Which one is better, 3 GTX580s or 3 Radeon 6970s?

the radeons are cheaper and does better when its tri sli vs xfire.

also wait and just get the 7970s

yes wait for 79xx and cf

you need a 1500W power supply I have 3 gtx 580 sli + 24GB 990x 1600mz sepuede not happen in the micro 900mz charts and 2150 memory and it is not enough to 1250W

Hello again! I just looked at the Gigabyte X58-OC specs from the website (out of curiosity) and is says that is supports 4-way CrossfireX. Do you recommend using this feature, or should my friend just stick to 3 graphics cards?

P.S. My friend is unwilling to wait, as the only PCs he have built recently are ones for his other friends (I built my own, but it is not very powerful) and he has only been upgrading his current machine (X48, GTX480) but he has stopped recently and is looking for a new system since his case will not be good enough to support a 3-way sli/cfx (or 4-way cfx) rig. So he will not be getting the new radeon 79xx cards. However, I see that all of you say CFX, so the question is: 3 of 4? He doesn't have a preference, so it's up to YOU to decide!

3 should be enough, the 4th card might be a waste.

OK! Thank you for helping my friend! Now, I want to change the subject. I have a $400 budget, and I need a new graphics card to play Battlefield 3. My current specs are as follows:

AMD FX-4100
ASUS Sabertooth 990fx
Team Xtreem 8gb (2x4gb) 1600mhz
g.Skill Phoenix pro 240gb SSD
910w PSU
EVGA GTS450 Superclocked (Looking to upgrade)

Any ideas would be appreciated.

a single 6970 is going to be the choice, should play on ultra with good fps.

Thank you! Which brand do you recommend I buy?

I'd recommend sapphire but you should check the comments if you buy from neweggs

Any specific models?

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681...

for 6970-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
msi lightning cards are awesome.it's my personal review  

Thank you! Now, my friend keeps telling me to get faster memory. Do you recommend this, or no? My current memory is 1600mhz but I was wondering if iIcould get faster memory, even though the motherboard specs say that you need to overclock the motherboard to use memory faster than 1600mhz.

theres no point in faster memory pass 1600mhz unless you are into extreme OC and need ram headroom.

+1  

6970's will cost half of the 580's --- might see 580's come down in price since the release of the equally priced yet better performing 7970's.

OK! One last thing! My friend (as mentioned earlier) forgot ONE THING for his system! A case! He can't find any good cases (since he's decided upon liquid cooling) to, well, house a liquid cooling system. Any ideas would be appreciated.

I'd go with something like this but thats just my preference

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681...

all he needs is a full atx case or a mini itx would probably do too. ask him to just choose one based on how it looks if nothing.