My Ultimate Machine...What should I do?

Ok, I'm looking at building "my ultimate machine" and have come across a couple of scenarios. I pretty much have decided to go with the AMD X2 4400+ processor. Solid processor and proformance for the money. I generally have a few things going on so I like the dual processor for that purpose and I am a pretty big gamer (love cs, hl, call of duty etc...). I feel like I got a good price @$479. The memory and power supply are MEM: 1 GB OCZ PC 3200 GOLD Lat=2-2-2-5; PS Enermax Liberty 620W; Gigabyte Auroro case w/water cooling system.

With that in mind, I am looking at the following motherboards and video card set ups.....

1) MB: DFI LanParty RDX200 MB; VC: ATI X1800XT 512MB DDR3; 2) DFI LanParty UT NF4 SLI-DR Expert;

-OR-

2) MB: DFI LanParty UT NF4 SLI-DR Expert; VC: BFG GeForce 7800 GTX OC 256 MB DDR3


I can't make up my mind. Both setups are similarly priced. The benefits of the ATI setup is more vc memory and the crossfire setup allows for different video cards. Therefore, I could actually upgrade my video card in a year or so and still utilize the X1800XT as the secondary. However, the nvidia has less memory but probably more overall power but only allows for the same video cards in SLI mode.

What do you guys think? Ofcourse, any other comments on my proc, mem and ps are welcome. Your help is certainly appreciated.

I'd go with number 2. But I'm an nvidia fan boy so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

I would go with the nForce 4 setup if you plan on OC'ing. I guess that crossfire makes the graphics look better than run faster, which is a nice thing, but the x1800xt is kind of worse than it would be expected to preform with 512mb DDR3 and stuff. The 2nd setup would probably be your best bet for preformance, the first for graphics quality.

Get an opteron 165. That is best deal for a dual core. If you sneeze on the DFI you'll get a 165 up to 2.4ghz. Also, you probably don't need a PSU as beefy as liberty 620. Unless you are planning on running a WC setup with a single stage DD phase change cooler. OCZ's PS 520 will be a good fit. In fact, it's the best PSU for DFI NForce4 boards.

I'd go with the nVidia graphics card. I have two Leadtek 7800s and I'm really happy with them. I can't speak for the ATIs as I have never owned one, but I know the nVidias are good.

I honestally cannot reccomend anything DFI based these days. They have far too many power issues to shake a stick at. I would look elsewhere with either Asus or Abit.

As for GPUs that is purely up to you. I would go with either a cheap GTX or an x1800xl.

If you play any other OGL type games like CoD I would take an Nvidia card over ATi purely for the faster / better support for those types of games.

If your running native 1280x1024. I'd go with dual 7800 Gt's

if your mind is made up then go with the GTX definately.

gl,
Slack from Iraq

opteron instead of x2.
I would choose 7800gtx because of better performance.
x1800 is not successful card from ati and it will be repalced very,very soon by 1900 ( Afaik 24.01.2006 is the day of release)


P.S. I hate nvidia