well i am building my first high end gaming computer and here is what i am planning on doing.

antec 902 gaming case

Intel Core i7-2600K @3.4 ghz (will probably OC to 4ghz)

ASUS P8P67 Pro Intel P67 Motherboard

XFX P1-850S-CAB9 PRO850W Core Edition Power Supply

Corsair CWCH50-1 Hydro H50 CPU Liquid Cooler

4gb pc1066 DDR3 (will upgrade to 8 later)

windows 7 home premium 64bt

now i am either going to buy a gtx 570 and sli it later, or would it be better to save and extra $150 and get a gtx 580. i have never done sli before and don't know how much of a boost i will get from two 570's vs a 580, and leve the pci slot open for later. please give me your impute.

I wouldnt buy a SB based system until new boards come out. The p67 pro has the recall issue and in general those boards are crappy as hell and have a slew of problems currently. Wait a few months and stuff will drop in prices anyways.

Trust me, i have a 2500k/p8p67 pro.

Dont get the 2600K, its not worth the extra money, unless you need hyperthreading for some reason. The 2500K can get to 4ghz easy anyways. Use the extra money towards something else.

Id go with 570 gtx and sli that later on. 580s are not THAT much better but are a hell of a lot more expensive. 2 570s run crysis warhead at 60+ fps on maxed with 2x AA. Your PSU should be fine for 2 570s.

You can look at the 570 gtx review on guru 3d and see what kind of fps they get in crysis warhead, and also check out the 570 sli review and see the difference.

Plus im sure crysis 2 is going to be more efficient with SLI than the older games.

Personally I like the 5870. Its not the best on the market but it will do the job for any game. If you get 2(like me) it will be crazy powerful(probably overpowered though )

GTX470/GTX560ti +
ATI 5800/6700 +

SLI or not you should be fine with your other hardware keeping up. Maybe test one card out first, do some research if your really think getting another is worth it. You may be pushing the limits on your PSU if you do go SLI, just do some googling.

570 and simply oc it
or ditch the 2600k and get a 2500k
=about the same and get a better gpu and lose 0 fps thx to cpu

Careful with the 470. svcker heats up like crazy.

The GTX 570 is a perfect choice for your gaming needs.

Honestly, the GTX 580 is nothing but $150 extra of overkill compared to the GTX 570.

Yeah, at your budget, I'd recommend the GTX570.

I would go with the GTX560. It's powerful at a decent price and if in the future you decide you need even more power then you can get another one for SLI. Of course no one knows until the release of the game but I would be pretty confident that one GTX560 will run Crysis 2 at 1080p, maxxed out. GTX560s in SLI should be more than enough for any game released over the next 1-2 years.

yeah i am aware of the issues with the p67, but i wont be buying anything for at least a month or two. i still need $900.

EDIT: i am going to keep the 2600k, because i will be using the computer to learn AUTOCAD 2011 and the 3D modeling portion of the software and want all the possessing power i can get my hands on.