Advice on new build

[Goobley]

My friend has asked me to do a minimum price high res gaming build that'll last as long as possible. That sentence's quite a mouthful actually. ^^
He only wants to play games on their highest setting (1080p) and would like a computer that lasts as long as possible with a budget of 750-800pounds (800-850euros here in france, most components are however priced euro for pound). At the moment we're planning on staying on budget and then buying a second graphics card and crossfiring in about a years time. The current build I'm looking at is...

(prices in €, but you can imagine that they're in pound if it helps ^^) since I can't post links yet, the site that I'm buying from (warning... it's in french, but may interest anyway) is rueducommerce {dawt} fr
1TB SATAIII barracuda 49
4GB Ripjaws 128000 (the one with the red teeth and heatsink) 42
A case (looking for reccomendations on this... 40-70pounds simple and black, perhaps a hint of orange, but with a lot of emphasis on good ventilation)
PSU I'm looking at a cooler master gx 750 due to its high ampage and 4 pci-e connectors (for the crossfire) 85
Sata DVD drive 15
Coolermaster after market cpu cooler TM3 or 212+ 15
PCI WiFi card 20
Phenom II X4 955 BE (could possibly be a limiting factor, looking for advice here) 100
Asus AM3+ M5A88115 (AM3+ with crossfire capability) 115
ATI HD 6950 (I'm not overly sure about the differences between the 1GB and the 2GB models, or it's crossfire scaling) 200
And of course... Windoze 7 90
For a total of around 800

Am I on the right track here, or expectintg way too much? We want this computer to last minimum 3years on the highest settings and hopefully 4 years by adding another 6950 in about a years time but I fear that this build may end up CPU or RAM limited. Perhaps a better solution would be to go the SB i5 / NVIDIA GTX 560 Ti route. But then again, I suppose that I'm posting here for advice, if I knew the answers I wouldn't be worrying about these things.

Thanks in advance for any advice
Chris

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Am I on the right track here, or expectintg way too much? We want this computer to last minimum 3years on the highest settings and hopefully 4 years by adding another 6950 in about a years time but I fear that this build may end up CPU or RAM limited.

That is NOT going to happen IMHO with all games.You are always going to find a few games which are designed to push the graphics card as much as possible and usually these are PC exclusives.

The best way forward IMHO is to get an HD6950 or GTX560 and use it for two years. After this I would sell it and get another £200 card and use this for two years.

[Goobley]

Thanks for the speedy response Cat. I shall follow your advice, however, I'd like an opinion on how the processor'll (955 BE is certainly entry level) hold up and whether or not i should look at a sandy bridge rig instead.
Also I'd like an opinion on budget, quality cases
Hope that all this isn't asking too much...
Chris

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thanks for the speedy response Cat. I shall follow your advice, however, I'd like an opinion on how the processor'll (955 BE is certainly entry level) hold up and whether or not i should look at a sandy bridge rig instead.
Also I'd like an opinion on budget, quality cases
Hope that all this isn't asking too much...
Chris

The Sandy Bridge Core i5 processors will be faster but for the price the Phenom II X4 955BE is a decent CPU for a gaming computer.

However,AMD Bulldozer is being released next month and the first AM3+ motherboards are entering retail too. I would suggest waiting until July to see what CPU to get as it should mean Intel will have more competition(hopefully) and this will help reduce prices.