Yes, except for the first one i'm always building new rigs myself. I'm not going for the most recent top o/t line components but one generation before them. This way i save money and am still uptodate for about 450 Euro's, each upgrade. Current machine:

Q9650
Gigabyte P35C-DS3R
Sapphire HD5870
4 Gigs DDR3 ram
2 small HD's 80 and 275 G (don't need much)

Ah, I had no idea. I'm more of an nVidia guy myself. Just read something about it awhile ago in a video card shootout. Shows how much i know about ATI stuff ;)

My first home built rig was a 486 Dx50 - this is the one I'm itching to buy now when the B3 chipsets arrive (and I know how demanding CoD will be):

Intel Core i7 2600K 3,4GHz Socket 1155
Noctua NH-D14
Asus P8P67 Pro B3
Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC12800/1600MHz CL9 2x4GB DDR3
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 570 OC HDMI Dual-DVI 1280MB
Antec P193
Antec TruePower New Series 750W

Maybe going for a GTX580 instead... Or... Mmm...

The deal is that the cards have differently binned memory chips. It is a bit of hit and miss but in most cases you won't "kill the card quickly". Many does get artifacts though and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who's not overclocking on a regular basis as it includes using MSI Afterburner/Asus Smartdoctor, BIOS flashing and modding scripts to get a good shader activation.

Or, if you're unlucky, you get a card which is among the least scoring cards at the factory test. Most chips are good enough for a 6970 but any chips with least amount of imperfection will be used in a 6970, not 6950, so a 6950 is pretty much chips who didn't make the cut to be mounted on a 6970. The shaders are locked for a reason.

I didn't feel like writing that much, so "killing it quickly" filled the description. :)

Switch that 2600k for 2500k and get yourself a 580 instead of 570.

Yep - that could be a good solution... The HT sure is useless for gaming today at least - don't know about the larger cache though?

EDIT: nah, the cache sure does not seem that important. Either I'll follow you advice or go for both ;)

Or wait and see how 590 performs (due out on 22nd), since you have money for both. :)

Well, it may become a screaming toaster like the 6990 :) At least it could make the 580 drop in price a bit...

EDIT: and yes I have the money but I like to feel like i don't waste them for no good (and therefore you i5 advice really fits the bill :))

Np.

That is what I am waiting for too. :)