@Sol (Sun)

1. Its getting better, as the 40nm process node may not be as good as we'd hoped it may become a requirement for high performance as the GPUs are rumoured to have a lot of leakage. But at the present time, as the reliability of the Crossfire/SLI becomes better/more required for high performance then it makes sense to implement it.

2. People upgrade their GPUs 2-3* before they upgrade their CPU/Motherboards.

3. On the site he has access to, their prices are similar.

1.CF/SLI will never solve the issue of needing per-game profiles to work well, no matter how good the technology is. So the current problems will remain, if anything. If you're talking about hardware reliability I haven't seen anything to say dual-GPU cards are less reliable.

2. OK, but in that case why wouldn't you get a two-on-one card. Those are supported on any motherboard and are cheaper than two single cards. There is no need to buy an SLI motherboard for future-proofing.

3. He lives in the US. Why isn't he using Newegg? They're always cheaper...

Here's one that I'm putting together for under 1400 (USD) that uses top grade components and I promise you (and Tom's Hardware testing shows) it will kick Crysis in the butt and anyother game in the next few years at least.

I posted this in a thread to get input but no one wanted to be bothered I guess.

Bit of a power mismatch there (CPU overpowers GPU). You could get much better performance with the slightly cheaper HD4870 512MB. However, if you're going to spend that much, you might as well get an HD4850 X2 or GTX285 which would be more suited to the CPU. 12GB of DDR3 is overkill: 6GB will be sufficient for a long time.

It would even be worth sacrificing the CPU to get more money for the GPU. Crysis framerates would be better.

Good suggestions but I have a particular application that requires that i use NVIDIA and the GTX 285 would cost an extra $354. The HD4850 is $170 more. If I was mostly interested in gaming I might shell out the extra but but 9800GTS+ 1G is the equivalent of a SLI 2x 9800GT 512 and that is not bad.

The memory is more than some would need but there are some Photoshop applications that I use that will only run what they can hold in RAM so I need the extra. But for many others, they might use that money for the HD4850 and it would be a slightly better gamer.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127409

You should consider this one.

Its factory overclocked with warranty and unlike the GTS+ it actually has the memory bandwidth to use more than 512MB of GDDR3.

$220

Or this one, less overclock but its by Zotac a better brand.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500086

$242

I do use newegg. And if the I7 is only 60 dollars more I don't see why I shouldn't just pay the 60 dollars more for what is clearly better. 60 Dollars isn't really that much IMO. I Just wanted info. I would have ordered all the stuff from newegg :P. I got a 10 foot HDMI cable for 12 dollars from there. My friend spent 30 for a 3 foot from best buy lol.

That won't kick Crysis in the butt.  The GPU will bottleneck the hell out of it.

What applications are you using that require an nVidia card? 

You say adding an HD4850 would be $170 more (which is insane since that alone is more than the price of the card).  Can you buy that rig with an even weaker GPU and then use the saved money to buy a better GPU separately?

@Sharky!

I thought you were from the U.K!!!

LOL!!!!!

Lol, if you check my first post I say dollars. Also I say dollars instead of pounds or euros a few times :P.