Need help $1500 gaming rig

[fffblackmage]

As the OP has stated, he does not know much about gaming rigs. For the sake of simplicity and reliability, I would advise against doing an SLI/xfire build. While it's not hard to do SLI/xfire, he just may not want to deal with any problems that may come up.

 

[endlessmike133]

As the OP has stated, he does not know much about gaming rigs. For the sake of simplicity and reliability, I would advise against doing an SLI/xfire build. While it's not hard to do SLI/xfire, he just may not want to deal with any problems that may come up.

Any problem that comes up could be solved by disabling SLI..

 

[mnewsham]

Any problem that comes up could be solved by disabling SLI..

Then you just spent 250 bucks on another card you arent using.

 

[endlessmike133]

Then you just spent 250 bucks on another card you arent using.

Seriously?

If he has a problem with SLI in every single game he plays (which isn't gonna happen) than he could just return the card.

If he ever encounters any problems with SLI it wouldn't be big enough to negate the benefits of it in other games.

 

[mnewsham]

3 people have said SLI/x-fire isnt the best idea, why do you keep pushing it?

 

[endlessmike133]

3 people have said SLI/x-fire isnt the best idea, why do you keep pushing it?

Because just because most people believe something doesn't mean it's true..

I haven't heard a single good reason for OP not to use SLI besides "omg its gonna cause problems!!".

 

[mnewsham]

together the 3 people who said it wasnt a good idea have 9,000+ posts... you have under 300

 

[endlessmike133]

together the 3 people who said it wasnt a good idea have 9,000+ posts... you have under 300

Are you going to keep spewing out fallacies or are you gonna actually tell me why SLI is a bad idea?

 

[mnewsham]

Are you going to keep spewing out fallacies or are you gonna actually tell me why SLI is a bad idea?

I already did Heat, space, power usage, driver issues, Negative SLI scaling, poor SLI scaling, and no upgrade path.

 

[endlessmike133]

I already did Heat, space, power usage, driver issues, Negative SLI scaling, poor SLI scaling, and no upgrade path.

Heat: It's pretty easy to manage heat with SLI if you have a big enough case.

Space: Get a big enough case and how is this a problem?

Power usage: Get a big enough PSU and how is this a problem?

Driver issues: Not an issue

Negative SLI scaling: Not an issue, disable SLI if whatever obscure game you're trying to play has SLI problems

Poor SLI scaling: Not an issue, same as above

Upgrade path: What the hell?

 

[mnewsham]

Heat: It's pretty easy to manage heat with SLI if you have a big enough case.

Space: Get a big enough case and how is this a problem?

Power usage: Get a big enough PSU and how is this a problem?

Driver issues: Not an issue

Negative SLI scaling: Not an issue, disable SLI if whatever obscure game you're trying to play has SLI problems

Poor SLI scaling: Not an issue, same as above

Upgrade path: What the hell?

So Mike what SLI rigs have you owned? I had 9800 GTX's in SLI.

A bigger case means more money, a bigger PSU means more money, Driver issues are real and arent uncommon. Negative scaling IS an issue. And it isnt in "obscure" games. Upgrade path, if down the line you want to upgrade you cant take SLI 560's and add a 3rd or 4th. If you buy a single card now you can buy a 2nd later if you can find it really cheap (not what i would recommend but yea)

Oh and if you are playing games at 50FPS then you can experience sever Microstutter (it is an issue with both SLI and x-fire)

 

[jterrell]

Are you going to keep spewing out fallacies or are you gonna actually tell me why SLI is a bad idea?

Advising a new builder to build SLI is beyond silly.
You really seem to be a pro troll or a maliciously errant Techie.

SLI/Crossfire is not a magic fix and instead is a really bad solution 99% of the time.
The ONLY SLIs I ever used showed virtually zero improvement over the single card solutions and took about 10x as much time to get working then maintain. And I used them as far back as Voodoo2/3.

On a new build one should go single card and then merely upgrade to SLI OR most likely a better single card solution later. The slight increase of SLI isn't worth the cost premium now and a newer single card solution in a year to 18 months will almost certainly top it. The only exception I can think of is if you are looking at cutting edge boards that are soooo costly it is better to bump down a level to two upper mid-range in SLI AND you are a very veteran builder who understands the drivers and how to unlock their BIOS before you even order the boards.

You have been provided a laundry list of reasons to not use a dual card solution but are immensely hard-headed.

The bottom line is it costs more money to run and more time to maintain. So please stop wasting other people's time and money.

 

[mfenn]

I don't think semantics have anything to do with the OP's question..

So the fact that I pointed out that you're advocating spending $500 on GPUs while at the same time saying that spending $250 is enough is "semantics"? Is that really your best argument?

Driver issues: Not an issue

Oh, now I see, that's your best argument.

You have been provided a laundry list of reasons to not use a dual card solution but are immensely hard-headed.

:thumbsup: Don't worry jterrell, he'll be rabidly anti-SLI in a few days.

 

[atheist1]

So, of the few builds listed, which should I go with? Getting ready to purchase soon.

 

[endlessmike133]

So, of the few builds listed, which should I go with? Getting ready to purchase soon.

mnewshams.

However, I have to ask you something: ARE YOU SCARED OF SLI?