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Hi, my system is: Core2duo 3 GHz (Mobo - Asus P5B delux), 6 Gb Ram, Ati x1900 pro

GPU rendering is very intersting for me, i read octane forum and decided to do upgrade - buy GeForce GTX 480... so i have some questions:

1. is it enough to start? (change my ATI card to GTX 480)
2. My MoBo has 2xPCI-16 (v1.0), GTX 480 is x16 v2.0:
- is it important PCI speed for GPU rendering ? ("GTX 480 on x16 v1.0" versus "GTX 480 on x16 v2.0" )
- can i use 2 cards with my processor? (GTX 480 for octane, second for interface)

i want understand is it necessary to upgrade my processor and motherboard

thanks, and sorry for my english

p.s. there are different kinds of GTX 480 on the market (different manufactures), is there important difference in parameters above them, what should i take into consideration?

the only difference in manufacturers are in the cooling the chip is the same, also, there are 2 "qualities" the basic one, and the overcloacked one, the nice thing in the oc is that they have added better cooling, usually less noisy. The 400 series works at 90º which is pretty high and when on load they are pretty noisy. Every brand throws some extra with the card, choose the one you like best and check warranties and such.

I think you should stay away from XFX, lots of bad issues reported.
I personally like ASUS, all cards i've bought from them (a 8800GTX, still running fine after 4+ years), and 2x GTX480 (run perfect even in a hot summer office)

I think with ASUS you're probably best off, or evga which also seems to be good products from user reports.

Radiance

thanks, but can somebody answer me about PCI-express speed (first post)?
Is GTX 480 on 16x v.2.0 twice faster than GTX 480 on 16x v.1.0 for GPU rendering.

The pci speed matters at loading scene, so a 2x will be faster, but once loaded in the card (at startup) it doesn't affect render times.
BTW I totally agree about asus, in my experience my best cards have been asus, but also I've only heard good things about evga

I've had good luck with Asus. Other good brands are EVGA, as Radiance mentioned, and PNY. I've heard decent things about Galaxy, and they seem to be trying to cut the edge. I bought and MSI and EVGA gtx470 and the MSI has given me a little more of a headache, but not much.

As said above, the only difference you will see from the pcie bus speed is the initial loading of the obj file. after that everything is based on the speed of the card. This is why you can use a Cubix Xpander unit with an Express34 card adapter (pcie x1) and only lose out on time when it loads the scene.

Now I can answer my question about manufacturer:
Today is not important GTX 480/470 manufacture because all of them get finished v.card from nVidia. They stick their logo and thats all what they do)