Plans for buying a new machine

[iztehzha]

Should I go with a motherboard which supports RAID over SLI/Xfire? Or is RAID not that nesserary compared to the availablity of SLI/Xfire?
Oh, and btw! Mac sold - So this PC is coming hooome(run) :> (but wont have ze money before 25th of September.

[ObesAU]

Personally... I'd never go raid (for a gaming rig).

Raid 0 is asking to lose data for minimal gains.
Anything higher is either a performance hit or expensive. Raid performance gains are usually seen in file transfers (ie. big file copies/video editing) and not in small numerous random seeks. So I am not sure the gain would be there for Raid with wow specifically. A similar outcome can be achieved via junctions/symlinks.

As for SLI/Crossfire.

SLI means a non Intel chipset. That in and of it self is a turn off for me.
Crossfire. Well yeah maybe, but in the system you are describing you are going to be CPU limited imo.

But as I understand it the performance gain for both techs is not linear(ie.2 cards does not = twice the frame rate), and places other limitations on your system (ie.multi monitor support and things get fruity?)
And if you are going to go there, you have to get a case that is big enough with enough fans to cool two Video cards, a PSU with enough grunt to drive it all... the costs add up.

btw I recently bought a machine with a ati HD4850 512MB ... it beats my nvidia 8800gtx 768MB and cost 1/6th the price (ok so maybe there was 18 months between purchases)

So if on a budget. I'd say neither.
Invest in RAM (with in reason ie.3/4G in 32 bit OSes, 6/8G in 64bit) , more faster HDDs (even if smaller), a better CPU.

*edited to fix spelling*

[iztehzha]

Well I changed the graphics card for a HD 4850.. I'll probaly add 4gb of ram later..

[ObesAU]

btw to clarify... If the data is unimportant or easily replaceable, and performance is needed and involves large transfers (real time video storage/replay), then raid 0 is fine. Just remember RAID0 is not RAID ... its not redundant at all...
ie. I use raid0 in my HTPC.

And the higher forms of raid 5, 6, 10, 50, 60 great but the cost is fairly large in comparison to the rest of the system you describe.

[iztehzha]

*NEW* Hardware list:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.4ghz) (I think I'm gonna overclock it to something higher :>)
Graphicscard: Asus EAH4850/HTDI/512MB, Radeon HD 4850, 512MB GDDR3, DVIx2, HDTV, PCI-Express, Retail
Motherboard: ASRock 4CORE1600TWINS-P35D, Intel P35, GLAN, 8 Channel Surround Audio, SATAII,
eSATA, Dual PCI-Express, Dual DDR2-800 / DDR3-1066/1333, LGA775
RAM:Kingston DDR2-800, 2x2048MB (Will be updated to 8gb later)
HDD: 320 GB – SATAII-300 (Fluid) – 7200 RPM / 16MB cache
PSU: Corsair - CMPSU-550VXEU, 550 Watt, 120mm Fan, Power Effecient, 19 - 35 db, Temp. Auto Control
Case: CoolerMaster Elite RC-330, Black
Monitor: AOC - 20.1” 203SWA, Widescreen, 0.258 dot, 5ms, 1680x1050, Black (cheap as fuck 0o - But has GREAT reviews)

Won't get RAID0 - Not needed for me, I can live with loading screens