Dual 260s vs a single 280

[CrimsonDEATH]

I am a relative techno-n00b and am trying to decide if dual gtx260s would be more advantageous than a single gtx280. Would a sinlge 280 still out-perform dual 260s? I would really like dual 280s but can't afford that right now. Any opinions will be appreciated.

[Radiator]

Dual GTX260's will outperform the GTX280 and will cost a lot more than a single GTX 280 .
Dual HD 4870's will outperform the GTX280 and will cost about the same as a GTX280 .

Just get a single HD 4870 , it'll cost you 300 USD and it will outperform the GTX260 and will run anything at max settings ( exept Crysis , which you can run at high/very high settings at 30 FPS at 1680x1050 or 1920x1200 , can't remember which ) , or very high settings at 1280x1024 , and no AA in Crysis .

[Sunny]

It also depends what kind of motherboard he has though radiator. Maybe dual 4870's are out of the question.

I would personally choose the GTX280 and then later add a second. You might get 2 GTX260's and think dang if I would have waited I would have even better performance with 2 GTX 280's down the road.

The 4870's are good since they are similar to the GTX260 but if you have an nvidia board then the nvidia cards might be the only option.

[CrimsonDEATH]

I appreciate the input. Here's the deal. I am actually thinking about buying an Alienware machine instead of building my own (I know... overpriced when I could build one myself for probably half as much, but time and real world duties eat up alot of my time so when I have a chance I just wanna play hard). The Area-51 offers 750W and 1000W PSUs and the nvidia 790i Ultra Sli MB. I can get a single 280 with the 750W PSU but can't get a dual 280 unless I go to the Area-51 ALX and get a 1200W PSU... and I'm not gonna drop that kind of coinage for the ALX anyway. So, with the non-ALX Area-51 I can choose either a dual 260 set up with the 1000W PSU or a single 280 set-up with the 750W PSU. But, to my surprise and disbelief, the price is the same either way I go! (I know that makes absolutely no sense - but that is what the Alienware configurator tells me) If I buy right now I'm thinking I will go with the dual 260s. But I will probably wait a little while before I buy.

Again, thanks alot for the input. Any additonal thoughts?

[Radiator]

Bad bad bad idea , but to each his/her own , I suppose . The dual GTX260's are faster by a longshot .
What are the CPUs on the PCs ? And RAM ?

[CrimsonDEATH]

What's the bad, bad, bad idea? Buying instead of building? Can't say that I disagree with you at all really.

This is what I am considering...

Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz 12MB Cache 1333MHz FSB
Alienware P2 Chassis: Alienware® P2 Chassis with AlienIce™ 3.0 Video Cooling - Space Black
System Lighting: Alienware® AlienFX® System Lighting - Astral Blue
System Cooling: Alienware® Standard System Cooling
Power Supply: Alienware® 1000 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply
Graphics Processor: Dual Graphics Cards - Dual 896MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 2 x 1024MB (I took the cheapest option because I plan on - if I do get it - upgrading the RAM to 4GB for alot cheaper than Alienware)
Motherboard: Alienware® Approved NVIDIA® nForce® 790i Ultra SLI™ Motherboard
Includes PCI-Express 2.0, DDR3 Memory, and Support for Intel 1600 FSB
Operating System (Office software not included): Windows Vista® Home Premium with Service Pack 1 – DirectX 10 Ready!
System Drive: Single Drive Configuration - 250GB SATA 3Gb/s 7,200RPM 16MB Cache (Will probably upgrade myself to RAID 0)
Optical Drives : Single Drive Configuration - 20X Dual-Layer Burner (DVD±RW)
Enthusiast Essentials: Dual High Performance Gigabit Ethernet Ports
Sound Card: High-Definition 7.1 Performance Audio (Plan on recycling my current sound card)
Keyboard: Standard Keyboard - Standard Keyboard (Already have an old school G15)
Mouse: Standard Mouse - Standard Optical 3-Button Mouse with Scroll Wheel (Already have a G5 and a G9)

Monitor I have is 22" Samsung 2253BW

For the non-ALX Area-51, these CPU and RAM options are available:
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E8200 2.66GHz 6MB Cache 1333MHz FSB
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E8400 3.00GHz 6MB Cache 1333MHz FSB
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz 6MB Cache 1333MHz FSB
Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q9450 2.66GHz 12MB Cache 1333MHz FSB
Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz 12MB Cache 1333MHz FSB
Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme QX9650 3.00GHz 12MB Cache 1333MHz FSB
Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme QX9770 3.2GHz 12MB Cache 1600MHz FSB

2GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 2 x 1024MB
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 2 x 2048MB
2GB Patriot EP+ Low Latency Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 2 x 1024MB
4GB Patriot EP+ Low Latency Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 2 x 2048MB