HELP with new cpu

[Unregistered]

Recently got back to Oz to discover that my cpu had been thrashed and is now a very impressive looking paperweight, so is time for new cpu........ now the fun part

Want the system to be able to run the likes of Doom3/Half Life2/BF2 without worries so at the moment am looking at getting AMD64 3200+ (do have a budget)
but what I was wondering is with the new motherboards which support 2 PCI Express cards,
ie K8SLI,
A)would it be better to get one of these Mobos and buy two cheaper graphics cards
ie Two 128Mb PC 6600GTs

B) should I save some money on the Mobo and buy a slightly more expensive card
ie 6800GT

Both would cost about the same A) ~$800 B)~$950
Which set-up would be better able to cope with games? and are there any other considerations to take into account???? Such as Power supply, cooling etc.

[Carcrash]

theres a whole heap of stuff u gotta consider there....

SLI really on benefits when running a high res or higher aa/af settings atm...

id b looking around the 500w mark for PSU these days, i wont buy nething but antec, expensive but the best (commercially available)

cooling these days for basic stuff just requires a few low powered 120mm fans in ya case and your set...

in terms of sli mobos currently the DFI and Asus models r the benchmark with Abit just releasing there own version, havent read nething on performance of the Abit model yet but they always make rock solid boards...

id go the 6800gt if i had those 2 choices, most of the guys here would say to get an ATI cause there all HL whores :P

take into consideration that nVidia's new beast 7800U comes out next month.....

and finally, F$$K ME i havent posted on here in a while :D

hak is teh nub :P

[[WTF]hakenspit]

ROFL crashy, I have a amd 3200 runs bf2 demo fine and hl2 no issues. As crashy said I will advise to buy an ATI card and you really are better getting 1 card with 256 rather than 2 128's all the info I have seen does not make 2 cards look like it makes much difference cost/performance.

[Viss]

Agreed SLI i think is going to be a bit of a fad bit like + or - DVD. I would be looking at PCI-e or a x850 xt or x800 in either agp or PCI-e. Although I will give credit where due the 6800 GT is putting the pressure on the ATI cards its not a bad card for the price, ebay will donate one of these to you between $400 - $600 although the Ultra is still pushing the 700 + mark. If your using AMD 64 cpu tho I would recomend ATi.

I only have a 9800 pro running in my AMD 64 3500+ with a Gig of ram and I can run BF2 at full detail & 1280x1024 without a problem so I would imagine anything better than the 9800 will do the job just fine.