Computer Upgrade time, suggestions/Clarifications needed

[Laike]

Here we go again, time to upgrade my new system. My questions here will be multi tiered. This is the system I'm thinking about running. Keep in mind, I'm trying to balance lowest cost, with highest performance, and most stability This is the most likely scenario.

AMD 64 3800+
purl=http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=006818&cid=MB.693]Asus K8N SLI[/url]
KingMax 1 gig (2 x 512mb) kit
2x 7600GT SLI
1x DVD Drive
1x DVD Dual Layered Burner
1x Floppy Drive
1x Soundblaster Xfi Xtreme Music
1x TV Tuner Card

My intentions is to buy one 7600 now, and then after summer or closer to Christmas invest in the second card.

First of all, what sort of power supply should I be looking at? Some say 500 w power supply (I'm looking at antec true power PSUs atm) will be adequete, some say I should invest in 550w just to be safe. 500w PSU will save me 30 dollars here on one hand, but if it's going to be a hard call, then I would much rather just spend and get a 550w now.

Second, I've had several friends and aquantinces threaten to beat me over the head for being "stupid" to invest in SLI, that I would be much better off to just go for a 7900GTX for the money I'll be putting out for 7600GT in SLI config. My logic is that I lose a bit of power, but save a little money in long term, plus, I get my upgrades much sooner.

Third, with the SLI config, will my AMD 3800+ bottleneck it? Frankly, if a 3800 will bottleneck the two cards, I might as well save money and completely scrap my plants for a second 7600 card.

Fourth, any suggestions for changes on my plans? All the parts besides the mobo, cpu, gpu, memory, and the PSU are all purchased.

TIA

 

[milktoast]

Going off of the Canada Computers site you are linking, I would change your processor choice. The AMD 3700+ is $78 cheaper than the AMD 3800+, and you will get very similar performance. What you give up in speed, you gain in twice the L2 cache. The other option is to spend $20 more than the 3800+ to get an X2 3800+. Either of those two should be the sweet spot for price / performance.

 

[Laike]

Thanks for pointing out that x2 part milktoast. I've been trying to justify spending that extra 20 dollars for dual core I think I'me 75% committed to a dual core CPU. The problem is I've just been trying to justify an average of 1fps loss in games. I know it sounds really moronic, but I've got an obsession problem

I'm starting to get the impression a 550 will be necessary.

 

[milktoast]

Remember that while today's games are not optimized for dual core, tomorrow's games will be. This will be more and more true as game publishers get more practice creating games for the xbox 360 and ps3 which are both multi-core. From looking at the pc in your sig, I take it you will be keeping this PC for a while, so I would spend a little more for dual core.

 

[Laike]

I'm hoping this PC lasts until DX10 makes the 7600SLI obselete