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@Blue: No idea about Supreme Commander. I generally try not to overpay the CPU and stick with the best cash to power ratio, consideration being paid to room for upgrade. As for ATI vs nVidia, I'd stand with Munchkin. ATI has the potential to have mightier hardware (again), but driver issues make people cry. NVidia isn't immune to those but has fewer problems.

http://www.gph.benchmark.pl

Try here. Select English where it says "polski". IMHO 9800 GTX+ is quite awesome.

 

Okay, I have still been umming and arring while I have been gathering the money for this baby. I am still deciding which GPU's to go with. I like the look of the twin Sapphire 4870's (2x1GB DDR5) over the GTX285 after I read this article:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-295,2123-4.html

Cant say I'm a big fan of Crysis but the GPU's seem to do a good job when compared to 2 GTX295's in SLI. Comments?


Recap:

ASUS P6T
i7 920
Gskill 3 X 1G
WD 2 X 640G
Samsung 22" x 2
2x 1G Sapphire 4870 DDR5
Corsiar HX 620
Noctua cooler

 

Over here the ATI cards are significantly cheaper than their equivalent Nvidia competitor. For me that's good enough reason to go with them, considering that on average performance tends to be the same (ATI does a little better with game X, Nvidia with game Y, and so on). If you're going with ATI I especially recommend Sapphire - their cards are among the cheapest on the market and they're very sturdy and reliable. My previous Sapphire Radeon is almost 4 years old and never gave me any kind of trouble.

You may want to check the HD 4870 X2, which from what I understand is two cards on the same board (so with 2Gb VRAM). It'll be a bit cheaper than buying 2 separate cards, and I'm not sure but I think it will perform slightly better than 2 separate cards in Crossfire. I don't know if Tom's has compared the X2 and Crossfire of the same cards, but if he has that'll tell you all you need to know.

 

The X2 cards *do* perform better than 2 cards in CrossFire...but just barely. If you can afford it, 2 X2 cards in CrossFire running a 30" LCD would be a pretty sweet setup.
Tom's Hardware doesn't have any benchmarks for 2 X2 cards in Crossfire...lame.

 

Yeah, 2 X2 cards would REALLY blow everything else away. The only problem I'd see with such a setup is the power required... you'd need a monster PSU, and it better be a very good brand! Although, if money's not an issue...

 

Still, whit two GPU cards you always have one if the other one fails.
Newer models of the 4870 run more silent and less hot.

If money is not an issue go SLI whit Nvidia.

 

That's the best part of the X58 boards, we can finally run CrossFire or SLI on the same board!

 

Another question to you all. What is considered to be the best windows operating system for gaming?

Also as an update, I am hopeing to either get or preoder most of the parts next weeked

 

XP by far. Win7 will be in second place once it hits shelves...possibly battling for 1st place with future updates to the Beta.

 

Blue, Ziad, I'd be inclined to go with GDDR5 over GDDR4 and GDDR4 over GDDR3. Avoid like plague anything GDDR2 if you want any serious gaming and GDDR3 is not preferable unless you get a good bargain. Sapphire does seem to have a reputation among ATI card makers. I'd have to warn you that ATI cards have some specific issues with NWN1, likely not NWN2 (haven't noticed and my last two cards have been ATI). As a rule, if you're willing to take the chance with drivers and compatibility issues, ATI is for you. If you aren't, go nVidia and treat the slightly higher price as a bonus you pay for not having the same kind of issues. And nVidia does have the same kind of issues, it's just it doesn't seem to be so often as with ATI.

Next card, I think, I'll go with nVidia and see if I get any driver issues.

And do get 4870 rather than 4850. The components are more solid from what I've heard. Make sure, however, that you have a potent PSU. Especially if you want to go Crossfire once the card is so cheap that you can buy a second one for much less than you gave for the first one.

 

The beast is here....

i7 920
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4
3G Kingston 1333mhz RAM
Zalman NPS9900LED
Sapphire ATI HD4870x2 2G DDR5
160GB WD SATAII 7,200rpm
500GB WD SATAII 7,200rpm
Corsair TX750
Antec P160W
Samsung 23" Full HD Monitor

Installing XP on it now...

 

And what a beast it is!

Congratulations on your new PC. My coming one won't compete with it, but I'm looking forward to it all the same.