What Motherboard and CPU to buy?

Yeah I kinda wanted to make it future-proof. Now if only the X2800XTX were to come out.....

those are true power hogs.....

I think I'll just sit back and enjoy the soon-to-be-mine X1950Pro...

hey guys, i got my X1900XTX and it is amazing, massive compared to my X1600pro but it easily fits into my case so it doesnt matter.
It takes up two slots on my case, which is also fine as im not using any other PCI-E slot.

I was playing FarCry at a res of 1440x900 with anti-alising at X6 and anistropic filtering at X16 no problem, never jerked or missed a frame, i was blown away by the performance of the card......but after 4 hours, oh my did it get hot. The extra case fan came on, its never needed to come on before, and the back, where the GPU fan slot is, it was emitting alot of heat....im getting worried.

My case has
X1 Fans (one over CPU heatsink and fan, chucking the air out of the side)
X1 at the back (the one iv never heard come on before, its 120mm i think)

and then the usuals

X1 GPU chipset fan
X1 Heatsink and Fan over CPU
X2 on stock PSU (im upgrading it now anyway, even though it seems to take the card pretty well,i dont trust it)
X1 on motherboard chipset

i dont want to go to water cooling if i need more cooling....help guys any ideas?
thanks

Get a new heatsink instead of watercooling, coz if you install it improperly then ur PC is liable to go down the drain (literally! ). The Arctic Cooling Accelero X2 is your best bet methinks.

A VERY nice upgrade would be to an Asus Striker Extreme motherboard with an Intel E6600 Core 2 Duo processor. This will of course require new RAM of the DDR 2 kind. This is an awesome gaming setup when paired with a single 8800 or with dual 8800s in SLI mode.

The Striker Extreme is not worth it IMO. [H]ardOCP has said here that the performance it provides is not worth the price and that other 680i-based boards perform a lot better for far lower prices. The same opinion was echoed here by X-bit labs. The E6600 and 8800GTS/GTX are good upgrades but need a lot of $$$, which not everyone is ready to spend. And dual 8800s are so much overkill it's not even funny. Not a rebuttal or anything to the above post, just my 2 cents.

thanks for the advice Rage_3K_Moiz, but im going to use an air conditioning unit to cool the whole case instead hope it works lol

another thing about my X1900XTX, i checked the clock speeds, and they say its 550 Core and 500 Memory? whats going? i overclocked it to normal speeds, and it works fine.....any ideas why it isnt stock speed?
thanks

It may be because the card is overheating. So the GPU automatically slows down to prevent any damage. And an A/C unit will cause more problems that it's worth IMO, since it will blow dust along with cool air into the case which might build up over time. But if u wanna take the chance, go ahead. The Accelero X2 is only $33 and provides excellent and quiet cooling without any attached problems, which is why I recommended it.

i just read some somehwere that the X1900XTX is designed to run at 110*c.
the GPU and memory speeds are like that even from boot up, cold. the card is fine for general use, it only heats up when playings games maxed out.
ever heard of this happening before?

You're seeing the clock speeds it uses in 2D mode to save power. The second you run a 3D app, the faster clock speeds will kick in. You can see for yourself by using any OCing app like RivaTuner or ATi Tray Tools and using any monitoring graphs they have. (I personally don't use them so I don't know but I'm sure they have some form of graph monitor(s). Feel free to google around ) Run a game for a while and then go back to the OCing app and check the logs. You should be able to see the difference for yourself.

I have seen some of the reviews you mention but the good thing is that this board is made for the FUTURE not for now. It is quad core ready now. when quad core processors become normal you will be ready and not have to switch motherboards/RAM. It is a board that allows you to grow into it and will last far longer than most of the other boards in this class. Also, it allows for full PCI Express 16 on BOTH of your dual 8800s or whatever card you use in SLI mode, whereas with many other boards you only get PCI Express x8 when you run 2 cards at one time. That is something to think about as well.

What other motherboard would you suggest Rage_3K_Moiz, over this one that supports SLI with SLI enabled 16x PCI Express on both cards for a cheaper price? Especially with comparable or better overclocking features?

That is exactly the point. When quad-core processors do become the norm, they'll probably be used in most homes for things other than gaming. For gaming, there'll probably be 16-core or something processors available and you will need a new mobo for them. Also you talk about "Full x16 SLI" but that is an old thing and NVIDIA is using it as a marketing gimmick for the 680i. The ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe here has/had that feature too, even though it is one of the now almost extinct Socket 939 platform boards and if you care to see the benchmarks at the bottom, "Full x16 SLI" doesn't help performance much at all. In fact, the 650i is capable of supporting two 8800s and has only dual 8x PCI-E for SLI.
Below are more reviews and benchmarks:
Neoseeker's Review of the A8N32-SLI Deluxe
Anandtech's Review of the A8N32-SLI Deluxe
Keep in mind that the reviews also speak of "the future" but since then, 8800s/DX10 were touted as the future of gaming. But if the 8800s also do not need "Full x16 SLI", what card does? It's all just marketing. Not to say that the 680i is a bad chipset, but I'd rather get the 957X or the 650i (which perform at par with the 680i) rather than pay so much money for the 680i.