New AM3 DDR3 SLI build help plzzzzzz

[erndawg]

I need advice on the following build and your thoughts of course.

MSI NF980-G65 AM3 MOBO - 159 - <am3 + ddr3 + SLI> - best board i found for AM3 + SLI
CORSAIR 850 TX 850WATT PSU - (129 with rebate) - or will 750 do it? or just my 480?
MUSHKIN 4GB DDR1600 - 122 - 996601
AMD PHENOM II X4 955 - 189 - or the 965?

I have a case, two nice burners, a nice big 750gb sata drive, a 480 watt PSU, two graphics cards, which are 2X 8800 GS superclocked (384mb), and also fans etc. What I wanted to do initially was to get that MSI FX GD 70, but I realized I'd probably never run 4x crossfire, plus I'd need to get new cards to get up and running. I like my Fatality SLI system I got at the moment, but it's losing ground with this 400 ram, and the old 3800 X2 I got. If I were to keep with the SLI, which gives me no probs at all, and just go with this platform, I could easily get it up and running cheaply, and as soon as the parts arrive, seeing I have the rest of the components. The Board I chose has 3x SLI, so when I upgrade the GFx cards, I'll go with 3, but to get it running I'll use what I got. I want your thought on the board, the setup, the memory - if you have any good recommendations on fast speed ram (I want 2x2 GB to start out with - maybe I can go wtih faster than 1600 ram? Ne 1 know? Maybe I can stick with my 480 watt for the moment? Do I need a biger PSU right away? It does good on my current system.

Anyway let me know what you all think. I'll probably roll with it, unless you guys come up wtih something. All in all its around 600 bucks, minus about 130 if I ditch the PSU, so even around 470, and Im up and running ! ! !

 

[build]

Click this link http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/page-261222_13_0.html and post again in the format shown if it's not too much to ask

 

[BroHamBone]

I need advice on the following build and your thoughts of course.

MSI NF980-G65 AM3 MOBO - 159 - <am3 + ddr3 + SLI> - best board i found for AM3 + SLI
CORSAIR 850 TX 850WATT PSU - (129 with rebate) - or will 750 do it? or just my 480?
MUSHKIN 4GB DDR1600 - 122 - 996601
AMD PHENOM II X4 955 - 189 - or the 965?

I have a case, two nice burners, a nice big 750gb sata drive, a 480 watt PSU, two graphics cards, which are 2X 8800 GS superclocked (384mb), and also fans etc. What I wanted to do initially was to get that MSI FX GD 70, but I realized I'd probably never run 4x crossfire, plus I'd need to get new cards to get up and running. I like my Fatality SLI system I got at the moment, but it's losing ground with this 400 ram, and the old 3800 X2 I got. If I were to keep with the SLI, which gives me no probs at all, and just go with this platform, I could easily get it up and running cheaply, and as soon as the parts arrive, seeing I have the rest of the components. The Board I chose has 3x SLI, so when I upgrade the GFx cards, I'll go with 3, but to get it running I'll use what I got. I want your thought on the board, the setup, the memory - if you have any good recommendations on fast speed ram (I want 2x2 GB to start out with - maybe I can go wtih faster than 1600 ram? Ne 1 know? Maybe I can stick with my 480 watt for the moment? Do I need a biger PSU right away? It does good on my current system.

Anyway let me know what you all think. I'll probably roll with it, unless you guys come up wtih something. All in all its around 600 bucks, minus about 130 if I ditch the PSU, so even around 470, and Im up and running ! ! !

This will be the mobo for my second build!
I already have my GPU's - GTX 280s w/ accelero xtreme aftermarket fans / Case - Azza solana 1000/ PSU - thermaltake toughpower 1000w. (I will have to replace my PSU and x1 GPU on my first build of course.) But i am looking at the 965 for the CPU, less i decide to do an x3. I still have not chose which RAM i will be putting in.. Probably corsair dominator 1600. im trying to save my monies till around black friday/xmas time in hoping price drops or combos or rebates will appear like crazy. Always be on the lookout for rebates and combos. Price check everything. I use newegg / amazon / and tiger. Tiger is usually highest.

Decent PSU's around 5-600watts are pretty cheap now. Mabye 50-80 bucks w/ rebates. Your 480 will probably be good enough for the time being, but if you are going to upgrade to a beefy GPU i would switch it right away. IMHO i dont think you will be satisfied if you get it up and running "cheaply". You will be excited to receive your parts and hook everything up and be like "man this isnt what i really expected." On the other hand, you may be easy to please?

