably wait till the 890i (that if their will ever be one like that by the end of this year lol
Memory: CORSAIR TW3X4G1600C9DHX 4gb kit (4gb x 2) 1600mhz DDR3
Videocard: Dual or even Tri if possible GTX280s, waiting till it comes out (last week of June I believe)
Optical Drive: PIONEER BDC-2202B blu-ray SATA combo DVD rw+ blu-ray player
Casing: Antec Twelve Hundred *Full-tower*
Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling TURBO-COOL 1KW-SR EPS12V 1000W
Monitor: Samsung 275T 27? inch HDMI-LCD
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit system
Aftermarket Cooling: Zalman CNPS9700 NT CPU Cooler (not familiar with what watercooling brands are the best, maybe you guys could help me on that department)

Any other suggestions would help me a lot, Thanks in advance



Since this has turned into a rig building thread I've moved it from Video to General Hardware.

Video Mod BFG10K.

MOD EDIT #2: Thread continued here. - Zap
 
Fueling economic stimilus are we? 😉

If you're wanting to spend the cash it's your game and would be a hell of a system. But serious overkill at the same time.

260's in SLI will very likely handle gaming for 2 years. 280's in SLI are are certain to. Save the cash and avoid Tri. Also, any real need for an Extreme cpu? E8400/8500's are so easy to overclock. Not to offend, but what you're talking about is a complete waste of money. There's no game, no app in sight worth that kind of coin.

Take a killer vacation with the money saved.
 
You need to make room in that budget for a 30" 25X16 res monitor.

That and a multi-GPU graphics card set to feed it are the most important part of any high end gaming rig.

You don't need 3 way SLi to push 19X12, and 19X12 is only a little more than half the pixels of 25X16.

As noted, an E8400 or E8500 will serve you just as well as any Extreme chip. (I like unlocked multipliers as well though, but I believe the Core 2 Extreme dual is a first gen Conroe- you want a second gen 45nm chip)

The Zalman is a nice fan, but not near the top of the air cooling charts these days. The Thermalright Ultra reigns supreme for air.

In short, your proposed rig is out of balance- you want too little screen for the graphics power you're proposing. If you switch monitors, you're on the right track.
 
IDK what games you are playing, but even DOD:S is now multithreaded.

I'd go for the best quad possible. You can increase clocks all you want, but you cant increase cores with the push of a button.
 
SteelSix,

First off, none taken (your statement on money) i actually agree with you totally, just wanted to make sure i have the cash for what i want to build. I think I'll stick to your suggestion on Dual 280s since i have a big feeling these cards together will be another break through in graphics and gaming. and i believe that the e8500 is a prime choice for this rig that I'm building soon. Oh btw read on a new processor thats coming out, the nehalem or something like that. Would you know more about that new processor thats coming out from Intel?

nRollo,

I heard 30' monitors for now are not so up to par with whats needed in gaming, i may be so wrong with that statement, but thats what i heard. Speaking of huge monitors, could you suggest what 30" monitor is great quality? Speaking of coolers, i read on Thermalright that its a very dependable brand over most if not all other brands. Since we're talking about CPU coolers, you think water cooling is the only way to go? *Sacrificing gaming budget for cooling budget* since i know watercooling is also an exspensive investment for any rig

Scholzpdx,

regarding Quads, ive read that Dual still out performs Quad in alot of gaming applications and still will for the next year i believe and the only way Quad would overcome Dual right now is if i got an extreme Quad, i think.
 
Please stop cross-posting across so many of our forum sections...

On-topic, consider simply using an HDTV as your monitor. Gaming on my 32" 720p Samsung is a thing of beauty, and you can now find 1080p models in the 32" range if that is your target size and quality level.
 
If I were building a gaming rig, I'd stick with a single GF280, and instead switch to an Intel mobo and possibly a quad-core cpu. The GF280 should be faster than the 9800gx2, and for the next year will play anything comfortably. By the time you need something faster, there will be newer, faster cards available. However, Intel chipsets are generally superior to Nvidia's, so unless you really want SLI I would use a mobo with an Intel chipset. It's also true that quad-cores generally don't offer any noticeable improvement over dual-cores in gaming, but that's likely to change in the near future, especially since many PC games are console ports, and those rely heavily on multithreading and multiple cores. As for the monitor, I'm using the same one now, and I like the fact that it has a bigger screen than the common 24" displays but the resolution is still manageable for a single card. It's a nice display in terms of color quality, viewing angles and minimal ghosting.
 
I'd wait for nehalem to spend that much money

WAIT -- WTF you have a great rig right now 😵

Why do you even need to upgrade XD?
Get a q9450 and call it a day if you want to mess with something new 😀

Buy the NEC LCD3090WUXi w/spectraview -- that would be AWESOME.
 
Originally posted by: MrAK

regarding Quads, ive read that Dual still out performs Quad in alot of gaming applications and still will for the next year i believe and the only way Quad would overcome Dual right now is if i got an extreme Quad, i think.
Click to expand...
I'll
The extreme series is never, ever worth it. Complete and utter waste of money. 3-4 times the price for the smallest increase in performance.

I'l say it again, never EVER worth it.

 
E8500 overclocks higher then any quad core, and a higher Ghz dual core is STILL faster for ANY game then a quad core. Even crysis gets its best performance from dual core, and they recommond quad core (it gets SOME benefit from quad, but not enough).
DDR2 is really the way to go right now. get 8GB... but 4GB of DDR3 will give you something you can easily upgrade later.

you want only a 27 inch monitor? Anyways, SLI (non tri, just dual) of the GTX 280 would be way more then enough for even that monitor. I would get a single GTX 280, and buy additional cards (upgrades or more for dual/tri sly when I get a game that has low FPS on max everything, the price of the cards should go down by then, or maybe the 55nm, refresh would occur).


