i really appreicate the comments - they're helping a lot.

a few things im thinking about atm

going vista 64bit for direct x 10

deciding on a motherboard - want to get away from the 680i and deciding on SLI, i might in the future want to add another video card so..not sure what to do there might just get SLI to be safe.

Are there any issues with SLI regarding using 2 monitors?

video card
VGA 512-P3-N841-A3 GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130312

ram
G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) Dual Channel
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231145

if anyone has information regarding the ram or video card, SLI issues or winxp vs. vista, multiple HDs to handle loading times.

those are the issues at hand now - once these are resolved there will probably be more questions lol. thanks for the time spent looking for answers or helping me out - its all appreciated