One decent card vs 2 cheap in sli

[phobia911]

ok so i am building my first gaming pc and am paying for it myself so i have a budget (b/c i don't got much money
well anyway so i was origonally going to fork out the cash for a 8800 and cut back on other components but i don't want to do that now b/c i want this system to last and upgrading graphics l8r would leave me better of pricewise than upgrading my other stuff l8r
so here is 2 options i am looking at and i don't know which is better
option1 is getting a pretty good evga 8600GTS card that costs about $160
option2 is getting 2 zogis 8600GT that are really cheap and running them in sli for about the same price
now at first i thought this was a no brainer until i dug through the specs a bit and here are the 2 things that make me wonder which is really better. first off the evga runs at a core clock speed of 675mhz while the zogis run at 540 each. now at this point i am still thinking the 2 in sli are better until i realized that the evga is gddr3 memory while the zogis are gddr2 both options being 512mb. also evga is well known and seems to be reliable while i have never heard of zogis b4
so my question is which option will do better performance wise and reliablility wise.
and how much difference is there really in the performance

well i have a few more questions based off the answers to these so for now that about does it so here are the links to compare the 2:

evga: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=n82e16814130286
zogis: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=n82e16814136019

thanks alot i can use any good advice i can get,
phobia

 

[dustin_ds3000]

sli is meant for buying one gpu with the most you can, then 3-6 months buy one more for sli

 

[kpo6969]

Single better card over 2 lesser cards.
Why not get this XFX 8600GTS for $100?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150228&ATT=14-150-228&CMP=AFC-C8Junction

And you won't have to cut back on the other componets.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

You might be thinking...why is a single good card better than two lesser cards in SLI? Well, first off, the two 8600GTs would need more cooling and more power to run properly as opposed to a single 8600GTS. Also, you wouldn't see a 2x performance increase than if you ran a single 8600GT, which is what you'd theoretically expect. Lastly, the only advantage of running such an SLI setup would be to be able to play a game like World of Warcraft at 1600x1200 or above with good framerates.
kpo6969's recommendation is thus your best bet.

 

[phobia911]

alright thanks guys that helps alot and the only thing i don't like about the card u suggested kpo is that it is 256mb instead of 512 now do i need the 512 or do u think the 256 would run well enough?
right now i do have enough money to get the evga 8600 w/o cutting back i was just saying i would have to cut back to get an 8800 like i origonally wanted to

 

[kpo6969]

The 8600GTS is only 128bit memory bus so will the extra ram be of good use?
GDDR3 over GDDR2

If your going to cut back and get the better card you could also look at a upcomming 8800GS. MSRP $150-$170? best guess

http://en.expreview.com/?p=232

 

[phobia911]

The 8600GTS is only 128bit memory bus so will the extra ram be of good use?
GDDR3 over GDDR2

well i am guessing it won't be b/c of what ur saying but idk lol wait so r u saying that the 128bit bus will bottleneck it to the point that an extra 256mb won't be worth it?

as for the other card i didn't know they had any 8800 cards under $200 yet

 

[kpo6969]

well i am guessing it won't be b/c of what ur saying but idk lol wait so r u saying that the 128bit bus will bottleneck it to the point that an extra 256mb won't be worth it?

as for the other card i didn't know they had any 8800 cards under $200 yet

http://www.trustedreviews.com/graphics/news/2008/01/03/nVidia-GeForce-8800-GS-Uncovered/p1
http://en.expreview.com/?p=160

8800GS = 192bit memory bus, 384mb ram (768mb to be offered also-more $)

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

The extra RAM will only show a performance gain at very high resolutions where more framebuffer is needed.