Build-A-PC

What the difference between SLI and dual PCI-E. Is SLI better.

SLI *is* dual pci-e in the sense that you can harness the power of both video cards to one display. You could run two displays off two video cards...but for most that is overkill unless you have specialized need to do so. The SLI config is popular with gamers.

Don't touch SLI at this point. As Warren said, it's overkill for most users, and more importantly, still in its infancy. The support for SLI that's out there tends to be higher end cards, and if you aren't using higher end cards, you don't need SLI anyway :).

Building computers these days are more of a screwdriver technology than electronics. As stated, make sure you buy components that work with each other. Nothing like unpacking your brand new Socket T motherboard and your Socket 754 processor :D.

As an aside, I avoid the barebones machines. I tend to pick and choose components based on the individual quality, as well as reviews specific to the complete barebones setup. Besides, I have yet to see a single barebones kit that had exactly what I wanted (but I'm picky).

I've been researching pretty hard the last week and made a few decisions. Im most likely gonna go with these,

Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 processor
Asus P5NSLI NVIDIA Sockey 775 ATX Motherboard
EVGA GeForce 7600 GT video card.

Those are the main components I've got now. Any comments.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by greenmonkey51

I've been researching pretty hard the last week and made a few decisions. Im most likely gonna go with these,

Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 processor
Asus P5NSLI NVIDIA Sockey 775 ATX Motherboard
EVGA GeForce 7600 GT video card.

Those are the main components I've got now. Any comments.

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Pretty good so far. Make sure you get the right memory to support the board. It takes DDR2 667 / 533, non-ECC, un-buffered memory.

Can't go wrong with core 2 duo! I suggest no less than 1gb of ram...If at all possible now days I really push for 2gb in systems I purchase for work or computers I build outside work.

One question about the core 2's. Im looking at a laptop just because the pc costs spiraled out of control for my basic specs. I know that most of the core 2's run at slower speeds but run better than the faster CPU's. If I went with a core 2 at with 1.66 or 1.8 ghz clock speed. Would that be comparable to some of the cpus that run at 2.0+ghz. Im mainly concerned about some of the newer games that are coming out and Im wondering if it could handle the load.

I don't have a comparison handy and from what I've seen on the net they vary quite a bit. You are correct in that even though the speeds are slower compared to say the Pentium4 line or previous desktop cpus...the new core duo and core 2 duo's are generally more efficient. The core 2 duo's support 64bit although not all that of a big deal just yet. I put together a barebones laptop earlier this year with a 1.86ghz pentium m (mobil) processor and it handled games pretty well for me. However the system did not have integrated graphics...it used an nvidia chipset. That is what is going to hurt your gaming with laptops. You might be able to play games with integrated graphics but the quality will suffer and cause overall performance issues. On the flip side when you start looking at the discrete graphics and such like nvidia or ati with dedicated video memory your also going be looking at higher prices.

Hope that helps.