Wassup fellas/ladies...

I'm in the process of upgrading my system... It's been four years and my P4 3.8Ghz (OC'ed) isn't quite cutting it anymore... Anyhoo, I've purchased the following already:

ABIT IP35 Pro MB
Intel Q6600 Quad Core Processor
8GB OCZ PC8500 RAM (4 x 2GB sticks - Dual Channel)
2 x Seagate 500GB SATA II HD (for RAID)
Antec 750W Silent PSU
Running MS Vista Pro

So I'm looking at a Crossfire setup with two Radeon 3870 PCI-E 512MB DDR4 512bit video cards... Any input, comment, or feedback would be appreciated... Thanks in advance!!

- airbutchie

Dual 512Mb graphics cards seems a little over the top to me. I just run a single dual output card for my 2 monitors and have never had any issues.

Vista! Ewwwwwwwwww....

^ Yeah... I know... Vista... But XP will only acknowledge 2GB of RAM... And I need a bit more when doing my video editing... Vista will recognize all 8GB excluding resources and such... Anyone else wanna add to the convo...

- Air B

Microsoft's site says Windows XP Home Edition can use up to 4GB of physical memory. My home PC has 4GB.

Link

I stand corrected.. 4GB of RAM...

- airbutchie

32-bit operating systems have an issue utilizing memory above 3 GB. It may recognize, but won't fully use it like the first 3 GB.

/PAE (Physical adress extenstion) to the boot options to get the full 4 gigs in XP. I have ati crossfire and vista. The only thing you have to deal with is if you use an extended desktop. you will have to create a profile for gaming and dual display. Its kinda a PIA but it works. I have the asus version of those cards and cant complain. While there arnt too many games that take full advantage of Xfire yet. They are just around the corner. Your setup should run you about 4 more years. And you will actually be able to run vista...

Thanks Andrew for the info... At this point I'm only using a single LCD monitor... Perhaps down the line I can purchase another NEC 24" to go with what I have now... Nonetheless, I appreciate your input... Anyone else?! TIA...

- Air B