Bang for the Buck

[Taem]

You shouldn't think 6800 Ultras. Think getting a 6600 today (a single one), and getting the second one in a year+, cheap, to bump your performance and keep up with the market.

I'm considering selling the innards of my current rig (KT800 chipset MSI, Radeon 9800 Pro, Athlon XP 3200+ and a gig of Corsair DDR400) and getting a SLI system going just for the upgrade path.
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I have a comment to make about SLI (specifically the nVidia 6600), but first let me tell my story:

In my area, a huge power-surge passed threw town and fried certian components in my computer and a few other people I know. I had a power strip, but no surge protector on it :( . I took my computer to a technician and he took inventory of what still worked. I lost the following components: Video card, case fan, CPU fan, and the power supply. The tech. said there was a good possibility the motherboard was fried too. Inside the computer, I still had the USB 2.0/Firewire Combo Card, NIC card, two hard-drives, DVD-r/rw ROM and CD ROM, Floppy drive, 1056MB of SDRAM, and mid-sized tower, not to mention the keyboard, mouse, 19" monitor, speakers, and headphones. The question then became rather I should get a NEW computer that had the components I wanted, or salvage my old components and build a new computer.

I researched prices for:
1.) All the computer components I would need to build my computer,
2.) Complete desktops PC's.

I checked websites from Gateway, Dell, Compaq, Alienware, HP, Cyber PC, eBay, C-NET, Outpost.com, and Powerhouse PC's and after many [days] of comparing prices, I determined I could purchase the components I needed from Fry's cheaper than I could buy a new desktop PC. I made a "shopping" list with everything I would need, I called Fry's the day before I left to verify what I needed was in stock and I double-checked on prices. I decided on a new tower with fans on the side and a 600W power supply to go with that, 2GB of PC3200 DDR RAM, and two nVidia 6600-GT (w/PCI-Express, SLI, 128MB DDRAM) to go with my ASUS motherboard with PCI-express and SLI compatibility and an Antholon 64 proccessor. Financially, two good, low-priced, SLI compatable video cards works better and are cheaper than the newest video card!

The next day when I got to Fry's, they didn't have the memory I asked for so I had to purchase Coursier, which was $70.00 more that budgeted for this computer. I asked the video tech if they had any cheaper priced video cards that were PCI-Express and SLI ready and he pointed me to the nVidia 6200 with PCI-Express - I found out many days later this video card does not support SLI! I went looking for my motherboard found out they were out of them, however a few minutes of looking for a new motherboard with everything I desired, someone put there ASUS motherboard back and decided they didn't want it. I immedialty picked it up and was on my way. I finally asked for the tower I wanted and a staff member got me one in an open box, prommising she would be "right back," but she never returned. Once at front to pay, the salesman informed me that the towers box was open and that he'd need to get me a "new" one in a closed box. He ran off and did this tower swap for me. I decided to have pay to have Fry's put togeather my computer and they told me it would take no longer than 2-days at the most, and that the process (reffered to as a "put-togeather") itself would not take more than 1-hour. When I finally got my computer back from Fry's after 7-days (I called everyday after the second day, once in the morning and once at night) with all its installed components, I could plainly see I had been give the wrong tower in the swap at the front desk - correct components, just wrong tower! I then quickly realized my video cards were not SLI compatable while reading threw my video card and motherboard manual. I didn't want to install the components driver and reinstall windows just to have to do it again when I got the correct video cards, so I couldn't use my computer! I called Fry's and asked the tech again what their cheapest video cards with PCI-express and SLI were, hoping to find a good deal. I was struck dumb when he recomended to me the 6200's - the same ones I had been recommended before. Obvioiusly the staff was unknowledgable about SLI... I then called Fry's trying to get in touch with their manager to see if he could give me the correct tower and video cards and install them at no cost since I wan't at fault. The staff who answered could not seem to find the General manager, nor did they have ANY idea what-so-ever where he was. I then composed a letter to the managers of the store and faxed them this night.

So far, this computer has been "in the shop" for about one month now to the day and I'm hoping to finally get my compter installed correctly and up and running by tommrow evening - after I speaek with a manager of course. I'm greatly anticipating playing Doom 3 on my dual-SLI nVidia 6600's with PCI-express!

The only thing I should mention is when I told the computer tech.'s who originally checked out what was fried told me the Asus motherboards are made poorly and usualy break after one-year. I never heard about this, but I'm making sure to get an extended warrenty.