Asus P5Q Deluxe

Hello.

I'm planning to build my first p.c. from scratch. It will be used for video editing (Adobe Premiere CS4), so I will need slots for at least 5 SATA drives.

After some background reading, I have converged on the following:

Asus P5Q Deluxe, iP45, S775, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR2 1200/1066/800
and
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550, Yorkfield Core, S775, 2.83GHz, 1333MHz

Any comments on the compatibility of those two, please?

I haven't chosen a graphics card yet but was considering something inexpensive like XFX 9800GT.

Well.... The P5Q doesn't seem to be a nVidia motherboard (it doesn't support SLI).

So - any recommendations for motherboard?

You could always go crossfire. Same concept, unless your nVidia bias like I am =). I use a plain ole P5Q with a GTX 260. Honestly I can barely fully use the card I have. If you were gonna go higher than that to say a 285 I think you could manage with just one card. My understanding is the dual card really comes into play in over 24 inch monitors with extreme resolution or FPS on high end games. Dunno if that helps any. Also it is my understanding that the i7 boards may be SLI compatible because Nvidia let up a little.

Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R

I bought a Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R, having reflected that I would only ever use a single graphics card.

Now I've just got to choose that card!

IM really pleased with my Q9550 + P5Q + GTX285

EZ oc to 4.0 and over. IM using 3.74 for my 24/7. Rock solid.