Does Size Matter? ;-)

[clumsypyro]

Hey so I just have a quick little question . . .

I'm gonna be getting a desktop soon and I was planning on getting the EVGA 750i FTW mobo, and a EVGA 260 GTX, and I was wondering if the 260 GTX would fit in an Antec 900 with that mobo?

Thanks agains ^_^

 

[clumsypyro]

P.S.

Also I plan to SLI in the future. (in about 6 to 9 months MAX)

 

[lunyone]

Yes it would, but I'm not sure if the 750i mobo is a good selection. I've been reading over the past few months of nVidia based mobo's that have been having quality issues with them. I'm not saying your going to have issues, but I'd read up on reviews of your board before buying. There are plenty of p45/x38/x48 mobo's out there that are good boards. If you sticking with a 260gtx and have plans on SLI'ing, than you might want to stick with an nVidia based mobo. Otherwise I'd suggest getting an AMD 4850 instead of the 260gtx. Some of the p45 based mobo's will do X-fire and won't cost you an arm and a leg. If you select one of these boards, you'll be able to add another 4850 and do X-fire. 2 x 4850's in X-fire right now will blow just about any combo out the water, especially for about $280-320!!!
What are the rest of your specs?? I wouldn't want to recommend a X-fire setup if you don't have a sufficient PSU to handle it. I'd still recommend a 4850 over the 260gtx, for the reasons stated above.

 

[lunyone]

P.S.

Also I plan to SLI in the future. (in about 6 to 9 months MAX)

What resolutions are you going to be running under??? If your running at <1440x900 than an SLI/X-fire setup won't benefit you too much. If your going to be >1440x900 than a SLI/X-fire setup will help out.
I forgot to ask, what is your budget and what are your proposed build parts?

 

[clumsypyro]

Well here goes, nothing is set in stone just general musings and leaning towards:

CPU:
Either the E8500 from Intel (Core 2 Duo, 3.16 GHz)
or
AMD 9950 BE (2.6GHz, Quad Core)
not 100% sure which I want mainly cuz I like the speed of the E8500 but I like that the 9950 is a bit more future proof, but the speed/performance won't be as good, and I will be using this for gaming.

Graphics card:
either the 4850 or the 260gtx, still on the boarder between the two

mobo:
depends on which processor/graphics card i go with, if i go with amd i'd rather go with an ATI card and a mobo that is Xfire capable, if i go with intel, id rather go with nVidia and an SLI capable mobo. any reccomendations?

monitor:
Hanns G 28" HD monitor (will go up to 1920x1200)

Memory:
4 GB of Mushkin (5-5-5-15) @ 1066MHz

HD:
WD Raptor 10K for OS and Games and
another 500 GB @ 7200 for music/photos/storage

Power supply:
I'm gonna dual power supply with FSP's 450W for the processor and another separate 400W for the video card only, here is the link for the two:
1) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104037
2) [url=http://www.newegg.com/Product...com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104019 [/url]
reason for this being that this way won't draw power away from the graphics card or the cpu if one needs more power all of a sudden.
the other option i was slightly considering was the Corsaid 750W.

My budget doesn't include the Case (which will be an Antec 900 [i think/hope]) and the monitor which is the Hanns G 28" (mainly b/c those will be gifts)

 

[clumsypyro]

So about 1200 at most w/o the case and monitor and i already have the OS

 

[clumsypyro]

actually i guess i could go with ATi and Intel, won't make too much of a difference I gues . . . >.<

 

[megamanx00]

Perhaps the new Intel architectures will lead the push to use more threads more efficiently in game programming, but I think that for the near term games are going to be optimized for two cores and it make take a bit of time before that changes. The Antec 900 will be fine. The nVidia 700 series chipsets are alot better than the 600 and 500 series chipsets. The 600 series for Intel CPUs was especially bad when it came to quality and reliability. The Radeon 4870 is a better value overall than the GeForce 260. As for the 4850, it definetly has the best price performance ratio and having two of them in crossfire will give you some serious performance. In the end it all comes down to your budget and what you want.

 

[clumsypyro]

Well the reason I'm looking more at the 260GTX is cuz i'm looking at the charts on THG and the 260GTX is coming above the 4850 (in games such as Assassin's Creed, Crysis, CoD4, World in Conflict,, etc.) But the the 4850 does come before the 260gtx in Mass Effect, and HL 2. Also does the difference in the memory 896mb (nVidia) vs 512mb (ATi) make that much of a difference? Also I would REALLY like for this system to be able to run FEAR 2 when it comes out.

 

[lunyone]

Either CPU shouldn't hinder any of your gaming experiences. The quad core might give you an edge on the very few current games that take advantage of more than 2 cores, but that is the exception than the rule. You could even save a bit and go with the e8400 and do a mild OC, if you feel your not getting enough CPU power. Personally it's a tough decision. The AMD "Might" accept AM3 chips or it might not. That would be the "only" reason that I'd recommend an AM2+ mobo over the Intel versions. Intel has AMD by the nards right now in the performance category, but AMD is fitting back with decent pricing schemes. AMD GPU's are pretty much the preferred GPU for gamers right now. And with your possible 28" monitor I'd recommend 2x4850's over just about anything right now for the $. Yes you could get a 4870x2, but that would be about $200 more and I don't think the $200 more is well spent.

 

[clumsypyro]

So the best thing to go for is the 4850's in CF with the E8500 then?

 

[lunyone]

Yes for the performance for the money, especially for the 28" display that you'll be getting!!