Actually I looked at your CURRENT system:
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo e6600 2.4Ghz @ 3.4Ghz
MB: Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6 mb
MEM: OCZ 2GB DDR2 PC2-8500 NVIDIA SLI ready
GPU: BFG 8800GTX OC 768MB
HS/FN: Zalman CNPS9700
PSU: Thermaltake Tough Power 850w
OS: Windows XP 32x sp2

You need to replace your ram and get 8GB of ram, even if it is slower ram (PC2-6500), just as long as it is more then 2GB... 2GB is not enough for new games... and then get vista64bit. There are some amazing speedups when running native 64bit code.
The 8800GTX is good until the 280GTX comes out.. then I Would buy a single 280 until a game comes out that can top that...

The monitor you can buy TODAY, as a monitor is a peripheral, and should not be tied into any individual system. Everything else you should keep from current system.

Your plan is really just throwing money away... just upgrade the GPU to 280GTX, and upgrade the ram, and when nehalem comes out replace the mobo and CPU (maybe to an extreme nehalem and OC it 😛)

If you can't wait till nahelem... replace your Q6600 with an E8500 and OC it to 4GHZ, it will be faster in games then your 3.4ghz Q6600
 
Originally posted by: Scholzpdx
IDK what games you are playing, but even DOD:S is now multithreaded.

I'd go for the best quad possible. You can increase clocks all you want, but you cant increase cores with the push of a button.
Click to expand...


Multithreaded seems to mean very little these days:

At COD4, Lost Planet, and UT3, a low cost dual core performs the same as a Q6600

Do you have links to any benches of 3GHz Qaud core outperforming 3GHz dual core at 19X12 or higher like this guy is going to run?
 
Originally posted by: Spicedaddy
Spend 2500$, keep 2000$ for upgrades in the future.

4500$ for a gaming pc is a waste, it'll still be slow next year... 😀
Click to expand...

:thumbsup: OP shouldn't need to spend all of his $4500 - unless this is Brewster's Millions 😛
 
Originally posted by: Foxery
Please stop cross-posting across so many of our forum sections...
Click to expand...

Yes, otherwise I'll have to whip out my mod hat and lock one of them. But... I'm feeling generous today... got out of work early and have a LAN party tomorrow. I'll leave 'em alone, since they do kind of ask two different things.

Originally posted by: nRollo
Do you have links to any benches of 3GHz Qaud core outperforming 3GHz dual core at 19X12 or higher like this guy is going to run?
Click to expand...

I recall aigomorla was saying that Supreme Commander exhibits noticeably better performance with quads if you are on a large map and have a large unit cap.

Originally posted by: nRollo
You need to make room in that budget for a 30" 25X16 res monitor.
...
You don't need 3 way SLi to push 19X12, and 19X12 is only a little more than half the pixels of 25X16.
Click to expand...

That's actually pretty good advice from Rollo. He should know, as he's probably played around with more SLI and TriSLI than most around here.
 
I believe Supreme Commander and FSX are supposed to benefit substantially from quad core, but not any other current game.
 
Originally posted by: CP5670
I believe Supreme Commander and FSX are supposed to benefit substantially from quad core, but not any other current game.
Click to expand...

That's about what I thought as well- a couple games that aren't on my daily play list. (although I've read Supreme Commander is the stuff for that type of game)

And thanks Zap- I ended up buying 30" when I went three way, best way to see benefit from it. You can crank AA to the max with it at 19X12 and get some benefit, but for most games you need 25X16 to cost justify in my opinion.

I do like 19X12 monitors as a "mainstream enthusiast" panel, just not for the $4500 budget machine.
 
my suggestions....

CPU - E8400

video - dual gtx 280's

monitor - dell 3007wfp-hc

The E8400 is the best for gaming now and it will only cost you about 200. The Samsung 275T is bad for gaming. I would suggest the 3007WFP-HC which will give you a big beautiful picture with less input lag than the Samsung. And two GTX 280's should give you enough power for that 30 inch display.
 
gersson,

The reason for a new rig is because I'll be giving my current rig to my baby-sister who just graduated from highschool (a gift) and since your on the subject on Quads, would a q9450 out perform a e8500, in high-end games of this current year?

taltamir, my current rig will no longer be my rig *read statement to gersson above* and i have decided to wait and stick with 1 GTX280 for now and get another making by the end of this year. (thats if the GTX280 ends up being a hit of course)
 
I'd have to agree with the others on the cpu if you use your system predominately for gaming.

You're obviously no stranger to oc'ing so i'd recommend an e8400, stick a TR ultra 120 HSF on it & you'll be able to get to 4ghz no probs (which will spank the q9650).
If you really want a quad then wait till you get your 2nd GTX280 at xmas as the prices will be lower, there will be quicker models available & there should be far more games out which will actually take advantage of the extra 2 cores.
 
On the topic of dual vs Quad, even if I would notice some increase in performance in games with dual and less with Quad, the fact that some games coming out, nearing the end of this year, and most definetly next year, will most likely benefit more with Quad, wouldnt it be more plausible to get a Quad, say in mid july, since cpu's will have price cuts by that time?
 
please disregard this thread. *For everyone who has been viewing and posting on this thread, i have relayed this topic to the general hardware section under "Final Gaming Rig" and there you could finally see what specs i chose for my new gaming rig* check it out!
 
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