Hi,

I am looking to upgrade my PC sometime in the near future. at the moment I know that I am going to buy a WD Velociraptor HDD, but as for graphics cards I was considering 2x ATI 4870's in crossfire or just 1 x Nvidia GTX 260 as the former is only slightly more expensive than the latter and 2 is supposedly better than 1

I would like to know firstly which of the two cards I should get (I don't know if crossfire is any good) and secondly if I got the ATI cards what would be the best/fastest motherboard to buy to make use of them?
I also want an Intel CPU and I know ATI is owned by AMD so was wondering if that would affect performance?

I basically want the best motherboard which won't cause bottlenecks between any of the components and will not need upgrading for a while. I believe there are a new range of CPU's and motherboards being released towards the end of this year? If that is the case do you think it is worth waiting for those to come out to buy?

Sorry for all the questions but i've been away for a year and am completely out of the loop.

Thanks in advance!

Two 4870's in CF will be much better than one 260GTX..Heck one 4870 is better than a 260GTX(only benfit of the 260GTX would be the extra ram.But the 4870 will be released soon with 1024mb of ram) .The 4870 is the better card and its cheaper than the 260GTX

I would go with the 4870 in this case and for a mobo a good choice would be any Asus / Gigabyte / DFI / MSI mobo with the X38 / X48 or P45 chipsets since they have pci-e 2.0 .A good P965 or P35 mobo would also work but then your only getting PCI-E 1.0.So the performance wouldnt be quite as good..But id go with the P45 chipsets.X38 and X48 arent worth the extra money.You wont need CF but if want to run CF why not go with two 4850's.Even the 4850 is a match for the 260GTX.

This is killing me since i just happen to be a Nvidia fanboy.And im in the process of stepping up my 750i FTW to a 780i .Now im gonna have to sell my 780i and my video cards (A 260GTX and a 8800GTS 512mb) and get a P45 mobo and two 4870's or one 4870X2. : J/K

couple of decent P45 mobo's
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131299

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128344

Yes, a single HD4870 smoked a single GTX260 in every game in Anandtech's HD4870 review. It even came close to the GTX280 in many games. The HD4870 is without a doubt the best buy for the money in the graphics card world currently.

Intel X38/X48 chipsets fully support ATI Crossfire. In fact, only Crossfire is supported on these chipsets. For Nvidia SLI you would have to get a board with an Nvidia chipset. Personally my opinion is that Intel chipsets are the best way to go for Intel CPUs. I have always had Intel chipsets matched with Intel CPUs and the stability is top notch.

Thanks for that guys, I was leaning towards the ATI cards as well. I was a bit of an Nvidia fan until recently as they were simply the best, but ATI have finally given us a decent product.

Any idea when the 4870 1GB version is out? the reason I want 2 cards is to future proof this setup to an extent, I won't be able to upgrade again for quite a while I should think so want the setup to be able to run the newest games without looking like a slideshow.

Thanks for the advice with the mobo, i'll look into those, I take it there aren't a new breed of intel chips coming out soon that I should wait for then?

Yes intel is comming out with a new cpu very soon.The Nelaham but its gonna cost a lot.

The 1gb 4870's should be out soon as well as the 4870X2 which will have 2gbs of ram. 1 gig per core

Nehalem is expected to launch first at the highend only level (figure $999 or more just for a CPU) when they are launched in Q4 of 2008. I expect more mainstream Nehalem CPUs (around $300) to be released by about mid 2009. Eventually lowerend Nehalem based CPUs will utilize the LGA1160 socket. It does bother me that Intel is moving to a two-socket system with LGA1366 at the mid to high range and LGA1160 at the budget to mid range. One of the great things about LGA775 was that it covered everything from single core Celeron to Core 2 Quad and desktop Xeons.

Ok, so what your saying is I am better off going for a Core 2 Quad or something like that as these new chips are going to cost the earth? If they are significatly better though is it worth the wait until their prices drop?

I will go read up on them now you gave me what to look for but just want your opinion.

Basically if you want to get a well priced Nehalem chip you'll be waiting till about mid to late 2009. If you want your system sooner rather then later, it's really not a bad time at all with Q6600s costing $220 and the HD4870 being an excellent card for the money.

Ok thanks for that you have been a big help.