dual core power now, SLI later maybe

[Mike]

I want to get a Asus A8N-SLI-XXXX board.
I will upgrade so I can take advantage of the power
from the new AMD A64x2 cpu's
I need more horsepower, so I can do graphics work
and video editing, and many tasks at one time.
I don't play games, but as long as I am upgrading to a
socket 939 board, I thought I might as well get the
SLI option for the future maybe. I read in a review
that only people who play fantasy games have any
real use for it right now. Is that right ?

I am wondering if a can just get a less expensive
video card for right now, and upgrade to the
more expensive SLI cards (if I find it useful later on)

Right now I am using an old NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 model64
even that card seems almost good enough for what I do.
Is there a less expensive card for the pci express slot
that will run my monitor with a digital cable interface ?


Thanks for your help
Mike

 

[KC Computers]

I want to get a Asus A8N-SLI-XXXX board.

I will upgrade so I can take advantage of the power
from the new AMD A64x2 cpu's
I need more horsepower, so I can do graphics work
and video editing, and many tasks at one time.
I don't play games, but as long as I am upgrading to a
socket 939 board, I thought I might as well get the
SLI option for the future maybe. I read in a review
that only people who play fantasy games have any
real use for it right now. Is that right ?
I am wondering if a can just get a less expensive
video card for right now, and upgrade to the
more expensive SLI cards (if I find it useful later on)
Right now I am using an old NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 model64
even that card seems almost good enough for what I do.
Is there a less expensive card for the pci express slot
that will run my monitor with a digital cable interface ?

Yes, you can use a non-SLI video card now and upgrade it later on if needed.
Graphics work and video editing don't require a video card with lots of
memory (unlike 3D gaming). 128MB is fine.

Some lower end models that support DVI are:

ATI 128MB Radeon X300 SE DDR PCI Express, TV Out & DVI
ATI 128MB Radeon X550 DDR PCI Express, TV Out & DVI