Gaming Tower Build

What display(s) are you intending to drive? Unless you're going multi or very large then do you really need multiple cards?

What people think they need and what people actually need are frequently not the same. You sound like you're in a position to make a substantial investment for her, and hopefully gain her appreciation ;-)

I would suggest trying to establish what games your wife plays and what her preferences are. Do you want to get her a new display to go with this? If not what is the display she has?

In very simple terms multiple cards work well if you are driving a large display, for a smaller display they don't make as much difference. I'd suggest you have a look at this article:

http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] ,2961.html

Here the Tom's guys do a range of builds for different budgets and show some benchmarks. Also have a look at:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gami [...] 32251.html

This article reviews graphics cards at given price points to show which test as giving the best performance / £ - they also show multi card options.

As a novice I'd suggest that getting the system built for you would be wise. Aria.co.uk scan.co.uk and overclockers.co.uk are good suppliers and can build 'BEASTS' but you need to know what you're after really and how much you want to spend. That said they tend to offer good specifications anyway so you're unlikely to get a duffer if you go with their £x gaming options.

Why don't you let us know your budget, what games she likes playing and if you need monitor and other items to go with it. Plenty of people here will then be able to offer opinions on what direction you might want to take.