New SLI Rig

[TeeRex]

Hello everyone.

With the advent of PCI-E, dual-core cpus and windows Vista around the corner it's seems the time to start thinking about upgrading is here. So I wanted to get some input so that I can figure out a budget for a new sli build.

What I have:
250 Gig SATA HD
Viewsonic 19" V924
Speakers 5.1
Soundblaster Audigy 4 (which I'll consider upgrading to X-FI $80)
Lan/Modem
Pri Opt: Sony DVD-RW
Sec Opt: NEC DVD-RW

What I want:
Duo Core Two Processor
SLI Ready Mobo (I like ASUS)
2-4 Gig of RAM
SLI Nvidia Graphics card 7800 or higher (one for starters)
Case (Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case) I like this one but am open to any suggestions based on cooling, space, practicality, etc.)
500-600 Watt PSU
Cooling (Prefer not water cooling for now)
Memory Card Reader

My budget for the items I want is about $1500. Plus later on I also want to add a second Viewsonic LCD just like mine. I've done some reading and found that Most of the Nvidia chipset mobos have very bad reviews so I worry a lot about that. Any suggestions? Links to similar builds?

[newbuilder14]

Well the only SLI Intel based boards I'd trust are these two:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&Go.x=0&Go.y=0

[TeeRex]

Well, I've been checking out other posts and digging up some prices and it seems I'm going to have to cut down my "wants" list a bit. I'm looking at <$2k and I'm on a tight budget. I noticed some Geforce 8 series video cards that arent sli. Some are around $500 or so, but it beats buying two $300 cards don't you think?

How much could I save on the mobo if I scrap the sli idea? It seems the big ticket items are going to be the cpu and memory, which as i've read I should go with corsair, and that is pricey. Kingston maybe for savings? (Taboo: Ultra?) How can I cut my budget down???

Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $139.99
ENERMAX Liberty ELT620AWT ATX12V 620W Power Supply $164.99
Abit AW9D-MAX Intel 975X (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 $229.99
Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) $400.49
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C5 PRO TwinX (2x1GB) $325.00

Total: $1,260.46

Look about right???

[blue60007]

I'd pass on the SLI. I'm with newebuilder - the only Intel SLI boards that might be worth looking at are those 680i's. They're supposed to be promising (so I've heard) and they just came out so it's way too early to say if they are any good. Not to mention they are very expensive. You could use a ASUS P5B for $140 and use it to get a better video card or whatever. A $500 video card will probably perform around the same as two $300 cards, and it'll be cheaper all around.

Where are you getting those prices? You can get the E6600 on Newegg for $310 or so, and that memory for under $300 (think I saw it for $270 the other day). You can probably get those other things cheaper too. The memory is a good choice, by the way. Also, if you don't get SLI you won't need such a beefy power supply .

[flanzig1]

To save some bucks and not going Sli, ramp the PSU down to a 500-550w and probably don't need XMS ram.