5870, what brand to choose?

[wedes]

I've been looking around on these threads about the 5870 brands but none of em give any good answer to my question.

To make this question more specific I'll add some subquestions:

1. Is the XFX warranty really worth it? Does it increase the resell price at all?

2. Are the "special" fans of some brands really worth it? Do they make any noticeable difference?

3. Is buying stock overclocked cards worth it or could you might as well OC your regular card when you get it? Are there some kind of special parts in these stock OCed cards that make them better in any other way?

4. Which card is the most priceeffective? I'm in Sweden so to see what card is the most price effective here you can search for the card name on www.prisjakt.nu for prices on each card, if you cba then I'll be happy with a comparison of cards in your country instead =)

5. Do any brands have a history of cards failing or having bad customer service?

6. The XFX xxx and the Sapphire Vapor-X both have 875Mhz GPU clock but the Memory clock is different, does that make any noticeable difference?

When answering please choose your 2 favourite cards (both should be at about the same price) and then compare pros and cons so that I can see what features suits me and such.

Thanks in advance for the help!

EDIT: Not including Eyefinity cards (2GB)

 

[wa1]

1. I don't know whether the XFX warranty including Sweden area, if yes then the answer is Yes. If you register it of course the re-selling price will still acceptable.

2. Special fan or cooler like Vapor-X from Sapphire or IceQ 5 from HIS are good. With these tech then your card is more cool than regular cooler.

3. I think it's better to buy a standard card, cause you can OC it anytime as you wish. I don't remember exactly, but ASUS card providing a better tech to OC, so by increasing the voltage, you could OC your card by "much" higher clock.

4. As far as i know, the most price effective card is HD4850/HD5770.

5. All of brands has it's own failing histories.

6. XXX version has a higher memory clock because it's a factory overclocked card, you will notice it performance on gaming, but not much i guess.

Well, when you choosing a card, it all depends on many things.
Tell us your full system, CPU? RAM? PSU? Motherboard? Monitor? Case? Budget?

 

[wedes]

1. I don't know whether the XFX warranty including Sweden area, if yes then the answer is Yes. If you register it of course the re-selling price will still acceptable.

2. Special fan or cooler like Vapor-X from Sapphire or IceQ 5 from HIS are good. With these tech then your card is more cool than regular cooler.

3. I think it's better to buy a standard card, cause you can OC it anytime as you wish. I don't remember exactly, but ASUS card providing a better tech to OC, so by increasing the voltage, you could OC your card by "much" higher clock.

4. As far as i know, the most price effective card is HD4850/HD5770.

5. All of brands has it's own failing histories.

6. XXX version has a higher memory clock because it's a factory overclocked card, you will notice it performance on gaming, but not much i guess.

Well, when you choosing a card, it all depends on many things.
Tell us your full system, CPU? RAM? PSU? Motherboard? Monitor? Case? Budget?

This is the build, 14000kr budget (around 1800$) Remember that Swedish prices are much higher than US prices.