Question about SLI / PSU

[wilkins]

I plan on upgrading my motherboard to support SLI to add another 8800gt, and just had some questions about sli boards and power supplies.

Here is my current setup:

Intel Core2duo e6750 4mbL2cache 1333mhz fsb
Gigabyte p35-DS3L rev.2.0
2x1gig Corsair xms2 ddr2 800mhz 4-4-4-12
evga 8800gt 512 superclocked
Rapter 10,000k rpm 150gig
COOLERMASTER 550w

This system runs great, but I plan on upgrading to an SLI board to support another 8800gt, but im am unsure of which board to pick. I have a budget of about $150 so i was thinking 650i. Does anyone here own a 650i board and have an opinion on its performance, reliability, ect. Should i consider a 680i? Does anyone know of a good 650i/680i mobo in my price range?Here are a few i was considering:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130081
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131142

How do these look?Does anyone have either of these, or know how well they perform?

I was also going to upgrade my PSU to this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006

Should this be enough for 2x8800gt plus the rest of my hardware?

Thanks in advance for all and any info/help!

 

[Mondoman]

Why bother with SLI when it will be cheaper just to upgrade your single graphics card to a 98xx series? No need to buy a new MB, PS, etc.

In any case, I'd stick with Intel chipsets, since they have better performance and stability. If you must go nVidia, go with their 7xx series, not their 6xx series.

 

[coldneutron]

Mondo has a point. It will probably be cheaper and offer better performance to just get a new higher end graphics card.

Otherwise, I have the MSI P6N SLI platinum and it's been great. Oc'ed my E6400 @3.2 for 1 year now with not 1 BSOD or instability problem. Only problem i've ever had was CMOS checksum error caused by loose battery holder. reseating battery solved this.

The power supply is nice but it's overkill for 2 8800gt. The 550W version would be enough and is $70 AR on buy.com. The 8800 gt needs ~7A @ 12V
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/gainward-bliss-8800gt_5.html#sect0
so 2x7 = 14A, + 6A for cpu = 20A. The 550W version has 41A @12V, so that would leave 20A for everything else and oc'ing, which is more than enough