So I'm ordering the HD 4870...

[Wickfield]

And I'm not quite sure what to order.

I looked around and found that the HD 4870 1gb version is a better buy than the GTX 260 for what you're getting, and that the gtx 280 is incredibly overpriced.

So now that I've decided on the 4870 1gb, I need to choose what brand, what cooler, and what psu to order with it.

I'm planning on using this psu (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006), but recommend a better one if you know of one.

And then these were the cards that I was looking at:
Sapphire HD 4870 1gb (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102801)
HIS HD 4870 1gb (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161265) (OCed slightly with a better fan, I believe) $270
HIS HD 4870 1gb (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161247) (standard edition) $240

And then this is the cooler that I found immediately. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185081&Tpk=hd%204870%20cooler) I haven't done any research on coolers for gpu's, so suggestions would be really helpful.

For extra info, I'm using 4 gigs of ddr2 at 1066mhz (gskill)
And I'm planning on getting the intel Q6600, with plans to oc it.

[Spinewire]

What rez will you be playing at?

[Brezick]

The Sapphire 4870 is a good choice.

I chose this one - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121291 over it however because the heatsinks are rather effective and they look sweet. Riva Tuner OC'ed to 925/1000 with stock fans and never goes above 60 on full load. Extra fans are always good if you can bear the noise though.

That is also the same PSU I have - I hope you either have a lot of room for cable management or need alot of connections because this PSU has tons of wires.

Max supported res i believe on the card is only 1920x1200 though you can tweak the registry for higher res

[Wickfield]

I'm getting an acer 21.5" 1080p monitor. So yeah, planning to use that resolution, which would make the heatsinks a valuable investment.

EDIT: I'll look into the asus card, although I'm not certain about the differentiation between reliability when you hop brands. I've only ever owned a sapphire card and never had problems, but then again this is the first "high-end" video card that I'm getting through newegg.

[Wickfield]

What rez will you be playing at?

Probably 1080p...
unless it kills my fps, which I'm thinking it will. In which case, the next highest 16:9 res will do.

[Viluin]

If money isn't really an issue, get the HIS card with the IceQ cooler. Those things absolutely rule. I was waiting for them to come out.