Hey guys, I'm going to upgrade my system in a few days and I'd like to know what you think of these parts.
Current system:
MSI P4N Diamond Motherboard
OCZ GameXStream 600W PSU
Intel P4 630 @ 3.4GHz Processor
1GB (2x512) DDR2-667 Corsair Memory
2GB (2x1GB) DDR2-800 A-Data Memory
BFGTech GeForce 7800GT OC 256MB Video Card


New upgrades I'm considering:
Not sure about motherboard.
Intel C2D E8400
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115037

2GB (2x1GB) DDR2-800 A-Data (adding to the other A-Data memory I have)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820211066

EVGA GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130325

I'm going to use the system primarily to play games like Quake 4, TF2, Call of Duty 4, maybe WoW, and other older games that I know will run fine on the system. I will be running the games at either 1440x900 or 1680x1050 and I want a PC that will run games with all the settings high at those resolutions very smoothly, preferably 60fps and above. I also plan to overclock at least a little bit.

I have a few questions.
1. Should I consider SLI? If so, would it be more price/performance to get:
2 x EVGA GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130325

or

2 x EVGA GeForce 8800GT 512MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130318


2. If I want to get two video cards, will my power supply adequately power them, along with everything else in my system?

3. Which chipset and motherboard would be good for my build? I initially thought about the P35 chipset if I wasn't going to SLI these cards but I need some other opinions and advice about all of this.

I appreciate any and all suggestions that you all may have. If you need anymore information at all please ask me. Now what do ya think guys?!

I don't think you need dual graphics cards for those games at those resolutions. A nice 4850 would take care of those games, and be cheaper and better than the 8800GTS. In this case, you could get a P45 board and be fine.

To answer your questions:

1. No you don't need it and you don't want to deal with the issues nVidia's Intel chipsets have.

2. PC Power and Cooling Quad 750

3. P45- Asus P5Q Pro. +1 for zip go with 4850 or 4870 if you can afford it.

You wont need sli for those games, an 8800gt 512mb on its one will power the graphics you need very well. if you do get two cards (which you dont need) 650w minimum for 8800gt or gts

if you dont need sli so i would suggest the P45 as its a solid board and been around long enough to drop in price, i would also suggest looking at buying a 4850 gfx card as the p45 is a cross fire board, the 4850 have shown some good performace for a mid priced card.

+1 for shadowduck, i would change the ram though.

Did not notice that A-Data RAM. +1 for shadow on pointing that out.

I'm looking into the 4850 card now and I'm liking what I'm seeing, especially with the price. Part of why I was considering the 8800GTS is because it's been out for so long and it seems very reliable. The 4850 is so new, can it be trusted? Also, what do you guys suggest for memory? Should I go up to PC2 8500 speed memory or what do ya think?

CORSAIR DOMINATOR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
Just got it yesterday and love it, but i got it from tiger and now its out of stock.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145197

i dont know why everyone hates on sli. as monitors become cheaper and cheaper, it will be more efficient to buy a 24+ inch. also, having a half decent/good mobo allows you to buy 1 card now, and later on when you notice it can't keep up with newly released cards, you can just buy another vid card. as you can see from the sli 8800's, it almost keeps up with newly released cards.

*Almost* while costing more money and using much more power. SLI later is a bad bad idea. It never works out like you think it will. Plus you have to deal with the absolute bug ridden garbage nVidia calls a chipset. If Intel chipsets did SLI the hate would be much less.

SLi is what you make it out to be. Do the research and find out what bugs people are experiencing first.

It boils down to your budget. It'll cost more for SLi, that PSU you have won't work on 2X: 8800GTX,9800GTX, GX2 or newer GTX2xx.

It is much better, at this point, to Xfire HD4850 with that PSU. Then you have to consider, do you want 8X 8X Xfire or 16X 16X Xfire motherboard.

Those games you mention can do just fine on a single video card solution too.

What do you guys think about the 9800GTX (G92) compared to the HD 4850? I'm worried about the heat issues with the 4850 since it's so new and it doesn't have a big GPU cooling system. The biggest difference that I've seen so far is in temperatures; 9800GTX seems as though it doesn't get nearly as hot as the 4850 but I'm not for sure. I'm thinking of getting a P45 board with one PCI-E 2.0 slot and getting one of those two cards.

you can't go wrong with EVGA GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB.

the only way the "I'll add a second card later when its needed" works is with crossfire, because crossfire doesn't require identical cards, unlike SLI.
for example, people are mixing a 4850 with a 3870.

by the time you need that second card, a new card will be out that would wipe the floor with your 2 old cards.

also SLI doesn't make sense with less than top of the line because you get more performance per dollar with 1 better card than 2 worse cards.