Building a Gaming System - No Budget Concerns

1. Processor - if not over clocking, this is fine, if not ideal. You'll maybe have suggestions for the quads, but for games, this is fine. Also, be prepared for the onslaught of recommendations for much cheaper CPUs that can be over clocked to the same speed. If your over clocking, great, buy something cheaper, if not, then it doesn't apply to you.

2. 8800GTS512 is also fine. Get this over the ATI 38x0 cards, assuming prices are not discounted on the ATIs where you are. SLI and Crossfire are all about diminishing returns. Forget about SLI/Crossfire to start with, just pick the best card you can afford. If you find some cash left in the budget before purchasing for a SLI/Crossfire board and a second card, then ok.

The increase for SLI depends on the game and game settings. Some will see no improvement in. You are spending 100% on a second card for 0-50% extra performance (diminishing returns).

ok, my rigs a little old, well before any hint of 8800GTS512s, but currently P5N32-SLI 680i, E6750 @ 3.0GHz, 2 x 8800GTS320s SLI, 4 x 1GB 800MHz SLI-certified RAM, RAID0 2 x WD320GB, Vista 64-bit, etc, makes me happy enough I am waiting for the next "best thing" after the GTS512.

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8. you really, really need to decide on SLI/Crossfire first, because the SLI criteria will probably be the greatest reducer of choice in the motherboard department, the followed by Crossfire. Ultimately, if you do not want multiple GPUs, then you have the choice of 100% of the LGA775 boards with 1 x PCI-E 16x.

Choose Crossfire, and the 775 motherboard field drops a bit in size. Choose SLI, and the field drops a lot.

Q965 780i for 3-way-SLI with 88Ultra 4X1GDDR3 1800mhz, 4X WD in Ra
hehe just a kid you dont' need waste moeny like that .
en~~~~ you just need one 88GT is enough for many games(except for Crysis) 680i + 6550 would @ 3G , 4xddr2 800