Hey guys i have some concerns about running a rig with crossfire/sli to do with the speeds of the pci-e slots.

I've looked around googling but they seem outdated (only mentioning 3xxx and 4xxx cardS).

What confuses me is i dont understand the performance loss in using a motherboard that uses 2 8x pcie slots compared to 2 16x slots, is it significant enough to pay the good deal extra for a motherboard which supports the 2 16x slots?

I've decided to build my own gaming PC, with an average buget of around $1500(AUS), I've selected all the parts but am not sure if they will function together properly.

Case : Antec 902

PSU : Corsair TX-850w (or the 750w if it would handle it)

CPU : AMD PHEMON II x4 955 Black

RAM : (I really have no idea about ram at all, but i want 6-8gigs and i just picked this one out randomly)

MOBO : Also clueless on motherboards im not really sure if this will work with crossfire, as it says one of the pci-e slots runs at x4 speed.. which i really dont know how to translate that haha

GFX : Sapphire 6870 x2 (Crossfire)

HDD : Would someone be able to find a good, cheap hard drive (400gig +) as i really do not know what to get (www.i-tech.com.au)

I was also wondering if anything extra was needed to do Crossfire... like any other cables or anything.

Thanks :)

I'm not 100% on all the parts yet, pretty much just window shopping now since I've finished school and can actually start working/saving more.

I've held off on finishing crysis because i decided it would be best to wait until i could max out the game before i played too much, so I'm hoping to be able to do that.

Also, just by the way, do you think the next TES game will be as insane to run as oblivion was on release?

Ahh okay, yeah I think ill just save an extra $150 or so to play it safe.

Thanks for suggesting the brands, I'll take a look on the site now and see if they stock them... If only newegg would ship to Australia, I'd save so much money :( haha.

Also are the AMD x6 processors a strong choice for gaming? They seem alot cheaper than the i7s so I'm not sure if im sabotaging myself by going with AMD (sorry to the AMD fans if that offended you :( im just clueless haha)

Alrighty thanks guys, :) ill just save a bit more and get like an 800w power supply just to be safe.

appreciate the replies