New Desktop CPU motherboard questions

[brombles]

Im going to be buying a new desktop soon, i have chosen the i7 965 intel processor and the Geforce GTX280 as my CPU and video card, from what i saw these were pretty much the best you can get, or pretty close, what would you recommend for top performance? is there anything out there that is way better than the 280? price is not an issue what would you recommend?

also i am looking for a motherboard but im not sure which ones are compatible with the 280 and i7 965, or which motherboards perform well, price aside, what would you say would go best with these components, or if you recommended other components, what goes well with them?

thanks

 

[smithereen]

Be careful when you say cost is no object; the sky is really the limit in computer components.

The Radeon 4870 X2, GTX 295, and the GTX 285 are substantially faster than the GTX 280; however, you are probably best off with a SLI or Crossfire system. A 4870 X2 or two should do nicely, if you really do have an unlimited budget.

As far as CPUs go, you're right, the i965 is the best money can buy, but I would recommend dropping down to an i940 and using the extra money to add another video card. Both use the same socket, and are near identical apart from clock speed. You can usually overclock and make up the difference, if you dare.

Finally, mainboards. For a Core i7 based system, you need a X58-based motherboard with an LGA 1366 CPU socket.

This would be the best:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131352

These are priced more reasonably:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131346
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186161
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188039

Buy the cheapest memory in the highest speed category supported by your motherboard.

Enjoy your system!

 

[brombles]

the radeon 4870 X2 looks nice, but the 295 is SLI capable even quad capable if you had the space, wouldnt that put out a lot more than the 4870's?

thanks for the motherboard links though that helped a lot, but now i wanna make sure i get a sick video card or 2
what would you go with duel GTX 295's or duel 4870s

 

[smithereen]

Both nVidia SLI and ATI Crossfire allow for a total of four GPU cores. Be careful; this counts dual-gpu cards like the GTX 295 or 285 and the 4870 X2 as two. Two GTX 295s would be the fastest configuration, but two 4870 X2s should be substantially cheaper. It's up to you.

As for video card brands, since you're leaning towards the GTX 295 EVGA is the best offering nVidia cards; XFX is also good. They both offer excellent customer support and lifetimes warranties. If you do decide to go ATI and the 4870 X2s, try and get one of the special ones made by MSI and HIS with the improved coolers. HIS calls them IceQ - I can't remember the name of MSI's.

Enjoy your system, it's going to rock.

 

[smithereen]

Make sure the motherboard you buy supports SLI.

 

[brombles]

the one you mentioned above ASUS Rampage II Extreme LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX
seems pretty decent but memoryexpress only has the rampage 1 ):

 

[smithereen]

I gotta go to work, but I think the Rampage I is an x48-based socket 773 board, so an i7 won't work.