I'm in the same boat as Newfie. I just ordered a pair of OCZ 2-2-2-5 DIMMS from NewEgg, and I'm planning on ordering a NF4-Ultra MB, Venice core CPU, and video card soon.
However, this seems like a bad time to be in the market for a video card. A 6600GT is tempting because of its low cost, but I just know I won't be satisfied with its performance, and I don't want to throw my money away by upgrading again in 6 months.
I almost hit the BUY button for a 6800NU (the MSI "Riddick" at NewEgg), thinking it would be a good compromise card (the price dropped by about $20 few days ago). That is, until I found some benchmarks on X-bit labs that shows the X800XL owning the 6800NU, especially at FarCry. And on top of that, I found out the PCI-E versions won't soft-mod.
I didn't want to spend the money on a 6800GT, especially since the PureVideo is "broken" on these cards. BUT, the X800-XL doesn't have PureVideo functionality either, in any form, nor does it have SM3.0 support. Also, I've read reports that the X800-XL overclocks poorly, whereas the 6800GT easily overclocks, sometimes to Ultra specs.
I just don't want to buy yesterday's tech. But with the 7800 and R520 both being "released" soon, it may be unavoidable.
Notice the quotes around "released". I suspect only the 7800GTX will be available initially, and in limited quantities at that. Who knows when the regular 7800GT or the plain 7800 will be available.
I think I just talked myself into the 6800GT. Any comments?