I have a single HD 5870 and it is a very good card considering it's nearly 3 years old. 3-way CF with either 3 5870s or a single 5870 and a 5970 would set you up for a while yet, they're still pretty powerful cards so I reckon that's a good choice there. Even a single 5970 would do I reckon; but I'm not sure how common they are on eBay and how much they cost.okay, looked, changed, and figured some more. Removed all the thinkpad stuff as it will not do what I need at a level I want. So it now runs the list as:
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1 HD 5870 for 162.85 shipped
2600k, TX3, and switch shipped next day for 350.93
Still need:
3 3foot or so RJ45 cables
probably going to get 16 GB in 8GB DIMMs too, maybe.
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the 5870 I am looking at is http://www.ebay.com/itm/ATI-Radeon-...eo_TV_Cards&hash=item33784c18c6#ht_483wt_3694
Looking to do 3 way CF with it using a 5970 soon.