Dual Video Cards

[DarkKnight]

At first I was going to buy a XPS from Dell, until I read this forum and realized how much cheaper it is to custom build. When I was considering Dell I was going to buy Dual Nvidia Geforce 7800GT's. I have been looking on New Egg, and they dont have Nvidia cards, but they have eVGA Geforce 7800 GT's. Is eVGA as reliable as Nvidia? And my second question is how would I set up the dual card thing? I presume I would buy 2 cards, then what? Is there anything else I need to buy, and how would I do it?

Another thing. I have always bought Pentium processors, but from reading stuff here it sounds like AMD processors are better for gaming. What is the AMD equivelent of a Pentium D 3.0 GHz Processor?

Third, what is a good motherboard to get? I have never had to buy a motherboard as dell supplies them.

And last, should I get better cooling and power than the stock options?

[alman9898]

you need to buy an SLI-supported motherboard before you can install dual video cards, and then you would use the switch-key and set it to SLI mode basically, I presume (I don't know, I only have an sli mobo, not nvidia cards). also, iirc, eVGA is a manufacturer of the card, the technology is by nvidia. like how powercolor, Connect3D, and sapphire make radeon cards.

[Lee1026]

Motherboard - buy the cheapest SLI motherboard unless if you're overclocking.
CPU - the closest to a Pentium D 3.0 ghz is the A64 X2 3800.

[Proximus]

Motherboard - buy the cheapest SLI motherboard unless if you're overclocking.
CPU - the closest to a Pentium D 3.0 ghz is the A64 X2 3800.

Lee I see that you often recomend that someone should buy the cheapest mothorboard they can find. This is an advice I really can't support, experience has taught me not to cheap out on the motherboard. If your motherboard has issues it means that your whole commputer will suffer. I would recomend that everyone looking for a motherboard should read some rewievs first and then go for a good mb. It's IMHO opinion worth a few extra $ to avoid trouble.

DarkKnight eVGA is the company that builds the cards, out of parts from Nvidia I may add. Wich brand you choose doesn't really matter, go for wichever is the cheapest there's no performance difference. Unless one card is OC'ed stock that is. For a motherboard I suggest you check out this one, sure it isn't the cheapest one but it's the most realiable mb out there.
For CPU it's either the AMD X2 3800+ or if you overclock a dual core opteron.

[DarkKnight]

Thx alot for the help guys

[PyrrhusIV]

I would also reccomend ASUS motherboards, they are very reliable, and the spacing between the cards is greater, meaning better airflow, compared to companies like gigabyte or Abit.

[Lee1026]

doesn't matter, not unless if you are overclocking.

[DarkKnight]

Lets say I carefully read through the overclocking faq posted here, is there a good chance of me messing it up and ruining my processor? Or is it one of those things if you do it carefully you would have to try to mess it up in order to mess it up.

[Lee1026]

That would be hard. I have been trying to break a old P3 by overclocking it, and I haven't managed that yet.

[Lee1026]

Look it this way: Motherboard companies are not small. They may be small compared to say GM, but they are still not mom and pop operations. If they constantly release a product that is simply terrible, they won't be in business any longer. If they survived for this long, it means they are not goofing up that much.

Says the guy that have 3 ECS motherboards.

[DarkKnight]

I think ill give over clocking a go. I am looking through New Egg right now putting together parts and this is what I have so far

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester 1GHz FSB 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Dual Core Processor - Retail ($313)
eVGA Geforce 7800GT 256-P2-N516 Video Card - Retail ($295) two of them
Western Digital Caviar SE 200GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM ($91)

right now I am looking at memory. There are so many different brands, and I have heard that there is a recommended brand for each pc. When your custom building what brand should you go for?

Sorry if I am asking too many questions, this is my first time having to do more than select the part you want from the lists dell gives you lol

[Proximus]

I think ill give over clocking a go. I am looking through New Egg right now putting together parts and this is what I have so far

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester 1GHz FSB 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Dual Core Processor - Retail ($313)
eVGA Geforce 7800GT 256-P2-N516 Video Card - Retail ($295) two of them
Western Digital Caviar SE 200GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM ($91)

right now I am looking at memory. There are so many different brands, and I have heard that there is a recommended brand for each pc. When your custom building what brand should you go for?

Sorry if I am asking too many questions, this is my first time having to do more than select the part you want from the lists dell gives you lol

Look at Lee's post for a very good memory set. And newer be afraid to ask questions, this is a forum to ask questions is the very purpuse of it!
If you're not overclocking I recomend the Asus A8N-SLI. REwiew can be found here

[Lee1026]

Brand - assume that it does not exist.
Other things - get 2 CAS latency, and get 1 gig.
I suggest this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231012

Mobo - I suggest the same as the other guy if and only if you are overclocking.

[DarkKnight]

I was looking at 2Gig memory. For just 40 bucks more i can get this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231044
and it is 4 CAS latency with DDR2 533 which I assume is faster than DDR 400

is this good?

[Proximus]

I was looking at 2Gig memory. For just 40 bucks more i can get this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231044
and it is 4 CAS latency with DDR2 533 which I assume is faster than DDR 400

is this good?

This is the cheap way out.
I would recomend this that's the RAM I currently has.
Right now AMD only supports DDR and not DDR2.

If it werent for you guys I would probably be getting ripped off by Dell again right now

Dell is a great choice if you aren't really interested in computers.

[Lee1026]

That is DDR 2, not for use anything made by AMD, sorry.

[DarkKnight]

Good thing I asked that then, if I didnt I would be wondering why my memory wouldnt work.

If it werent for you guys I would probably be getting ripped off by Dell again right now

[Lee1026]

I doubt you will notice the difference bewteen the one that I pointed out and the one that he pointed out. Not even the great BF2 can't use more then 1 gig of ram.

[DarkKnight]

Is this a good motherboard (i need it to be sli for dual graphics cards)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16813131540R

[OTZ]

Since you seem to have a bit of cash to spend, you should think about getting a 2GB kit - perhaps some OCZ platinum?

Chances are you'll eventually want more RAM - and it'll get difficult down the road to find identical RAM that you originally purchsed. Since some motherboards are very very picky about what RAM you have, I think 2GB kit right off the bat would be a very good idea.