Crossfire and SLI?

[crimsonjack]

Hey, I'm trying to figure out what I should or should not get for my new computer.
This is my first time buying a computer over $500, so I'm in a little bit in the dark,

but not completely.

I just really need some suggestions.
But I will take your opinions very seriously,
and you will probably effect what (or where?) i buy.

First off, here is what I;ve come up with so far:

BUDGET: $1300-1600

CyberPowerPC.com: $1505.00

CASE: NEW!!! CoolerMaster Cosmos Silent Gaming Tower Case w/ 420 Watts Power Supply (Original Color)
CPU: (Socket AM2) AMD Athlon?64 X2 4800+ Dual-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
MOTHERBOARD: (Socket AM2)Asus M2N-E SLI NVIDIA nForce 500 SLI MCP Chipset DDR2/800 SATA RAID PCI-Express MBoard w/GbLAN, IEEE1394, USB2.0, &7.1Audio
MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)4GB (2x2GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Value Select or Major Brand)
VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 16X PCI Express (EVGA Powered by NVIDIA)
VIDEO CARD 2: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 16X PCI Express (EVGA Powered by NVIDIA)
LCD Monitor: NONE
HARD DRIVE: Single Hard Drive (500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)
Data Hard Drive: NONE
Optical Drive: (Special Price) 18X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BLACK COLOR)
Optical Drive 2: 16X DVD ROM (BLACK COLOR)
SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO


Should i spend the extra money to upgrade my motherboard, or do you think this is fine?
Here is what I can choose from:

(Socket AM2)Asus M2A-VM AMD 690G Chipset DDR2/800 SATA RAID PCI-Express MBoard w/Radeon X1250 Graphic,GbLAN,IEEE1394,USB2.0,&7.1Audio()[-$8]More ...
(Socket AM2)Asus M2N-E SLI NVIDIA nForce 500 SLI MCP Chipset DDR2/800 SATA

RAID PCI-Express MBoard w/GbLAN,IEEE1394,USB2.0,&7.1Audio()[+$0]More ...

(Socket AM2)Asus Crosshair nForce 590 SLI MCP Chipset DDR2/800 MBoard w/ Dual 16x PCI-Express()[+$174]More ...

(Socket AM2)Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe nForce 590 SLI MCP Chipset DDR2/800 MBoard w/ Dual 16x PCI-Express()[+$102]More ...

(Socket AM2)Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe nForce 570 SLI MCP Chipset DDR2/800 MBoard w/ Dual PCI-Express()[+$60]More ...

(Socket AM2)MSI K9N SLI Platinum nForce 570 SLI MCP Chipset DDR2/800 SATA-II RAID MBoard w/ Dual 16x PCI-Express()[+$47]More ...

CrossFire Ready

(Socket AM2)Asus M2A-MVP AMD 480X Crossfire Chipset DDR800 Dual PCIE SATA RAID MB w/GbLAN,USB2.0,IEEE1394,&5.1Audio()[+$6]More ...

(Socket AM2)Asus M2R32-MVP AMD 580X Crossfire Chipset DDR800 Dual PCIE SATA RAID MB w/GbLAN,USB2.0,2xIEEE1394,&7.1Audio()[+$42]More ...

($20 off Mail-in Rebate)(Socket AM2)MSI K9A Platinum AMD 580X Crossfire Chipset DDR800 Dual PCIE SATA RAID MB w/GbLAN,USB2.0,2xIEEE1394,&7.1Audio()[+$48]

What I dont understand is, what is the benefits of having a crossfire ready mobo? And what is SLI?

Thanks for reading =)
Please help me out!

 

[Aluvus]

SLI and Crossfire are both ways of using two (or in certain cases, more) video cards together. SLI is for NVIDIA cards, Crossfire is for ATI/AMD cards. The processing load is split between the cards, allowing them to function more or less like a single card. The resulting performance is better than a single card, but never twice as good.

For the vast majority of users, neither is really a cost-effective option. Two mid-range cards will not outperform one top-range card, etc. If you want to build the absolute most powerful system that money can buy, then grabbing two of whatever video card happens to be the most powerful currently available is the way to go.

In general you would get better results by taking the money you would have spent on a second card, throwing it in a high-interest savings account, and then replacing your card one or two generations later. This is particularly true if you sell off the old card on eBay or somesuch.

 

[crimsonjack]

Do you think I should rethink things are just start out with one card for now, and forget crossfire?

 

[Heidfirst]

yes, & most of the people here would probably suggest that you look at getting an Intel Core 2 CPU & appropriate mobo instead of the AMD.

However, in order for people to make appropriate suggestions it would be useful to know what is your new PC mainly for (office, gaming, encoding etc.)?

 

[Skott]

Dual card setups for better performance really isnt realized unless you are gaming at resolutions over 1600x1200. Basically 24" or larger LCDs. The general rule of thumb is if you are running resolutions less than 1600x1200(22" LCD or smaller) it is more cost effective to use just one better/larger card instead of two.

 

[jonmcc33]

SLI is a waste. It's game profile enabled, not hardware forced. If it really offered 80-100% performance boost hardware oriented I'd say it would be worth it. As for now, it's a complete joke and mainly people with a lot of money to burn or idiots buy into it.

 

[Skott]

True. Most gamers only see 10%-40% performance increase but thats also dependent on resolution, the game, and which cards you are using in SLI/CF mode. Too many varibles and a much higher cost.

 

[jeffw2767602]

Get a Q6600 and a p35 motherboard. Forget SLI.

 

[niggles]

forget crossfire, ATI offers inferior performance. I understand that ATI will give you a cheaper product, but just read the benchmarks, Nvidia is simply better. Whether you go with SLI or not is up to you, but don't go crossfire.

 

[guptasa1]

You know, quite honestly a few months back, I was all set to go with a fully top-tier SLI setup. And the more research I did, the more I couldn't justify it. (In my case, I decided against a 680i board because of the instability, which eliminated SLI anyways, but that was a good thing as it made me rethink my position).

In the end, I decided I think the best route for me to take is build the best *single-card* system I can (still haven't pulled the plug but soon) and then just upgrade cards a bit more often. It's cheaper, uses less power, makes less heat, is less buggy...there are a lot of pros and not that many cons in my opinion. True, you won't be as fast as a machine *at that particular moment you buy* with SLI or Crossfire and the fastest cards available, but, chances are, the very next high-end (or new mid-end even) part that comes out will blow away...or at least beat out slightly, that expensive SLI/Crossfire setup. And then those people get the fun decision of staying with what you have or upgrading BOTH cards. Or switching to a single card setup at the end of the day anyways. Just seems more hassle than it's worth.

Plus, in my opinion, now that they're talking triple and quadruple multi-card solutions, things are just getting silly.

Nothing wrong with that if you have the money and sufficient cooling to do it. Heck, if I had unlimited funds, why not (heh - I'd probably wait for the new Skulltrail with 2 CPU's and 3 or 4 Video Cards - lol)? But you can do a lot better for cheaper without sacrificing much here IMHO, which is what I decided to do in the real world. (Heh - something like that would probably blow my circuit breaker anyways).