Installing Two Graphics Cards

[Deadcell]

Hey fellow Techies!

So I'm almost new to modding and building computers (in fact I have never baught one or built one in my life - I'm 13) but I got a lot of money saved up and am getting more and it's so much more worth spending 600 on a computer than on a PS3 unless you aleady have one. .. Alright to the point...

I am researching hardware on Newegg.com, Directron.com, TigerDirect.com, and Geeks.com, all of which provide great discounted prices (Although TigerDirect can be a bit pricy) But I'm getting the sense that its much more easy and hastle-free if I buy one from a Desktop Configurator Retailer (I'm looking at CyberPowerPC.com, God that's a great site -- But if aanyone else knows a good site that's cool) -- It tells me I can install two seperate graphics card and I don't know whether that means they have to be the same ones or different. Do they run at differnt times or at the same time?

The specific graphics card I'm thinking of (On CyberPowerPC) is the nVidia GeForce 8500 GT 512/256 mB 16x PCI. Because this question doesn't have anything to do with the horrible Dell I'm posting this on, I'll put the specs of what I'm looking at:

CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400 or 4200+ Dual Core CPU
Mobo - GigaByte GA-M55SLI-S4 nForce4 SLI Chipset DDR2/800 SATA
or
Asus M2A-MVP AMD 480X Crossfire Chipset DDR800 Dual PCIE SATA
Memory - (x2) 512mB Corsair DDR2 or (x1) 1GB
Hard Drive - 200GB or 250 GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8MB Cache 7200RPM HDD

Yes could anyone please help explain this to me and/or suggest which of these compnents would be fit the tight 620$ minus monitor budget and the fact that I only need this for entry-range gaming and word processing (My parents probably would let me spend all my money on something to game on)

One LAST thing could someone tell me exactly wat a modem is and why I should spend 14$ on it?

 

[AlbertLionheart]

Graphics cards - you can run two without problem but it is always best to have two of the same sort if you can. This means your motherboard must have two slots the same - nowadays that means 2 x PCiE. You can run 1 x AGP and 1 x PCI if you want but again if you can stick to the same make of card. You can also run 2 x PCI cards but decent PCI cards are thin on the ground.
Modem - you need a modem to mamage your connection to the outside world; either a dial up or ADSL or cable - they all do the same job. Some are external, some internal.

 

[MicroUnC]

SLI-Ready Components

NVIDIA SLI-Ready components are backed by a rigorous testing and certification process to deliver an entire certified platform solution ensuring unmatched system stability and platform compatibility.




SLI GPUs | Graphics Cards

NVIDIA SLI GPUs deliver powerful, elegant and super-rich graphics for games and other graphics-intensive applications. Combining two NVIDIA SLI-Ready certified graphics cards (with the same GPU) in a single system with an nForce SLI MCP results in up to double the graphics performance.

NVIDIA SLI-Ready GPUs feature dedicated, built-in SLI hardware logic and take advantage of the additional bandwidth of the PCI Express bus architecture. Connected by the SLI connector* (which ships with all SLI-Ready motherboards), each GPU has a maximized connection pathway, and can leverage the second card for reaching top-speed performances. SLI Technology can scale both geometry and fill rate performance for multiple GPUs and output in both digital and analog formats for the highest image quality


SLI MCPs | Motherboards

To enable NVIDIA SLI technology in your PC, you'll also need an SLI-Ready certified motherboard with an nForce SLI MCP and two physical PCI Express x16 slots.

 

[Finchy]

If you want to go the configurator route www.pcspecialist.co.uk is fully configurable and has awesome prices