I just picked up a 5870 on an open box buy for 310$ Got today and its furmark stable and runs fine so I am a happy camper. Gonna grab all 3 monitors in my house and hook it up tomorrow for some awesomeness! I love this particular cooler even at 50% fan speed I cant here it over my 800rpm- 120mm fans. Only downside is it is not a sealed cooler design so no proper exhaust out the back. It is even quieter then my gtx260 which was the quietest stock card I have owned in a decade. Ati has really fixed their 2d power and fan noise this generation.
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131336
Here is how I see the future of high end.
I had strongly debated waiting for the "southern Islands" 6k series of cards which comes out late this fall. With no price pressure from Nvidia I expect 6k prices will be high probably 350$- 6850 and 450$- for 6870. Current gen probably drop to 5850-200$ and 5870-250$'ish.
6k series are hybrid of 5800 and the future architecture 7800 but still at 40nm. For the 6k cards I expect at most 30-40% performance increase over 58xx but with plus 20% power. They are meant as a stopgap because of the cancellation of TSMC and GF 32nm process.
Global foundries 28nm is doing well and Northern Islands might be another September launch in 2011. I expect low and mid range cards at 28nm in early-mid 2011.
My plan is to use my cheap 5870 to skip 6k series and hold on until the true next gen 28nm architecture 7k series comes in late 2011. If 7k gets delayed I will probably add a second 5870 for then about 150$ and hold on through the extra fall-winter-spring months when crossfire is doable for me.
In short If you care about noise and power like I do then Nvidia is in a ditch for awhile like Intel was with "press-hott" 65nm P4. The 6k wont blow away the 5800 on price or performance and the next die shrink and new arch is almost a year and half away. So unless you are a super serious gamer a good deal on a 58xx series will hold you fine for sometime.
-that no 6k cards were seen at computex means either a very late fall launch for 6k or that ATI is locked down regarding 6k and really trying to leave Nvidia in the dark in an attempt to catch them off-guard with launch numbers.
, can't comment on the case fitment question though sorry.
