new build

[katalyst]

im looking into a new system here very soon and have some questions
are dual vid cards accually worth it for a 20" with native resolution of 1680x1050
ive been looking at a single or dual 8800gts g92 or a single 3870x2.
currently looking at this setup
monitor acer 20" 1680x1050
disk drive samsung s03b
cpu q6600 or e8400
ram 2gb gskill 800 or 4gb gskill 1000 {is 4gb and a 64bit os have much of an effect}
cpu cooler xigmatek s1283
hard drive seagate 500gb {is a raptor worth the money}
psu corsair 550{for non sli} 650 {for sli}
vid 8800gts{g92} or 3870x2
mobo ip35-e or msi 750i {i was also looking at the dfi p35 dk lp}
case lian-li pc k7b
im running a 3.0ghz p4 8800gts 320 1.5gb ram and 250gb ram with 450 psu used mostly for gaming so i think its time to upgradetryimg to stay under like 14 or 1500

[Polizei]

Only the MSI board you listed will do SLI. The IP35-E and the P35DK only have 1 PCI-E x16 slot, so no Crossfire on them.

Ive got a 22" 1680x1050 monitor, and my single 8800GT handles it just fine, except when playing Stalker. That game seems to make every card toasty. Cant quite max it out.

If you're using Vista period, I would seriously consider 4GB of RAM. If using 4GB of RAM, might as well go with 64bit Vista.

Everything else looks dandy. Cant go wrong with either processor, although I would probably get the E8400. Not many programs out now use 4 cores.

[katalyst]

thank you for your response i was trying to see if sli was worth the money if so i was going to sli 2 8800gt if not it would be the abit or dfi with a single card. i have seen the gts overclocks well so i am kind of torn at the moment between. between the abit and dfi which has the cabability to be more stable with overclocking

best price per performance
2x8800gt
1x8800gt
1x8800gts 512
1x3870x2

[zanzabar]

the 3870x2 is the best price to performance and the fastest setup on an intel chipset so u will be much more stable and have more ocabilty

and stay away from all reference NV motherboards adn all but the 780i chipset if u have to but i wouldent recommend them since they arnt stable, but for teh 3870x2 u will need pci-e2 for the best performance so u should look at an x38 like the abit quad gt x38


for cpu i would wait a month for the c1 rev chips with the fixed thermal probe and routing chip on the 45nm, or go for a q66

[katalyst]

for an overclocked quad and 3870x2 would the corsair 550vx be enough.
also you said the x38 for pci-e 2.0 the x2 is only 1.1 and the p35 has a full 16x slot.
looks like im staying with intel chip casue i dont want instability

[zanzabar]

sorry i keep thinking that the entirety of ati is pci-e2 now but i think that there will be a ddr4/pci-e2

[cloned]

I say bump up the PSU to 750w if you can afford it so you have a lot more room to expand and it will last a lot longer. When you run a PSU close to it's max output often it will degrade much faster and you will have little to worry about come the next upgrade cycle.

Also go with the X38 instead, better OCing, crossfire option and future-proofing when it comes to the video card. And avoid you should avoid ASUS, their support has been hit or miss recently

[katalyst]

the x38 is a little too high for me and psu i think ill step up to the corsair 650 cant really afford a 750 right now i dont really want 2 x2s so the p 35 looks better and as far as ocing they look about on par with the x38 but i could be way off just what ive seen around the forums