I am thinking seriously about getting this set-up:CASE: Xion III Gaming Mid-Tower 420W Case with Side Window (BLACK COLOR)
CPU: AMD Athlon™64 X2 6400+ Black Edition Dual-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
MOTHERBOARD: Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe nForce 570 SLI MCP Chipset DDR2/800 MBoard w/ Dual PCI-Express
MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)3GB (3x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Memory (Corsair Value Select or Major Brand)
VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT 512MB 16X PCI Express (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
VIDEO CARD 2: NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT 512MB 16X PCI Express (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
HARD DRIVE: Single Hard Drive (500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)
Optical Drive: (Special Price) 20X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BLACK COLOR)
SOUND: Creative Labs SB Audigy SE
I don't want upgrade for a while. Is this a good setup?I would prefer buying a single more powerfull graphics card instead of two less powerfull cards. If then still using a motherboard supporting SLI you COULD install one more graphics card in the future.
You did choose a very powerfull processor. Maybe it would be better in perspective of gaming performance to use a less powerfull processor and instread putting the money on a better graphics card.
Good luck!I agree with peregrin, you should get a better graphics card. At least get 2 8600s instead of 8500s. Also, I think it would be better if you got ram in 2X1GB and 2X512 if your motherboard has 4 slots.Go for a Core 2 based system rather than an Athlon one.
Also, the graphics cards are not very powerful at all, it will not even suffice for today's games at high settings.
Get an 8800GT instead, it's about twice as powerful as that setup and will keep you from needing to upgrade for much longer.
Finally, the sound card is basically a waste of money. The Audigy SE is not a good card, I'd recommend either saving the cash and staying with onboard, or making the jump to at least an X-Fi Xtreme Music (NOT the Xtreme Audio).i think that that is an amazing setup. but, if i was you and i had the money i would do the same, except for those graphics cards. I would go with 2 of the 8600 gt xx's. they are very fast and now tiferdirect has a deal out for em at 100 each. a great deal and i have one and can vouge for it. it is very good. and very stable even after my overclock. 675 mhz. i run some pretty demanding games though and it eats em and asks for more hahaRight now, I have that exact card from tiger. That's the best thing to get if you're short on cash. It even runs Crysis!! But the settings are on medium low, 1440X900, and no antialiasing. It still looks awesome though. Half-Life 2 ep. 2 runs at FULL settings and the FPS is never lower than 30, usually sticks around 45, and this is with 8X AA. My only complaint is the fan on this card, it's a little loud, but it's not a big deal.my computer has alot of fans so i cant really tell lol. but i think this card is pretty good. you cant beat it for the price.