[QUOTE="Wesker776"]

What the hell is a 9800 GT?

Go for the HD4870.

LibertySaint

The GTX 280 is not even twice as fast as the 8800GT. If you're talking about the 9800GTX+, the HD4850 already beats it. When the 9800GTX+ is faster than the HD4850, it's only by 1-3 fps, but when the HD4850 is faster, the margin is higher.

Anandtech review

Anyways, so yeah, they will be standalone. They will show up under "My Computer" as two seperate, usable, storage devices right?

chandlerr_360

Yes you will see the 2 hard drives in My Computer under different letters, and you can copy/cut/paste files from one to the other. You will have to format the new hard drive.

Get a P35, P43 or P45 motherboard, preferably with pci-express 2.0. 965 and 975 are outdated.

Q6600 is fine.

I'd rather get 2x2 GB of memory than 4x1 GB.

For the video card, if you can find the 8800gt for up to 130$, go for it. If not, consider the hd4850. It's around 30% faster than the 8800gt (68% faster in Bioshock) and costs 165$ including MIR on newegg. I think they also have a coupon code that gives you an additional 20$ rebate.

Also get a good power supply, like a Corsair 450W or 550W.

[QUOTE="Elann2008"]

When is the X58 coming out?

wklzip

this Q4 along with the Nehalem.

No support for SLI, Nvidia really pissed off Intel. You don't mess with a 500 ton gorilla without consequences. Look at AMD, bruised eyes, a broken leg and a broken arm.

[QUOTE="matrixian"]I'd get a motherboard that has pci-express 2.0, like this one.Taiko88

PCI-E 2.0 offers no improvement gains at all. Hell, PCI-E 1.1 is barely used fully.

Future cards in a year or two might take advantage of the higher bandwitdh. It's a whole new computer and maybe the TC wants to use the same motherboard for 3 years.

With 3 gtx 280, i hope you won't be using the 420W power supply that comes with your case.

Also there's a price drop for the gtx 280 starting on monday, i think the new price is 500$.

The 4850 actually opens more gap with 8800GT as you up the res and AA.

Spybot_9

Yup, in fact HD4870 > GTX 280 with 8xAA.

[QUOTE="matrixian"]

[QUOTE="Swiftstrike5"]average price is around $139Swiftstrike5

More like 160$ for the average price of the 8800gt on newegg, including MIRs.

And it's 175$ average for hd4850 with MIR, so ATi wins in price/performance with a 2 week old card vs a 10 month old card.

$160 is quite an exageration...

I saw 4-5 cards for $139 or less (all 512mb). One for $129. Learning to overclock is a vital skill for people who want price/performance (I assume you were looking at the OC ones). Benchmarks don't put the 4850 too far ahead of the 8800GT, which shows that a 10month old card is still a worthy competator of ATI's 2week card and it's up to the consumer to determine if the $45 difference is worth the extra performance. In my opinion, it's not.

The only thing that keeps me from saying the 4850 is worth the extra money is a legit benchmark with both cards overclocked. I still think the 8800GT has more headroom than the 4850 with all the heat issues I read about on google. (83C on default is ridiculous... my card didn't hit 80C+ until I went over 100mhz clock and I'll I had to do was increase the fan speed).

Oh yet again that old song about the hd4850's heat. 8800gt ran very hot with its first stock coolers when it launched in the fall. hd4850 runs hotter because of the default low fan speed and it's the summer. Fan fix lowers the temps by a lot. That defeats your argument about heat and OC.

8800gt started at 250$, and the hd4850 at 200$. hd4850 is just 2 weeks old, price will decrease in the near future. BestBuy sold it at 150$ not long ago. That kills your argument about price.

This is how much hd4850 > 8800gt in % at 1680x1050 (Anandtech) :

Crysis: 15%
Call of Duty 4: 34%
ET Quake Wars: 53%
Assasin's Creed: 31%
Witcher: 27%
Bioshock: 68%
Oblivion: 16.5%

This kills your argument about price/performance.