HEadline....Addict needs to Build another

[Merlin]

I just built the system below and now I have to quinch my thirst with another.
I'm tired tonight at looking at motherboards, I start my system with that approach.
I'm looking at the DDR3 boards at 1333 Mhz FSB, but most only have one PCIe X16 slot. Foxcon looks good but they seem to follow that suit of one PCIe16 slot....I wonder if SLI is dying?
Now I'm considering the ASUS P5K3 DELUXE/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard but there is another board I'm pondering also. It's a ASUS P5K64 WS LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard which has 4 PCIe 16x slots. If I'm not mistaken I think the Agiea physics card uses a regular PCI slot. I've searched all over trying to find out.
Maybe this is the next step in gaming...or maybe not. There is a lot on the Ageia card helping the system overall anyways.
Okay, so the Asus P5K3 board with a Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz LGA 775 Processor.

Last build was an AMD AM2.

Merlin

 

[Rob Williams]

SLI is not dying... it's just that NVIDIA doesn't support DDR3 at this point in time. Rumors are that a 790i chipset in the new year will support the memory, but 780i is their next flagship chipset, and that will support DDR2.

The P5K64 doesn't support SLI, despite the four PCI-E slots. It might handle quad Crossfire, but I can't say for certain. Regardless, four video cards is not needed right now... purchasing one real good one (such as the 8800GTX) should prove more than enough.

AGEIA has cards available in PCI and PCI-E, although I believe the latter is available to -just- OEMs. Those cards might be available somewhere, but it's not meant to be sold that way intentionally.

To be honest, instead of getting a P5K3 and dual-core processor, I'd get a better processor (Quad-Core perhaps, future-proofing a little) and a P5K Deluxe (DDR2). DDR3 memory will set you back at least $400 and really offers no other advantages except for having the latest and "greatest".

 

[b1lk1]

Intel chipsets don't do SLI and there is no reason to expect that to change since they are in direct competiton with nVidia. AMD is not in direct competition with anyone right now so they are allowing Crossfire on their own and Intel boards. nVidia are just stupid for not allowing it on any boards but their own.

Listen to Rob. No logical reason to get a E6850 since their only real advantage for now is the higher stock FSB. Get a cheap quad and a cheap mobo and run with it till next Spring/Summer when there will be enough new released stuff to make it worth going for the latest greatest.

 

[Merlin]

Good advice from both of you.
I'm in a little competition here, a buddy of mine is about to build another machine, his last was two years ago, so he wants an up to date system ( if there ever is one )
We both want to play Crysis and I haven't seen any specs for the game to run ( system ) at a decent level.
I'll google again for the specs

Merlin

 

[Merlin]

Minimum Requirements for Crysis

<TABLE class=table-cell-background cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=2 width=500 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top align=right width=75>CPU:</TD><TD vAlign=center align=left width=414>Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz (3.2 GHz for Vista), Intel Core 2.0 GHz (2.2 GHz for Vista), AMD Athlon 2800+ (3200+ for Vista) or better</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top align=right>RAM: </TD><TD vAlign=center align=left>1GB (1.5GB on Windows Vista)</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top align=right>Video Card:</TD><TD vAlign=center align=left>NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (Radeon X800 Pro for Vista) or better</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top align=right>VRAM:</TD><TD vAlign=center align=left>256MB of Graphics Memory</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top align=right>Storage:</TD><TD vAlign=center align=left>12GB</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top align=right>Sound Card:</TD><TD vAlign=center align=left>DirectX 9.0c Compatible</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top align=right>ODD:</TD><TD vAlign=center align=left>DVD-ROM</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top align=right>OS:</TD><TD vAlign=center align=left>Microsoft Windows XP or Vista</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top align=right>DirectX:</TD><TD vAlign=center align=left>DX9.0c or DX10</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

Recommended Requirements

<TABLE class=table-cell-background cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=2 width=500 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top align=right>CPU:</TD><TD vAlign=center align=left>Core 2 Duo/Athlon X2 or better</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top align=right width=75>RAM: </TD><TD vAlign=center align=left width=414>1.5GB</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top align=right>Video Card:</TD><TD vAlign=center align=left>NVIDIA 7800 Series, ATI Radeon 1800 Series or better</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top align=right>VRAM:</TD><TD vAlign=center align=left>512MB of Graphics Memory</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top align=right>Storage:</TD><TD vAlign=center align=left>12GB</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top align=right>Sound Card:</TD><TD vAlign=center align=left>DirectX 9.0c Compatible</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top align=right>ODD:</TD><TD vAlign=center align=left>DVD-ROM</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top align=right>OS:</TD><TD vAlign=center align=left>Microsoft Windows XP or Vista</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top align=right>DirectX:</TD><TD vAlign=center align=left>DX9.0c or DX10</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>