A tough choice

So I might need to be assembling a rig for my family members for xmas, and ran into a bit of a dilemma. I would be running on a tight budget, definitely less than $900 for the tower, but as low as I can get without sacrificing too much performance/upgrade headroom. Basically, I have arrived at these two options:

1. AM3 SLi mobo + GTX 460 (1GB)

+460's are cheaper, OC well, and scale pretty good

-AM3 SLi mobos are few and far inbetween, and no sata6/USB3.

2. AM3 CF mobo + HD6850/6870

+Wider selection of mobos and GPUs, apparently great scaling, lower power (6850 would mean I could get by with a cheaper (650w?) PSU)

-Still hard to find a cheap 16x/16x CF board (would 8x/8x be ok for CF 6870's?), could be more expensive GPU

I know black Friday/cyber monday deals are coming soon, and would appreciate advice on which setup would be ideal. I would be getting only 1 card for this machine now, and picking up a second a ways down the road, so which combo would get the best of both worlds? (Looking at a 955 or 965 for the CPU, unless amazing deal on a hex pops up, my bro dabbles in video editing.)

I recommend the Crossfire mobo option, and a 6850. You definitely won't need more than a decent 650 watt PSU to run 2 of those in Crossfire. I wouldn't worry about PCI-E x8 versus X16. You have to have a really high-end card for it to make much difference (see link below).

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_5870_PCI-Express_Scaling/

I would agree with the crossfire option as well, the gpus are great and you can get USB3.0 for good prices. Here's a good breakdown on powerhttp://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6850-6870-crossfirex-review/4 According to them the 650 watt would be enough.

Will they be playing games at all or are you building an all rounder?

I recommend the Crossfire mobo option, and a 6850. You definitely won't need more than a decent 650 watt PSU to run 2 of those in Crossfire. I wouldn't worry about PCI-E x8 versus X16. You have to have a really high-end card for it to make much difference (see link below).

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_5870_PCI-Express_Scaling/

hartsickdiscipl