Another new build, can't decide on parts :(

Hello all,

I've completed a build like a week ago and the advice here were really helpful

Now, I'd like to do another build, this time its for myself and its geared towards gaming, photo shopping, movies, etc...I'm hoping that its something that will last me awhile.

I do not have an exact budget amount, but it'd be approximately $1000 cdn.

So far, I have problems deciding on the video cards, CPU and mobo.

Video Card:

I'm having difficulty choosing between 3 cards.

-2x 3850 crossfire setup. (~350?)
Read the AnandTech review and tests indicate that the performance is relatively close to the 8800GTX
Scraped after the opinions...so now it leaves me w/ 2 choices.

-1x 8800GT

-1x 8800GTS (G92) the one coming out in 2 weeks, heard many great stuff on it and might be faster than 8800 GTX and possibly the 8800 Ultra. I'm hearing price range of about <350? from xtreme systems forum.

so now the 2 cards, if there is only a $50 difference, i'm going to go w/ the 8800GTS G92

CPU:

I'm mainly looking for something that can last for a while. With the new tech coming out like every so often, it's impossible for me to keep up and I'm undecided between Duo and Quad cores T_T. So I've come up with a few processors:

1. C2D X6800.
Are C2D X6800 worth anything now with the E6800 in the market? Retails like 1000 in shops but IF the price was ~300, would you guys prefer the X6800?

2. Xeon X3230 G0 Engineering Sample
I just came across this for sale. Dunno the price as I need to find out from the seller. Heard that its comparable to the Q6600+

3. C2Q 6xxx series?

4. Wait for E8400 or Q9450?

Mobo:

Crossfire Ready Mobo

Makes things easier. Now, I believe that there is no need for a X38 chipset mobo...aside from the PCI-E 2.0. Better value getting the P35 chipset mobo?

Debating whether to get Asus mobo or Gigabyte...cuz lots of people are recommending Gigabyte for some reason

Thanks for the help

I would stay away from Crossfire with two lower end cards. You spend a lot more for often worse performance. I suggest buying the best single card setup you can and unless you are looking at SLI 8800 GTX dont consider SLI or crossfire. I made that mistake with the 7600 GT. I have SLI 7600 GT and they run last gen games with a less the steller framerates... Even after I upgraded to a Core 2 Duo. On paper it looked better then a 7900 GTX but in reality since many last gen games are not optimized for SLI it ran like a single 7600 GT... Which at resolutions above 1024x768 you have to give up image quality for decent framerates.

thanks for the replies. Scraped off some of the original items, and it looks better now.

Now I'm thinking, is there any difference between the PCI-E 1.1 and 2.0? Because the new X38 mobos uses PCI-E 2.0 and I'm wondering what effect it has on video cards. It also costs so much more T_T

I'll be continuing to run Windows XP, if that makes any difference because Vista just pisses me off....very badly

Thanks

PCI-E 1.1 has enough bandwidth for any video card that exists today. That is, you will get the same speed from the 8800GT or 8800GTX whether it's in a P35 (PCI-E 1.1) or an X38 (PCI-E 2.0) motherboard.

If you've already got XP keep using it. Vista makes some games (e.g. Crysis) look better but many games still look the same on Vista as on XP (e.g BioShock). Upgrade to Vista later, when it has the service pack and more games use DirectX 10.

Plus, in Canada, the GST will drop to 5% on Jan 1st, you save $10 right there

did you consider the new GPU from ATI, the hd 3870 is now hard to get but I bought one last week for $219 and am waiting for delivery. Seems to be reviewed well. Bought a second one days later for $290. I should not have waited to decide on 1 or 2.

You also need a PSU.

You can save some money without losing much speed if you drop the hard disks and get a Western Digital 750 GB instead. It's VERY fast.

Here's a quote from www.shoprbc.com. It's not exactly your config but close.

With a cheap mouse/keyboard combo and no X-Fi and a $30 Samsung burner instead of the Plextor, this can be around $1300+tax today. You can always add a Plextor burner later (the DS3L accepts 4 SATA devices).

Yup. Can't wait to see the pricing for that.

Added PSU. I'll keep make changes until I buy this setup in Jan