Another "What stuff should I buy?" Thread

[Hayabusa554]

Yeah, Im one of many people who need advice on what parts to buy for a new rig.

I read the intro forum thread, so Im going to be as thurough as possible on what Id like.

My current machine is a gaming rig. Ive got a 3200+ and a 9800XT which run Doom3 and Halflife2 pretty well. Of course, its been almost 2 years, so here I am, wanting a new machine.

The problem is all the new stuff coming out/going on. Should I go Crossfire? Or SLI? Should I wait for Windows Vista? Or Not? I was initially going to build a machine with an FX-55 and SLI on two Nvidia cards. I wanted to have it built around the time Unreal '07 came out, but that might not be possible, based on what I decide to do.

Ive got a 2000 dollar budget, give or take a few hundred bucks. I wont need a new monitor at first (though i may post a new thread sometime after the new rig is built, asking about what monitor to get).

So here are the basic questions. What video card(s) should I get? What processor? Crossfire or SLI? Wait for Windows Vista or not? Ill worry about the other questions, such as motherboard, ram, harddrives, sound card, etc after i figure out the big ones.

Thanks for the feedback. Any suggestions are appreciated.

[Alaron]

I personally think it is wise to stick with a single video card setup. SLI is expensive, and one high end card is plenty for todays games. Vista is not due out until January 2007, and who knows how many bugs it will have. If you are buying a new system, I would stick with XP.

Which CPU would you like to use, AMD or Intel? For either choice, I would suggest a Dual Core such as the Athlon 64 X2 3800+ and higher or the Intel Pentium D 930 and higher.

As with CPUs, both video cards are great choices, whether you are an Nvidia or ATI fan. The 7900GT is a great card right now, as are the X1900s.

Let us know some brand choices and we can configure a system for you.

[Hayabusa554]

I know a few people in game development who are telling me to wait for Vista, but most of my friends are telling me to roll with XP for now. I think the Vista supporters are just excited about DirectX10 honestly. After reading into it more, I think Ill stick with XP. Im sure games will support it for a long time, as most games still support 2000.

Processor wise, Im usually an AMD guy. I was thinking dual core as well, so the 3800+ sounds like what I might go for.

Video card wise, im a little confused. I used to be hardcore ATI, but Nvidia seems to be rolling alot better these days. As for dual cards, Ive got people telling me left and right "Go with Crossfire!" or "Go with SLI!" and then of course ive got people saying "other than cooling, its not all that much better than a single card". So I'm super confused. Ive seen some benchmarks for SLI and Crossfire, but I really need to hear all the pros and cons. Not just between Crossfire and SLI, but between single card and dual card as well. This is the one big thing Im confused about.

[786ARS]

crossfire/sli are great if you have two low end cards and want to improve the performance, (works well with x1600/7600) but it is better to get a card such as the 7900Gt, and as the performance increaces are minimal, it is better to just go and get one high end card, as you dont get value for money with high end cards.