I agree. Windows 7 and HD5870 Crossfire will make the difference you can actually "see".
But, if going Crossfire, maybe wait a month more for the HD5870 X2 (2 GPUs single card). ATI has been working on circuitry to get more out of the single card version vs 2 individual card Crossfire. Some of that circuitry was in the HD4870 so I assume the HD5870 will have a better version of it. At some point, maybe not this time, they plan to use that circuitry to cause 2 GPU on one card to behave as 1 giant GPU -- accessing all the memory (for example) -- thereby working well with all games. In any case, I imagine the X2 card will be cheaper and work better than two individual cards because of the circuitry.
It is rumored the X2 will draw over 350 watts (so will Crossfire)at max. So, get an appropriate PSU. BTW, the idle power draw of the HD5870 (e.g. when running non-games) is rumored to be VERY low -- under 30 watts.
I did notice a load time speedup when I went from dual core 3GHz to quad-core 3GHz. I did not measure it -- but it was probably just 10 or 20 percent -- enough to be "visible".
I don't use RAID, I don't own SSD, so have no valid opinion of perceivable load time speedups. I doubt they will make any difference to game FPS.
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