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Thread: Cheap upgrade: SLI or something else?

  1. #1
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    Question Cheap upgrade: SLI or something else?

    Hi All,

    First of all, happy new year to all (my first post of 2009 lol).

    Anyway, to the question. I recently bought an nVidia 8800GT 1GB from a friend at a very good price.

    I am still on socket 939 and would like to upgrade to pep my PC up a little (as it's becoming a little tired), but my budget is really tight at the moment (isn't everyones?!) so I don't have that much to spend on an upgrade (around £120ish - I know it's not a lot).

    I do play games on this machine (such as FEAR, Bioshock, GTA IV etc. but at reduced settings).

    I was thinking maybe it would be worth to get another 8800GT card from somewhere and have them in SLI.

    Here's my spec's at the moment:

    Motherboard: ASUS A8N-SLI Premium
    CPU: AMD s939 X3800 @ stock
    RAM: 2Gb PC3200
    Graphics: 8800GT 1024Mb @ stock
    Enough storage for now...

    What do you think would be good for this setup? A new CPU from eBay, or should I go for the graphics card until Core i7 comes down in price (I wish!).

    Thank you for any opinions that you have.
    I see, said the blind man to his deaf wife as he stuck his wooden leg out of the door to feel if it was raining.

  2. #2
    Gundam Infinite's Avatar
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    Re: Cheap upgrade: SLI or something else?

    theres nothing really worthwhile to do on a budget of 120 and with an 8800gt i doubt u wont be able to play any of thoses games (except gta4) at atleast high.

  3. #3
    Senior Member Mithrandir's Avatar
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    • Mithrandir's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Biostar TP45-HP
      • CPU:
      • C2D e4600 (w/ Xigmatek Red Scorpion)
      • Memory:
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    Re: Cheap upgrade: SLI or something else?

    I wouldn't bother to upgrade anything.

    You should try overclocking the cpu. Make sure you have a decent cooler though.
    Cavalier-X: Biostar TP45-HP ¦ E4600@3.1ghz - Xigmatek Red Scorpion (OCZ Freeze) ¦ OCZ ReaperX 2x2gb (792mhz @ 4-4-4--12) ¦ Xigmatek NRP-MC651 ¦
    Palit 8800gt ¦ X-fi Fatal1ty Gamer ¦ Coolermaster Cavalier 3 (Silver/Windowed) ¦

    Poseidon Magma: MSI P45 Zilent ¦ E6300@3.0ghz - Coolermaster Hyper 212 (MX-2) ¦ Corsair 2x2gb (880mhz @ 5-5-5-15) ¦ Corsair HX450w ¦
    xfx 9600gt Alphadog edition (780/1950/1000) ¦ X-fi Gamer ¦ Gigabyte Poseiden ¦

  4. #4
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    • dfour's system
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    Re: Cheap upgrade: SLI or something else?

    What about some free speed by overclocking that chip on the excellent motherboard you have. I have the same chip and have it running at 2.65 gig under air cooling and im sure I can go further. If you only have the stock cooler I would recommend buying a better one before overclocking.

    What frame rates do you get on your games?? If they are all over 60 fps and your running with high or max settings dont bother upgrading.

    Look here for scores

    http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts...,742.html?prod[2116]=on&prod[2252]=on&prod[2070]=on&prod[2072]=on

    Overclocking the 3800+
    http://www.legitreviews.com/article/229/2/

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