So I was thinking about this whole Crossfire-in-the-future-someday-when-I-get-the-extra-money thing, and I compared the situation to my current setup... Athlon 64 3000+, an evga 6600GT, and 2gigs of Ram--the RAM being the only upgrade made to the whole system, even though I had bought it three years ago with full intentions of upgrading over the next few years.
And it's tough, but I think I need to be completely honest with myself about the extra expenses involved just to have Crossfire compatibility. Adding that second card probably wouldn't happen for at least 2.5-3 years, and by then there will likely be a single-slot solution better than two 4870s. So in reality, I'd spend at least 200 extra now on a PSU and Mboard just to have compatibility for something I'll possibly never use.
If my budget could stretch just a little higher, I think my best choice (since I don't really upgrade, even if I intend to) would be to just start off with two 4870s in Crossfire. And if my budget can't do that (should know in a few weeks), then I don't see the point in even being Crossfire-ready.
So with that in mind, any pointers on this non-Crossfire build (which could end up being what I go with)?
■$125-- Antec Sonata III + 500W PSU (without Xfire, I think this would be plenty)
■$190-- Q6600 OEM
■$310-- 4870
■$130-- Hard drive + cost of CPU cooling
■$80-- approx. price for RAM
■$???-- What motherboard to go with? I'd still like to overclock my q6600 to the 3.4-3.6 range since that seems to be pretty feasible (Newegg's single-GPU-slot motherboards--
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&SpeTabStoreType=&Order=BESTMATCH&srchInDesc=
The motherboard is what I really need help with. Biostar's P43 is supposed to be a great overclocker, but I've heard that the P45 chipset is where it's really at. Assuming a MB cost of about 100, the total for a non-Crossfire system would only be about $935 (adding Crossfire compatibility--even if I would never add that second 4870--would bring the total to at least $1100 no matter what, possibly even higher).