So, I built the most bad ahz computer

[TAS]

... But it was about 4 years ago. I was up on building computers back then, but I did such a great job meshing this machine together I haven't had to do a thing to it since it's build.

I have two ASUS 7800 GTX running in SLI
AMD 64 FX 57 (939 socket)
Running on the A8N32 SLI Deluxe board
2 sticks Corsair 3500LL Pro

I think my vid cards are starting to die

My question, should I buy a couple more 7800 GTX cards cheap or 1 newer card and what? Will they even be compatable?

Suggestions?

[omgidied]

new card for sure.

if you want to be a cheap bastard.. you can always pick up a 9800GT for about $100, or a GTS 250 for about $120, but if your willing to spend $160-$170 you can get a GTX 260

look on amazon.

i just picked up some parts today for my birthday present to me.. starting a new build.

Coolermaster HAF 932 full tower case - ordered
Intel i7 950 3.06GHz - birthday present
Evga x58 Classified - birthday present
2x GTX 260 (from current system)
1x 9800GTX2 (from current system) -dedicated physX card
6GB DDR3 OCZ - ordered
2x veloci-raptors (from current system)
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX PSU (from current system)
Coolermaster V8 cooler - ordered

[TAS]

I'm cheap right now for sure, but $160-170 is not bad considering what I spent on the 7800's when they first came out.

No compatability issues with the power supply or slot sizes?


Thanks for the reply!

[omgidied]

you would have to check your psu ratings but as for motherboard the A8N32 SLI Deluxe board should work great with any of those cards. just beware they are BIG so if you got a small midtower case its going to take a little fiddling to get it in there.

and if your really looking to go cheap..

check frys there newest ad has a BFG GTS 250 for $99 and $79 after MIR.

[Chonkey]

gtx 260 can be had for 150 on a good sale. i highly recommend this card. just make sure it's the newer version with core 216. you'll probably need a good psu to support it- around 500watt.

[TAS]

I'm gonna keep my eye on that card, right now with a quick look it's running about $200. The tower and power supply sould be sized plenty big as long as they haven't changed the phasing.

Thanks for all the replies.

[pengy]

You are going to run into some bottlenecking issues with that board though, might be small. I don't know why none of you suggested an ATi... If you are going to SLi, you would probably need a newer power supply, not because of the phasing, but becuase of the amps that newer graphics cards (especially nvidia gtx series) use. Also if you would sli, you would definately bottleneck your cpu/ram/northbridge becuase of the enourmous amout of bandwidth you are pusing through the old nforce 4 series chipset, they both run at 8x electrical anyways. So what I am suggesting is to either get a single nvidia/ati card (~9800gt or somthing similar for nvidia, and 3870 for ati) to hold you over until you get a new system, or get a new system right now. You will not be able to sli 2 different types of cards, so you cant replace one of them with an 8800gt or something like that.

[SuperDuff]

Ok for situation if you are willing to spend 200$ DO NOT just throw it at the first thing that will work. For instance, you could buy a 750i SLI motherboard that will fit 2 PCI-Express 2.0 slots in it. so My answer would be, Buy the 750i motherboard, and one 9800GTX, That will work for most games unless your talking about Running Crysis which in case you will need all of Omgidied's birthday presents and more . Btw Omgidied whoever bought that stuff for you, you should love them very much.



-SkylineGTR

[EclipseGSX]

Originally Posted by pengy

You are going to run into some bottlenecking issues with that board though, might be small. I don't know why none of you suggested an ATi... If you are going to SLi, you would probably need a newer power supply, not because of the phasing, but becuase of the amps that newer graphics cards (especially nvidia gtx series) use. Also if you would sli, you would definately bottleneck your cpu/ram/northbridge becuase of the enourmous amout of bandwidth you are pusing through the old nforce 4 series chipset, they both run at 8x electrical anyways. So what I am suggesting is to either get a single nvidia/ati card (~9800gt or somthing similar for nvidia, and 3870 for ati) to hold you over until you get a new system, or get a new system right now. You will not be able to sli 2 different types of cards, so you cant replace one of them with an 8800gt or something like that.

Actually, the bottleneck you speak of would not be from x8 lanes, as the a8n32 board was dual x16 lanes physically and electrically (check this out), but more likely due to the fact that the processor in question is a 2.8GHz single-core processor (assuming stock speeds).

@Superduff: While the nvidia 750i boards are pretty sweet, the one drawback in this instance is the fact that the OP is using an AMD 939-socket cpu and DDR1, so an intel LGA775 board with DDR2 -- while pretty -- is not a valid solution However, kudos for touching on the BIOS update (at least I'm assuming that's where you were going with your first line)

To the OP: In short term, I would recommend probably one of the cheaper new cards due to cost vs payoff... but in the long-term, newer components throughout would be advisable. And yes, PCI-Express x16 2.0 card will work in x16 1.1 slots (which are on the a8n32).

[TAS]

Back to the drawing board. I'm going to build new and spend $2-3k. Any suggestions?