Few questions for the Pro's

[julius_caesar_01]

Hello all, thinking of buying a new system for gaming. I have a few questions:

I want to run games on 1920X1200 resolution on a monitor of atleast 24"
I want to go for 2X GTX 285 SLI . will this be an overkill ? should I put 2 X GTX 295 ? or go for 2X ATI HD 4890 ? I need max performance for a long time.
Will it make no difference on the computing requirements if i buy a 27" monitor and run it on 1920X1200 resolution ?? I think this is too good to be true , is it ??
I have a budget of $2200 . If i buy an X58 mobo , can i remove my nvidia cards and put ATI cards later ? i heard it supports both xfire and SLI.
Will nvidia or ati introduce new cards till june-july ?? cos I can wait till June max. I need to buy the rig by then.
Can someone put up a rig for me? I would be very thankful

 

[Why_Me]

Here is a copy paste from a build I did just a few minutes ago on another thread. It's right in your ball park.

This case below is considered to be one of the best for airflow/ventilation not to mention it's a full tower with plenty of room to spare. This case goes for $150 on newegg...and that's just because they dropped the price on it yesterday. This case usually retails for close to $200. I found it for $120 thanks to google shopping. The mobo on this build is set up for either SLI or Crossfire...it does both. The heat sink on here is rated in the top 5 at "frostytech. com" not to mention the thermal compound in this build is the best as far as a lot of people including myself are concerned. It is non conductive, and there is no set up time. The memory in this build a steal at that price. Ah and the vid card. The gtx 285 is about the best thing going right now. It's a low power consuming card, it doesn't produce a lot of heat, and it runs comparable in a lot of games with the ATI 4870 x2 with is a heat producing power hog. Later on if you get a monitor with a higher resolution and you feel the need to add another one of these vid cards to run them in SLI that option is there sans the reason for the full tower and the 850w psu in this build.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160 <--- Better pics and reviews on this link for that case that I put in this build.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2009/01/16/nvidia-zotac-geforce-gtx-285-1gb/1 <--- Here is a review and comparison of the gtx 285 a long with graphs, etc.. comparing it to other vid cards.

http://www.gigabyte.us/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=3020 <---The mobo I used in this build; specs, etc...

http://www.securemart.com/SMA2101442?pcode=4&utm_source=GoogleBase&utm_medium=cse&utm_campaign=freeppc $119.91
Cooler Master RC-932-KKN1-GP HAF 932 Chassis - 12 Bays - Black

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139009 $139.99 ($119.99 after $20.00 Mail-In Rebate) Free Shipping*
CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128386 $209.99
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R-SLI LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=I7-920 $265.99 Free Ground Shipping
Intel Core i7 Processor i7-920 2.66GHz 8MB LGA1366 CPU, OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233029 $39.99
XIGMATEK Dark Knight-S1283V 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186020 $6.99
ARCTIC COOLING MX-2 Thermal Compound - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231247 $94.99 Free Shipping*
G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125255 $339.99 ($309.99 after $30.00 Mail-In Rebate)
GIGABYTE GV-N285-1GH-B GeForce GTX 285 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319 $79.99 Free Shipping*
Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136152 $24.99 Free Shipping*
LG Black 22X (CAV) DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X (CAV) DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116488 $99.99 Free Shipping*
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit for System Builders - OEM

Total: $1,422.81 *(not including shipping and rebates)

 

[xthekidx]

GPU/Mobo: EVGA 132-BL-E758-A1 LGA 1366 Intel X58 and EVGA GTX 285
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.179001

GPU/CPU: EVGA GTX 285 SC edition and i7 920
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.179218

Case/PSU: Antec 1200 and CP-850
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.177160

HDD/Sata cable WD6401AALS and free usb cable
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.175960

Optical: LG DVD Combo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136152

Ram: OCZ Platinium 6gb DDR3-1600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227381

CPU Cooler and Grease: TRUE and MX-2
http://www.heatsinkfactory.com/thermalright-ultra-120-extreme-1366-rt.html
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186020

OS: Vista Home Premium 64bit
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116488

The total of that comes to about $1975 after shipping, then you get $75 MIR, grand total of about $1900.

The actual size of the screen doesn't matter for FPS in games, only the resolution and the detail settings you chose. You will get the same FPS on a 28" monitor as a 24" monitor, however the smaller monitor will have a sharper image because the individual pixels will be smaller. 2 GTX 285's is overkill for 19x12 res, but a single GTX 285 might not completely max out in intense games at decent FPS. Going with two GTX 285's will ensure you don't need to upgrade for a couple years at least. All x58 boards support xfire, and most support SLI, so you could swap out the GPU's at a later date for a different brand if you wanted. I am not aware of any more releases of GPU's this half of 2009 after the GTX 275 and 4890 due the beginning of this month, this week supposedly, however the longer you wait, the more prices will drop on components so generally speaking waiting will get you better prices, but these combo deals won't be around then so its possible you could end up paying more.

 

[julius_caesar_01]

Thank you very much for your replies