Originally posted by sammorris:

---

Doesn't mean it's up to the job of three 8800GTXs though. I own that PSU and it's good, but personally I think you're cutting it a bit fine.

---

sam, d'ya know that you can ONLY tri-sli GTxs and ultra, m8. so id say its fine :)

Yes but you can quad SLI with a pair of 7950s can't you? I'm guessing that's less power than three 8800GTXs. The PSU is certified for quad SLI, doesn't say what though does it?

yes, but one GTX draws quite alot of power, and don't mention 3 GTX it's a 3 high end card and newer technology than 7950, and since 7950 is 2 cards. But you have a point there.

two HD3870 X2 draws increadible amount of power.

9800GT qill support 3 way sli, it's a 8800GT with an extra connector thing.

Three 8800GTXs alone will use about 550-600W. Two HD3870X2s will use about 500W.

3 cards still draws more than 2 cards even if it's a dual core. High end 9-series will probably draw much much more.

Well, if you had three 9600GTs, that wouldn't be the case, but I don't think you can do that.

9600GT can't support 3-way sli, thats just too bad, other wise thats a good option.

I'm waiting for Nvidia's new 9800GTX, if it's way better than ATI cards then i'll go for a 780i chipset mobo and Nvidia card, basically a nvidia build. If the difference aren't too far apart then i'll get HD3870 X2.

I'm not averse to getting an nvidia card despite the image quality loss (since the image quality of the 3800s is marred by the fact that most of the time catalyst can't draw 2D without corrupting it) but I'm staying away from nvidia chipsets. The P35 runs so much better and cooler than the 650i.

but i'm planning on SLi-ing if nvidia cards are better and cheaper. i'm wondering when intel chipset will support SLI. some mobo manu tried making intel chipset support sli, but it didn't go too well

I doubt it will ever happen properly, but really, I don't consider SLI worth the money, even with graphics cards being as cheap as they are now. Don't forget, the electricity to run the cards costs more than the things themselves now. If you game for 6 hours a day but leave your PC running the rest of the time, an additional 9600GT will set you back £70 a year in this country. An additional 8800GTX will set you back an extra £100 a year.

Then i'll have to kinda wait for Gigabytes P45 chipset, then it should have 1 PCI-E instead od 2 just like P35, but it support PCI-E 2.0