Yet another rigg help please

[luppo]

he everyone i currently run,

p4 3.0 Ht
asus p5p 800 motherboard
1 gig ddr 400 ocz premium
bfg geforce 6800 gs oc 256mbddr3 agp
sounblaster xfi fatilty
and some 500 watt psu
thermalrock eclipse case

The upgrade in mind is,
Asus P5N32-E SLI Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4 GHz
2 x DDR2-800 PC2-6400 Gold XTC 2GB 4 gig total
2x BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC nVidia GeForce 8800GTS Chipset (550MHz) Shader Clock (1200MHz) 320MB (1.6GHz)

I have done some reading and its puzzling to the amount of probs one can have so please lets pick some holes before i flush 2k down the drain or is it do-able

[sswilson]

First thing I'd suggest is that you consider spending well over $200 on a PSU if you want to run a couple of 8800s in SLI.

I don't have the link with me, but if I remember correctly they can pull 180+w apiece.

(Damn..... I'm starting to sound like one of those PSU Nazis!!!!!! )

Welcome to the forums BTW!

[luppo]

ya i meant to say i was also getting,
OCZ (OCZ700GXSSLI) GameXStream 700 Watt
and thanks for the welcome

[Babrbarossa]

Welcome-- the GTS burns 100W, i think, and the gts burns 160.

I love giving advice even if it may not be of the expert variety.

I personally would go for one 8800gtx for now as it would be cheaoer and can deliver more performance than you could possibly use with less power draaw, less heat produced, and less quirky issues resulting from SLI which is still immature. Then later down the road, when you can afford it, grab a second one for a real screamer!

If you're going big, though- definately don't go for the 320 MB version of the gts-- just becasue you have two doesn't mean you're working with double the memory, and you'll have spent a lot of money but will still be somewhat limited in the future with demanding games.

I also might go for 2*1GB of faster ram instead of the overpriced, quite slow 2*2 GB ocz Gold- you might find stability issues, but more importantly, you'll be limiting your overclock with it. (sorry- i guess not with the 680i as it unlinks)

And if you're going for SLI for sure, I would choose the evga 680i- some people here will argue with that , but it's the best SLI board out there.

Oh- and not to sound like a parrot, but SKWAK- get a new psu

edit- oh just saw your second post

[Babrbarossa]

Right-- i forgot about those boards-- they're the ones that use the 590 southbridge, right?-- does it use the 680 northbridge? or the 650...solid state capacitors too?

OH! ok- I've got it now..hehe..it is a 680i....have you looked into asus' support for this board? I've done a little bit of reading around tonight- evga might be better for support-- they also may be on the verge of a hardware revision for the 680i- when are you planning on buying?

Here's some ram you might want to look at (team extreme dark series)-- apparently it has very good overclocking at low voltages- some memory problems with the 680i seem to stem from volting ram over 2.2V, so it might be an especially good set for that board.

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...%20Group%20Inc.

[luppo]

Okay sold evga board looks appealing, only one I can find where I shop is
eVGA 122-CK-NF68 for 10$ more then the asus board.
Now the memory issue what mem is recommended and preferable from
Canada Computer

Also thinking twice on the sli so im gonna grab,
BFG GeForce 8800 GTX 768mb then another one in futre

[luppo]

heh, missed last post the ocz's I mentioned where 238.00 for 2*1024 not sure what the voltages are on them. The timings are slower 5-5-5. Would timings affect overclock ability? and how does evga stack up against asus for overclocking

[Babrbarossa]

well if you're shopping at Canada Computer, I'd say go for this just because it's such good value-
http://www.canadacomputers.com/index...70&cid=RAM.475
although it's even cheaper at NCIX
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...anufacture=OCZ Technology

or if you want to go for something higher end and it has to be from Canada Computers you might try the corsair dominators which are good.
edit-- just noticed that they have a good price on them too!
http://www.canadacomputers.com/index...96&cid=RAM.475

Or else you might try the link I posted below- have you checked out direct canada or ncix for prices on your stuff? they're very competative.

You can get the ocz gold 6400 5-5-5-12 for $200 at Direct Canada (wow some memory is getting cheap these days)-- I have that and it's running at 4-4-4-12 800MHz.

http://www.directcanada.com/products...ture=SMARTDISK

The teamextreme overclocks quite a bit better (like 4-4-4-8 or something stupid) but it's more (~270)

Here's a review for the team extreme stuff where they had it overclocked to 1160MHz at 5-5-5-8-- if these speeds can be reached then this memory is unbelievable!
http://www.overclockersonline.net/index.php?page=articles&num=871&pnum=0
it's also cheaper at Direct Canada:
http://www.directcanada.com/products...%20Group%20Inc.

And while I'm at it-- here's a good price on the 8800gtx ($697):
http://www.directcanada.com/products...nufacture=EVGA

[Gav]

I'm with Babrbarossa. Go with a 2gb kit with tighter timings instead of a 4gb kit. To many problems with MB's running 4gb and you won't get any significant performance increase.

[luppo]

yeah the Team Xtreem Dark Series PC2-6400 2GB 2X1GB DDR2-800 CL 4-4-4-12 240PIN DIMM Dual Channel Memory Kit is what i am eyeing at the present time but really what board to stick them in it seems they have problems in someway