Couldn't get 3870's,did get a pair of 3850's
Now I find out that Crossfire is SNAFU after I bought 3850's.
I've done some quick testing
A single 256Meg HD3850 is kicking the crap out my 512Meg X1900XT's in CF
3Dm06
HD3850 =7504
X1900XT=5387
CF3850 =8425
CF1900 =7737
The other one I did was was Lost Planet:Performance Test
HD3850 snow:51.1 caves:33.3
CF1900 snow:37.2 caves:32.0
CF3850 snow:50.8 caves:32.1
at least ATI is consistent, I had same corruption running Crossfire on either sets of cards in LP
Looks like some of the newer games I bought will more playable

Time to get back to playing( ...I mean testing)
Cheers