Building a new PC, but I need some input/suggestions.

[crimsonedge]

I have the funds, I plan on spending between $1400-$1800 on just a tower.

First of all I am thinking of the I5 2500k (sandy bridge) processor. I don't see the point in paying $100 more for the I7 for only some extra threads, and hyper threading, which I understand is basically useless for gaming anyway. And when the I5 is overclocked, it will leave most I7s in the dust.

I am considering getting this board here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128500

It says it has 2 PCI express slots, I was planning on getting 2 Radeon HD 6950's and running them in crossfire, and also flash the bios to make them 6970. Is this going to work on this board or am I going to need more room or more slots?

I know the Radeon HD 6950 is a pretty huge card, around 10.5 to 11 inches, will I have any issues fitting that in a mid tower? Or should I just go with a full? A friend gave me a really nice Lian Li mid tower case for free, and I was planning on using it, only if it will fit 2 6950s though.

I do plan on overclocking the I5 to about 4.3-4.5 GHZ so I am going to need an aftermarket heat sink, or maybe a liquid cooled setup to do that, but I am not really sure which would be the best for the price that will still get me what I need to do that. The easy thing to do would be to just overpay for a liquid cooler and not worry about it, but it might not be required. I do want my PC to run really cool, not just the CPU but the video cards as well, I need to make sure they will also have adequate ventilation.

I am also going with a 64MB SSD to put my OS on it, and essential programs. Possibly a couple games depending on how much room I have left. The games would run faster off the SSD right?

Also what kind of power supply am I going to need to run this? Will a 750W cut it? I already got one of those, or do I need to go even bigger to like 850W? I definitely don't want to be having any problems in this area when everything else is fine.

This will also be the first PC I ever built. I want it to run games for at least 2 years on max settings with good FPS. That setup with just one 6950 could probably do that now on any PC game to date, or in the near future, so depending on if I have to buy a new case, and power supply I might hold out on buying the second 6950 until a later date.