Which to buy=HEADACHE

[Seaclam]

This is my first post so be kind. I'm looking to upgrade for the coming games. I'm not interested in waiting for the latest and greatest as I wish to buy proven hardware that has been out, but is never-the-less "fast". I am coming from a 7900 GT SLI system. I'm not sure if I'm going to go SLI again as I only game at 1025x768(1280x1024 tops), low AA and ansio settings, but everything else like textures, bells and whistles high. I have read a plethera of MB issues regarding the Asus Striker board. I know they have updated the bios, but has it solved all or most of the issues? I've had Asus in my rigs for some time, but the various Striker issues, especially memory/sound card(although I hear this is Creatives drivers), have me thinking about going to others. I have heard good things about the EVGA 680i boards. Any thoughts? Do I really need SLI? I worry about the heat two 8800 Ultras or GTXs will bring and whether or not the Thermaltake Armor full tower case I have will cut it with just air cooling two monster cards. I could add two of the i-cages to bring more air in. I don't want to go water cooling. If I were to get one 8800 superclocked ultra, for non SLI, what about the the Asus Commando, I've read good things about it. Although, I don't overclock either. I would like to keep SLI an option on the table, as I fear even one 8800 Ultra will not cut it with Vista DX10 in Crysis. Then again, I keep hearing SLI in Vista is far from being good. Anybody have any predictions on how one really fast card will do in Vista DX10 on Crysis and other games offering DX10, or should I stick with good ol' XP and DX9. Dual boot is another option. I also worry about the Creative X-Fi cards, maybe I should just move my old audigy 2 over: would that stand a better chance of compliance with more matured drives or are all Creative drives messed up. Also, the way SLI boards are, how may have run into heat issues with a Creative card jammed up against one of the cards. I would prefer not to use onboard sound or the add on ones Asus uses. Anybody have suggestions for a great CPU heatsink/fan that would fit the Armor with the side fan in the door option? Sorry for the length, but the motherboards and all the issues I read about them are driving me nuts and giving me a belly ache. I guess that's on par for "Welcome to the world of do it yourself" computing.

 

[Maziar]

Well , SLI is for resolutions of 1600x1200+ , its a waste of time if u get 2x cards for your reslutions , ASUS 680i is good , EVGA is good too , for 8800GTX or 8800ULTRA (which is an OCed 8800GTX) , a thermaltake armor should be fine , well ,ASUS commando is good , but its P965 chipset , i suggest u getting a P35board instead ,
for CPU , get a Q6600 ,

here is a comparison of Q6600(2.4) vs E6850(3.0) :
http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3038&p=8

If u 100% want SLI , then get the ASUS P5N32SLI-E , its 680i too and its good , but as i sad my suggestion is to go to P35 chipset ,
many of 680i and p35 chipsets support next gen 45nm(penryn) cpu's :
http://event.asus.com/mb/45nm/

also if u get P35 , It may SUPPORT PCIE 2 too , :
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/06/06/p35_supports_pcie_2/

hope this helped