are newegg mail-in rebates reliable?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] _-14130347
and how do you think of the card

The MIR is from manufacturer, not newegg. All MIRs tend to take a few month for them to mail you back the rebate check.

And the card is far overpriced. You can get a g92 8800gts with 128 stream processors, compared to your gt's 112, for $169.99 after MIR:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814134037

Benchmark, note 8800gt 512mb, and 8800gts 512mb.
http://en.expreview.com/2008/04/02 [...] up/?page=8

It's actually an evga rebate, and yes they are good.  I've never had a problem with one and actually just got confirmation my latest evga $30 rebate is valid and check will be sent.  

beat me by 12 seconds.

is ECS a good gfx card manufacture?
which manufactures are your favorite
and do you need special mobos to overclock?

They're all the same. Same gpu, same card layout. All manufacturers buy the gpu from Nvidia. In some cases, it's not much more than putting on a label.

Besides, it comes with 3 year warranty. The card will be obsolete before 3 years anyway.

That link is stock clocked 8800GT and GTS.  If he is not an overclocker and will run stock clocks, the Akimbo is alot faster than a stock 8800GT.  It also has a nice dual slot cooler and the lifetime warranty/trade up bonus from buying evga.  
 
I prefer evga over ecs anyday but I'd go with the ecs GTS you linked.  I also just don't think the akimbo is overpriced, it's a sweet 8800GT for sure, but rather that ecs is underpriced and a serious bargain.  
 
eidt: The Akimbo looks good compared to evga's $225 AR GTS. but not against the cheaper ecs.

talking mainly about good costumer support and trading a defective one for another and so on.

The warranty will be honored, if that is what you mean.

If you meant an outright defective card, people will just rma it to the retailer (newegg) instead of manufacturer, so you won't find any user feedback regarding rma to manufacturer for defective product. Newegg has very good rma support. Defects are extremely rare for graphic cards from all manufacturers, so you shouldn't take that into account.

whats the main difference between an EVGA Akimbo and a normal EVGA card.\
and do i need a special mobo to OC?
right now im mainly looking at 8800GT and GTS(G92)
oh yeah and i've seen 8800GT's and GTS's with 1gb of mem from the benchmarks i've seen the extra 512mb of mem doesnt really help but do you think it will further-proof the GT/GTS

No, motherboard has no effect on graphics card overclocking. The card is essencially self contained for oc purposes. It's not a cpu.

The "Akimbo" is a cute name they made up for factory oced version. Factory oc is same as do-it-yourself oc, but cost more. That version comes with a dual slot cooler, and runs cooler compared to gt's single slot. It's the same as gts's dual slot though.

The extra ram doesn't help until very high resolutions.

Gpu overclocking is far more user friendly than cpu overclocking. Use Rivatuner. Stock g92 8800gt overclock core reliably to 750mhz. Some people manage to go to 800+mhz, but oc higher than 750mhz is not guaranteed to be stable.
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=163

can u post a link to a toturial for rivatuner, ive tried it once and it didnt make sense
PS how do i find out what mobo i have, i have a HP pavillion a6238x

http://www.guru3d.com/article/riva [...] ck-guide/4

my mobo is ASUS P5LP-LE, so that mobo will be able to OC a 8800GT/GTS with rivatuner?  
i must sound like a total newb.

Yes, motherboard has no impact on graphics card overclocking.

You should also consider EVGA's step-up program when deciding what to purchase.
 
http://www.evga.com/stepup/default.asp?switch=3

I am recieving that same ECS card in the morning, I will let you know how it is. The Akimbo's are too overpriced !