ok do you really think that the performance/price graph is linear? it's a rather exponential graph. price increase faster than performance as you go toward more high-end option.

the Phenom 2 x4 will never reach the performance of Sandy Bridge if both are at the same clock speed or overclocked (which will give SB the advantage because it can OC Much higher). Sandy Bridge is also more efficient and runs cooler because SB is 32 nm 95watt TDP vs PII 45nm 125watt TDP.
simply put, SB comes out after PII so it is the better product.
and better products are almost always pricier

anyway i think we got a little sidetracked here. back to original topic,
SLI GTX 580 with the i5 760 will give the best performance in c2.
although ur pc will be much more future proof if u are willing to spend money on sandy bridge > core i5 2500K

Heat isn't an issue for anyone well seasoned in PC building. Stock coolers svck, just put a Corsair A50 on and it's a non issue. As for power, hahah, no one really cares for desktop PCs. :p

..anyway i think we got a little sidetracked here. back to original topic,
SLI GTX 580 with the i5 760 will give the best performance in c2.
although ur pc will be much more future proof if u are willing to spend money on sandy bridge > core i5 2500K
Oh sure a SB setup would be sweet, i'd go for a 2600k if any though, but for that plus an ASUS SLI 1155 mobo we're talking ￡370, the exact price of an ASUS Direct CU II 580.
I'm rockin' 4.2 on this i5 and want to keep it a little longer(it's my 3rd CPU purchase in six months), but sure God willing in the future i'd like a bigger monitor and THEN i could get to work lookin' for a nice SB setup.
Anyways this thread has kept me goin' all day, thanks to everyone, trying to keep C2 off right now till Monday, the day of arrival.
You know me i'll have all lovely pics and vids to follow for sure.

This guy uses C1 to benchmark towards end of vid, i have one of these cards(1st edition), this was one of the vids that convinced me to go for first 580 a while back.

@ sli-mk thanks for the vid. He helped me decide on my 570gtx. I own the 2600k and just from peeking at the load during my crysis 2 ultra gaming on CPU it seems like a pretty minimal load on my CPU. I heard those I5 CPUs rock just is hard, I almost bought that before the I7.

The sandy bridge I7 eats my Vaio's I7 840qm for breakfast lunch dinner and desert. I have the mulitplayer up to 42 with allowing Intel speed step technology reduce speed as necessary. I think the deciding factor on the 2600k was because I could up date my gpu only next year and 1/2 because I am definitely not updating my newly built rig for at least 3 years. No way I built my last rig in 07 with a brand new 800gtx at the time and the gpu doed 6mos ago. Evga sent me a 450 fpb in exchange. I gave that rig to my kids and it has a Intel q6600. All they play or game mods from the source engine so they are good to go.

Good thread here.

What's better, 1 or 2? Bro, stop! lol. I have the 2600k and it's one bad mama jama. If money is the issue opt for 570 sli from evga and register for step up, and you got 3 months to swap out for the 580's while only paying the difference. An oc 2600k at ghz or more is comparable to a 980-990x. Don't get the i5. I currently have the 2600k and 570's and top out at a 120 fps with vsync on(slight oc).

1
i5 760 @4.2
2 x gtx 580

2
i7 2600k
1 x gtx 580

I got i5 760 already, anyways like i was sayin' it would have been ￡370 for 2600k plus nice mobo, that is what i paid for the asus direct cu2 580, also with one 580 i couldn't max SP, now i feel confident i'm gonna max the bastard and hopefully get smoother MP too but i still feel MP still needs optimized from Crytek's /Nvidia's side.
The direct cu2 is a brute, folks say it's not only huge but heavy too.