 

[erndawg]

This will be the mobo for my second build!
I already have my GPU's - GTX 280s w/ accelero xtreme aftermarket fans / Case - Azza solana 1000/ PSU - thermaltake toughpower 1000w. (I will have to replace my PSU and x1 GPU on my first build of course.) But i am looking at the 965 for the CPU, less i decide to do an x3. I still have not chose which RAM i will be putting in.. Probably corsair dominator 1600. im trying to save my monies till around black friday/xmas time in hoping price drops or combos or rebates will appear like crazy. Always be on the lookout for rebates and combos. Price check everything. I use newegg / amazon / and tiger. Tiger is usually highest.

Decent PSU's around 5-600watts are pretty cheap now. Mabye 50-80 bucks w/ rebates. Your 480 will probably be good enough for the time being, but if you are going to upgrade to a beefy GPU i would switch it right away. IMHO i dont think you will be satisfied if you get it up and running "cheaply". You will be excited to receive your parts and hook everything up and be like "man this isnt what i really expected." On the other hand, you may be easy to please?

I guess you are saying I won't be impressed much by it, but if you read above, you will have noticed that I am still on a 939 AMD 3800 + X2. I have 3 gigs of 400 speed ram. I am on SLI, but at 8x - I know that my cpu and memory must be holding me back. I can see the 4 cores, and maybe 8 gigs of ram eventually giving me great performance, and in line with some better GFx cards, I think the system will def kick. Going from What I have must be better, I am thinking maybe 100 fold..

 

[hunter315]

SLI chipsets for AMD tend to be glitchy, and i dont know why you would pick one of those when you can get an i5 build which will outperform the AMD build for less
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.259878
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231279&cm_re=ripjaws-_-20-231-279-_-Product
The corsair 750TX will also save you a fair amount and will provide plenty of power for your GPUs, they arent super power hungry like some modern ones are.

 

[dndhatcher]

hunter just saved me some typing.

I would also add that a single more powerful GPU is generally better than SLI. ATI is just releasing some very attractive price/performance single core 5800 series GPUs that are making nvidia GPUs look very overpriced right now.

 

[xaira]

get a cheaper cpu and splurge on graphics

 

[erndawg]

SLI chipsets for AMD tend to be glitchy, and i dont know why you would pick one of those when you can get an i5 build which will outperform the AMD build for less
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.259878
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231279&cm_re=ripjaws-_-20-231-279-_-Product
The corsair 750TX will also save you a fair amount and will provide plenty of power for your GPUs, they arent super power hungry like some modern ones are.

I don't know why that is, I run NForce 4 on the AMD I have now, with SLI, and I don't have any problems.

 

[erndawg]

hunter just saved me some typing.

I would also add that a single more powerful GPU is generally better than SLI. ATI is just releasing some very attractive price/performance single core 5800 series GPUs that are making nvidia GPUs look very overpriced right now.

Do you think that when I throw a third GFC card on the board the same can be said? I never see any benchmars for 3X SLI, they always just have SLI.

 

[BroHamBone]

SLI chipsets for AMD tend to be glitchy, and i dont know why you would pick one of those when you can get an i5 build which will outperform the AMD build for less
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.259878
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231279&cm_re=ripjaws-_-20-231-279-_-Product
The corsair 750TX will also save you a fair amount and will provide plenty of power for your GPUs, they arent super power hungry like some modern ones are.

That was one of my main concerns. Which to go with? New Phenom II x4's/ x3's or just do an i5 with a nice p55 which are pretty expensive compared to the msi 980a......like most people, its preference. But also I have to remember I want to build for 90% gaming. I dont think i need an x4, but its nice to have.

Like i always say be patient....

 

[dndhatcher]

Do you think that when I throw a third GFC card on the board the same can be said? I never see any benchmars for 3X SLI, they always just have SLI.

I found 3 SLI and even 4 XFire benchmarks when I was researching 3 SLI GTX 285s. SLI scales better than Xfire but you never get near additive efficiency, more like+50% for each additional GPU.

If you are seriously considering that level of GPU power its seems silly to me to not start with a 5850 or 5870 as crossfiring those will get you more performance than any SLI the GTX 200 series is capable of right now and you get DX11 and eyefinity capability as a bonus. Unless you are just looking for a stopgap card until the 5870x2 or GTX 300s come out.