Ok choosing a chipset for my new build. And i'm reviewing which would be the best to go for;
-Computer will be used for gaming
-I won't SLI for quite some time ( but perhaps in the future if i need to )
-I'll be using an 8800GT/GTS

I know the nforce chipset runs a tad hot, but i don't intend overclocking too high but still need a stable system .

Haven't seen much difference between 780i and 680i other then the SLI support (which isn't that important) is it worth the extra price markup?

nForce 780i is basically an expensive 680i + an additional PCI Express 2.0 bridge. I'd say it's worth it if prices are within $20. I'd personally stay away from nForce chipsets because you said one thing in your post... "still need a stable system". nForce chipsets are basically the least stable Intel chipsets... your better choice is an Intel P35 chipset. If you plan on spending ~$220 (high-end 680i or 780i), get an Intel X38 chipset. They're much better. If you've not already purchased an 8800GT or 8800GTS, get a Radeon HD 3870. Also note that Crossfire appears to be scaling up much better than SLI does. Also, a Radeon HD 3850 is $170-$180 USD and a Radeon HD 3870 is $250 USD. That being said, a GeForce 8800GT is $270 USD (last check it was) and a GeForce 8800GTS G92 is $300+ USD. You'll be saving money in the long run, plus the HD3870s can be overclocked quite well.

I admire your willingness to help, Bob, but this is not about which graphics card to choose. Adding to that, the 8800 GT and GTS are going to drop another 10-20 bucks, and easily outperform the Radeon 3 series.

Now, if you don't want SLI, stay away from nVidia. Like Bob said, their chipsets are expensive, hot, instable, average performing and the only advantage is support for SLI. Instead, get an Intel P35 chipset. There's no point in getting an X38 right now, as the P35 has almost identical performance, and the X38 is a lot more expensive than the P35.

If you're going to buy a motherboard, I really recommend taking a look at the Asus P5K or the MSI P35 Neo2-FR, as they seem the best motherboards out there for really low prices.

I'm just pointing him in the right direction. Again, if he's not purchased a card already, an HD3870 would probably be a bit of a better choice if he wants a multi-card system. Anyways--the 8800GT and GTS G92 don't beat 3870s by that much (price/performance, the 3850s and 3870s are better). P35 would be a great choice for single-card, X38 would be a great choice for CrossFire. If you really want SLI and good compatibility, you'll have to look for nForce 790i--the actual nForce 7xx generation. Other than that--save your money and get a $140 P35 board.

The X38 seems like an interesting choice. Its a bit of a pain going to DDR3 i haven't seen that much of a speed increase with the serious price markup. Also 1600mhz native FSB would mean support for the new chips coming out soon. Haven't really thought about it, will start to look into it more.

I've reviewed a few benchmarks between crossfire vs SLI. Crossfire does seem to be a much cheaper. I'll look more into graphics cards (ones you stated), but to be fair an 8800GT would eat up most games I'd play. Would liquid cooling help the nforce's instability when overclocking?

I'd have to agree i built a PC recently with a friend with the MSI P35 Neo2-FR and it's a very nice board maybe i'll get the same deal.

X38 is a good choice for its PCI Express 2.0 (not that important really--but it has the lanes to do Crossfire x16-x16, verus P35's x16-x4 or rarely x8-x8). There are both DDR2 and DDR3 versions of the chipset--the DDR2 setup is much, much better. The FSB400 (1600 rated) support is unofficial for X38 but official for the DDR3-only X48.

Crossfire is cheaper and performs on-par to SLI. To be fair as well--my Radeon HD 3850 is overkill for many of the games I play, especially at the resolution (1280x1024). Liquid cooling? The nForce instability is because of the design. Non-Intel chipsets aren't great... and I don't know if you have the interest to make a decent water cooling system. That being said--you can't just buy a "decent" system... you have to build it yourself.

P35 supports the upcoming processors aswell. Actually, I have my FSB @ 1950 MHz right now and it's perfectly stable, so it should easily handle the 1600 MHz batch.

The only multi-card setup which I think is interesting to look at is Crossfire 3850s, which will give you 8800 GTX performance, or so they say, for a reasonable price.

Although you still have the problem of games not supporting CF/SLI, in which case you're stuck with a medium end card performance.

I agree with Bob however that X38 is the way to go for Crossfire, since is has dual x16 PCI-E lanes. However, it'd be rather expensive for both the motherboards and graphics cards (two 3850s are still more than one 8800 GT, especially with the upcoming reduction of PCB layers), and the performance is only slightly better. Plus the issues that I mentioned earlier in this post.

P35 doesn't natively support FSB400 (1600 rated) processors, though with a BIOS update it should. As for 3850s, I don't think they're the way to go unless you have an MSI X38 Diamond (4 PCI Express slots literally on-top of each other--all in a row with no spacing). Anyways--the 8800GTs and GTS G92s drawback is the chipset required to run SLI. I personally think the best option for multi-card is to go for CrossFireX. I'm looking forward to seeing Radeon HD 3870X2s on the market... 2 double-tall and 1 PCI Express slot taken up... means CrossFireX4 or even X6 is possible (and priced at $450/card, I last heard).