ahhhh I love good news

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/01/23/crossfire_meets_pci_express/

also in relation to people talking crap about the ultra beating out the 3870x2 in crysis here's blurp from a "reviewer"

quote=insidehw-our review of the X2 will be coming shortly. We found a lot of driver issues and the original NDA was the 23rd. Due to our work and findings the NDA has been pushed back a little. Can't believe these sites are releasing reviews with the drivers they are using

well I'm currently deployed (I re-deploy soon) so I've racked up some money to blow, and here's the thing, with 2 of these puppies if something is released (single card which I prefer) that smokes these or even comes close to these two in crossfire I can just sell them and hopefully have close to if not all the money I need to pick it up... it's a win win situation :)

I live in germany and these are getting shipped via APO (military shipping) which takes forever but as soon as I get it up I'll post the benchies.

rig these will be running on:

Asus Maximus Extreme

1000w toughpower

4 gig OCZ DDR3 1600

Q9450 hopefully overclocked to about 3.6 with D&D watercooling (again, hopefully)

well I did it...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

www.xpcgear.com

Order Line Items
==============================================
PRODUCT CODE | QTY | EACH | DESCRIPTION
VDPEAS3870X2 2 479.99 Asus 3870 1GB (1024MB) 825Mhz DUAL RV670XT ATi Radeon HD 3870 X2 EAH3870X2/G/HTDI/1G PCI-Express 2.0 X16 Video Card with CrossfireX, Dual DVI, TV-Out, UVD, PowerPlay, DirectX 10.1: EAH3870X2/G/HTDI/1G (Retail) (In Stock Now! Limited Quantities Available!)

Summary
==============================================
Sub Total : $959.98
Tax : $0.00
Shipping : $0.00
Grand Total : $959.98

I'll post some benchies when ati decides to get off their a$$ and release the xfire drivers for these puppies

that remains to be seen, crossfire scales better then sli and i don't think that's going to change with the 9800gtx2... just look at the 8800 sli benchies against the 3870 crossfire, it's going to be a good race

I wonder if this can max crysis?

I've had no problems with Asus GPUs.

I feel for you man, I was going to get the Maximus SE too, because of the DDR2 and watercooled chipset, I had it on my wishlist at newegg. then when i went to buy it the thing was sold out... so I forked out some extra cash for the Extreme and DDR3.

I looked everywhere I couldn't find it. sorry