[alphaBeta] said:
Wow, nice build. Thanks for the feedback too.
I figured when I was matching components that this would work great for newer games. I'm just a little worried about these random glitches that seem to be plaguing high end systems for no apparent reason. I'm sure that won't stop me though.
What do you think of SLI? Is it worth it? I've done research into it, and find it supposedly makes the biggest difference at higher resolutions. What are your thoughts? Do you have any issues with airflow given these two cards? I hear they tend to run pretty hot. I've been trying to find a good case to avoid heat problems.
Welcome to the forums btw.
Thanks for the welcome
I was planning to properly introduce myself but when I saw your post and how close your future specs were to mine, I had to jump in and speak up.
I'm not sure what glitches you're referring to, but in general, I think technology is advancing so rapidly that designers/manufacturers are having a harder time ensuring their products are as compatible with everything else as they did in days gone by.
If you think about it, by the time someone designs and manufactures (for example) a motherboard to certain specs - and then actually releases it for retail purchase - the other components being connected to the motherboard could have gone through several revisions and may not be
as compatible with each other as initially intended. Take a gander at the number of BIOS revisions for any given motherboard since it was released... :shocked
There's also the argument that PC's these days are getting easier and easier to build so we're seeing a lot more "do-it-yourself'ers" than before and without trying to sound overtly elitist - there are a great many people that lack the knowledge to completely build, tweak, and troubleshoot a PC to get it running glitch free.
Now, as I step down from my soap-box...
SLI - Well, I was a huge nay-sayer of SLI about 4 weeks ago. I simply couldn't justify the costs given the relative benefits. It seemed to me, as you mentioned, that it was an excessive amount of money to spend simply to have more eye candy at higher resolutions. There were numerous reviews, articles, tests, what have you, that proved it wasn't worth it for the average gamer or anyone who didn't live and die by 1600x1200, 4x-8x AA gaming...
Needless to say, I was already dead set on getting the Asus A8n-SLI Premium motherboard (I am THE Asus fanboy, have been for years..) and since it has two PCI-E 16x slots, I figured I'd get a good card and be happy with the knowledge that I had room to add another if Fate chose to make a fool out of me.
When the time came to bite the bullet and buy the parts, Fate, my longtime nemesis, was cruel enough to place the eVGA GeForce 6800 GT 256MB PCI-E at a price point that was too good to simply buy just one. Being the frugal shopper that I like to think I am, I had to buy two.
Long story not much shorter, I have SLI enabled and I'll never go back. What else can I say other than 2 is, infact, twice as good as 1...
I have yet to fully test or benchmark my rig, so I cannot substantiate any claims that 2 cards = twice the glory, but I can say that you absolutely have to see it in action to fully appreciate the wonder that is SLI...
As for heat issues..
I have the Antec Performace PlusView II case with an Antec TruePower 2.0 550W power supply and 2 additional Antec 80mm fans installed (mounted up front for intake) and the Thermaltake CL-P0075 heatsink/fan combo.
I'm running 38C CPU temp at full load and 28C-31C CPU temp at idle. That's with a room temp of 68-75 F.
I have yet to see my case temperature rise above 34C and I can hear my cat breathing 18 feet away - so it's quiet and cool even with two cards and two fans running. Score one for Antec, if you catch my drift..
The Asus motherboard does a great job of spacing the cards out so they aren't on top of one another (a common problem from what I've read.)
For reference - I had (previous to this rig):
Falcon Northwest Fragbox (series 1)
2.4 Ghz Intel P4
Motherboard of unknown origin
1GB PC2700 memory
BFG Tech GeForce 5200 Ultra 128MB
230W? Power Supply of unknown origin
Ran like a top for a few years, she saw just about every DVD-RW drive on the market and hard drives ranging from 40GB to 250GB and that darn thing never complained, BSOD'd on me, locked up, lagged, you name it...
Now she'd retired to early grave and became an "email and Instant Messenger" box for the youngin's.. :angel
Oh, and I forgot to mention - I really,
REALLY, like to type...sorry~!
![[alphaBeta]](/data/avatars/m/0/178.jpg?1606419622){kind=avatar}