need some Computer hardware savvy advice.

[DragonChi]

i am looking to make a small upgrade in december after i get Windows 7. and I need someone who REALLY knows their computer hardware for some advice on parts, brands and prices. keeping in mind i live in Canada so prices are different if you are making price references from any other country.

So what i am after, is to have 2 VERY decent, but reasonably priced gfx cards to use SLI. and have at least 4GB of ddr3 ram. As Win7 has a 64-bit version included, i want to exploit the expanded ram reading support.

This is what my rig is atm, to use as a frame of reference.

GFX: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+
Ram: 2G (2x 1G sticks) of 1333GHZ DDR3 "Patriot" (viper series)
CPU: Core i7 965 extreme edition Quad-core 3.2GHZ
MoBo: Asus Rampage II Extreme
Cooling: Coolermaster V8 CPU Cooler
PSU: Coolermaster 1000HX 1000Watt
Chassis: ThermalTake Armor+
HDD: 2 Seagate 500GB and 1 Seagate 1TB
OS: Windows XP Pro.

So as you can tell..my planned upgrade is more than supported with my Mobo, cpu..etc.

My question is, what are the best brands and combinations that are a "bang for your buck"
any and all help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

you can run windows 7 off that as it is

 

[Sneaky-Pie]

Why do you want to upgrade again? Just for the sake of having two video cards and 4gigs of RAM?

For the RAM, I've always been a fan of G.Skill myself, but I haven't tried any of their DDR3 RAM yet.

As for video cards, you could always slap another 9800 GTX+ in for SLI.

 

[Calobi]

Why not boost the 2 gigs of RAM up to 4? More expensive, sure, but memory is cheap enough now.

 

[DragonChi]

Wait - you bought a Core i7-965? What a waste! You could have bought a Core i7-920 and overclocked the sucker.

Anyway, you're looking for two NVIDIA GTX 275s or ATI Radeon HD4890s. EVGA makes the best NVIDIA cards, and I'm not certain what to go for on the ATI end, but I think Sapphire is a good brand.

Mind if I ask what it is that makes EVGA better? just so im not going along with this blindly..

 

[pantsoffdanceoff]

Wait - you bought a Core i7-965? What a waste! You could have bought a Core i7-920 and overclocked the sucker.

Anyway, you're looking for two NVIDIA GTX 275s or ATI Radeon HD4890s. EVGA makes the best NVIDIA cards, and I'm not certain what to go for on the ATI end, but I think Sapphire is a good brand.

Mind if I ask what it is that makes EVGA better? just so im not going along with this blindly..

From what I know, they have higher rendering capabilities then that of the Radeon and have bigger fans attached to the graphics card so it doesn't over heat at higher FPS. Granted you have thermal take armor so I believe the second point isn't as important. I have a Radeon but that's because my comp is a slim, I'd go with an Nvidia if I could.
This is from what I know, this isn't my area of expertise.

 

[the_dancy_vagrant]

Wait - you bought a Core i7-965? What a waste! You could have bought a Core i7-920 and overclocked the sucker.

Anyway, you're looking for two NVIDIA GTX 275s or ATI Radeon HD4890s. EVGA makes the best NVIDIA cards, and I'm not certain what to go for on the ATI end, but I think Sapphire is a good brand.

Mind if I ask what it is that makes EVGA better? just so im not going along with this blindly..

From what I know, they have higher rendering capabilities then that of the Radeon and have bigger fans attached to the graphics card so it doesn't over heat at higher FPS. Granted you have thermal take armor so I believe the second point isn't as important. I have a Radeon but that's because my comp is a slim, I'd go with an Nvidia if I could.
This is from what I know, this isn't my area of expertise.

Typically what makes a graphics card better if it's based on another company's chipset is the peripheral equipment that they use - the memory controller, the memory itself, and some other minor bells and whistles. Most companies these days do pretty well on all counts. As an example, ASUS manufactures cards based on both ATI and Nvidia's chips, but check the price difference on an ASUS GTX280 vs. EVGA

ASUS: http://www.shopbot.ca/pp-asus-engtx280-ochtdp1g-asus-price-119478.html
EVGA: http://www.shopbot.ca/pp-evga-geforce-gtx-280-1024mb-evga-price-113784.html

My guess is that despite the difference in price, the performace gains on the ASUS model are probably quite modest, maybe at most 3-5%. The rig you have is already pretty beastly so I wouldn't worry overmuch about crossfire/SLI because I am extremely doubtful that you'll come across any game that would really warrant that much processing power.

 

[pantsoffdanceoff]

Wait - you bought a Core i7-965? What a waste! You could have bought a Core i7-920 and overclocked the sucker.

Anyway, you're looking for two NVIDIA GTX 275s or ATI Radeon HD4890s. EVGA makes the best NVIDIA cards, and I'm not certain what to go for on the ATI end, but I think Sapphire is a good brand.

Mind if I ask what it is that makes EVGA better? just so im not going along with this blindly..

From what I know, they have higher rendering capabilities then that of the Radeon and have bigger fans attached to the graphics card so it doesn't over heat at higher FPS. Granted you have thermal take armor so I believe the second point isn't as important. I have a Radeon but that's because my comp is a slim, I'd go with an Nvidia if I could.
This is from what I know, this isn't my area of expertise.

Typically what makes a graphics card better if it's based on another company's chipset is the peripheral equipment that they use - the memory controller, the memory itself, and some other minor bells and whistles. Most companies these days do pretty well on all counts. As an example, ASUS manufactures cards based on both ATI and Nvidia's chips, but check the price difference on an ASUS GTX280 vs. EVGA

ASUS: http://www.shopbot.ca/pp-asus-engtx280-ochtdp1g-asus-price-119478.html
EVGA: http://www.shopbot.ca/pp-evga-geforce-gtx-280-1024mb-evga-price-113784.html

My guess is that despite the difference in price, the performace gains on the ASUS model are probably quite modest, maybe at most 3-5%.

That's uh... totally what I meant to say.

 

[DragonChi]

In terms of gfx cards, i always go with Nvidia. so my question is never about whether to go with ATI or Nvidia. its the different companies like BFG,XFX and EVGA that make their own nvidia based models that differ in their specs. so that makes it a little harder to know which is better and why. so you guys are saying that EVGA has better fans,gpu,drivers..etc than the other 2?

as for ram, back when i was doing research on getting ddr3 ram initially..which was couple years ago, i came across Patriot ram. and read on review sites that it was top end. i don't know if that is still the case. but one thing is certain, noone told me that ddr3 was meant to be used with 3 sticks.so thanks for telling me that.