No real 'Advice' needed, though it's the only prefix that fit! After multiple threads and tons of helpful input I've finally finalized everything. Some parts are already here, few more on the way, and the rest are TBO (to be ordrered). To the list! Case: Corsair Obsidian 800D Motherboard: EVGA E760 CLASSIFIED -- Already own. Processor: Intel Core i7 920 -- Already own. RAM: Crucial Ballistix 6GB DDR3 1600MHz Graphics Card: EVGA 896-P3-1170-AR GeForce GTX 275 896MB x3 Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional -- Already own. Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache x4 - Running RAID 10 for a total of 2TB of space with speed and redundancy. Optical Drive: LG Black Internal Blu-ray Burner Super Multi Blu-ray Disc Burner & HD DVD-ROM Drive PSU: ENERMAX REVOLUTION85+ ERV1050EWT 1050W -- Already own. Monitor: Still debating with myself whether I want to keep my 30" Dell 3007WFP, or pick up two of these... HP LP2475w 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor x2 Speaker System: Logitech Z-5500 Keyboard: Logitech G19 Mouse: RAZER Mamba Cooling Fans: ENERMAX MAGMA x5 CPU Cooling: CORSAIR CWCH50 -- Already own. OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit w/ Tech Guarantee - Will be running Windows 7 RC until the full version is released. Only picked up the Vista copy for the free Win 7 upgrade. -- Already own.
Looks like you already have most of it Why triple SLI? You reckon you'll need that? Surely 2x 275s will be more than enough? Even though you'll have RAID, you'll still need some kind of back up. Sure, you'll have redundancy, but that doesn't protect you if you have a house fire, or someone breaks into your house and steals everything. Think about Ghost and a fast external eSATA drive (USB drives suck for backup.. takes hours).
If I decide to keep my 30", the extra framerate from the third 275 is well worth the money, not to mention the added folding@home performance from the third card. It's a large enough jump in performance to make me pick it up. The price for 3x 275's come out to be equal to 2x 285's, and the PPD value in folding is why I chose the three cards over two 285's. Considering I'm currently living on a military installation, the chances of a robbery are VERY slim (though there's always a chance), and the house fire... Well, let's just hope there's no house fires... More than likely I will end up picking up a 2TB HDD or two once I get everything set up, and do alternating backups every couple weeks to a month with each drive. I'll also be picking up a fire-proof safe at that point in time.
I went back and forth with myself multiple times on the graphics issue... Short of picking up 2x 295's and spending an extra $300, the 275's are my best bet. That's my conclusion anyway.
