I'm in need of a new graphics card but I'm debating whether I should get two low end cards and put them in sli or just get one better card. I'd probably be looking at two Nvidia 8600gts 256mb or one 8800gts 640mb. Both of these setups would cost about the same price for the cards. I'm not really interested about that fact that if I get one 8800 now I'll being able to upgrade to two later or the different power needs of both. I'm mainly looking at which setup would give me better performance. The SLI 8600 would be cool just cuz it's SLI but it would only have a total of 512mb memory vs the 640mb of a single 8800, but would the dual computing power of two 8600gts' be better than a single 8800gts?

Thanks

I build my own pc's mainly because of the money issue. I wouldn't really say building your pc is better than buying one because if I could afford a nice pc from Voo Doo, Falcon NW, Alienware, even Dell's XPS I'd buy one. When you get a prebuilt system you just know everything's going to work and the cases and wiring one those systems are top notch. But I've still built the last two computers because I can keep them around $1000 (I reuse hds, cd drives, case and other stuff) and get the same components that would have otherwise cost me a couple hundred more if I bought it prebuilt.