I am looking at building a new computer. My plan is to build it around my graphics card and long term graphics card upgrade plan. I have pretty good knowledge of computers, but there is some terminology screwing me up, so I needed some advice.
My plan is to put in a Geforce 9800 GTX like http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814130339
The long term plan is to wait a year or two until Nvidia releases their next line of graphics cards, and the price of that one drops. At that time, I hope to buy a second one and SLI the two. However, I don't know anything about SLI technology. I understand what it does, and have basic knowledge of how to set it up.
The other two components I am going to need to buy are a motherboard and memory. I know what memory I'll be putting in it, and that shouldn't affect the help I need.
But what is really killing me on this whole deal is the motherboard. I don't want to spend a ton of money on the thing, in fact my budget for this is around $500-$600, so I'm looking for a motherboard around $100. I much prefer Asus motherboards, but only see the existence of one that is in my price range. I need AM2 or AM2+ sockets on it.
http://usa.asus.com/...amp;modelmenu=1
Here is where my confusion comes into play. I don't understand the difference between PCI express 2.0 and PCI express x16. My understanding is that PCI express 2.0 is newer? Looking at that motherboard with the graphics card, the card is a PCI express 2.0 and the motherboard has PCI express x16 slots.
I was hoping I could get an explanation of the difference between the two. Given that difference, will that graphics card and motherboard work together? Finally, any other general advice would be very helpful.
I suppose if you hate what I am trying to make, you are welcome to make suggestions on what I should buy with a $500 to $600 budget, needing only a graphics card, motherboard (needing SLI capability), and memory.
Thanks,
- Tnesper
Edited by Tnesper, 26 May 2008 - 11:36 PM.