One card or two???

[Sawbill]

I'm spec'ing out a new workstation to run Vista. I'm not into gaming (afraid I no longer have time) so don't need the top of the range. But I want to be able to drive 2 (large) DVI monitors reasonably well - with the Aero interface, using modestly graphic intensive applications.

So the question is which is the best value for money, one heavy duty card with twin DVI or two more modest cards. I'm looking to speng £150-200 (ex VAT).

So options look like:
1 x 7900 GS or GT 512MB
1 x X1950 Pro 512M
2 x 7600 GS or GT 256MB
2 x X1600 Pro 256MB

As you can see, I still can't decide between NVidia or ATI. (The last system I built was NVidia and the two before ATI, so it is probably NVidia's turn!)

Any advice/suggestions welcome.

 

[PinkFloyd]

X1950Pro would do great for what you want there, that's what I'd pick from what you have listed there.
Also give the X1800XT a look (can be gotten really cheaply now) also the 7900GTO would do you nicely if you want to go nVidia