Help me find a Mobo please? 8+Sata, Xfire, good spacing?

I know there are a lot of threads and sites on choosing a Mobo, but I would like to get some enthusiasts opinions on which board I need.

I find that my current PC is not capable of running newer games on full settings. (Bad company 2, Napoleon total war, etc.) and it is very slow running autocad 2010 and other CAD/CAM software.

My current PC is listed in my sig, and I will probably turn it into a HTPC.

I will definitely run an i7 920 or better with 12+GB of ram, Zalman 1000HP P/S, dual 275t monitors. Water cooling for everything. Would like it to be silent.

I am paranoid about HD failure, so I will probably run 10k RPM or SSDs for my OS in RAID1, as well as 2 RAID1 pairs of 2TB HDs for 4TB of storage.
On top of that, I will have a Bluray burner and another DVD rw.

This means, I need at least 8 Sata ports, and limits my Mobo selection.

Besides that, I would like at least 1 pci slot.

Everything I have read has indicated that the newest batch of ATI cards perform better than the Nvidias. So, I would like to go with a 5970 (possibly a second one later) or a pair of 5870s in crossfire.

What are my options? I will overclock the system a bit, but I have no need to go above 4 Ghz. I would prefer to spend around $300, but will spend more if necessary.

Thanks!

I don't like any low end asus ( if any x58 board can call low end ), asrock, foxconn, msi and some other brands on x58. Better look for something new from Gigabyte or something like Asus P6X58D-E/Premium ( ROG series are more expensive, the same as most evga boards ).
Today I took for some tests GA-X58A-UD3R and I think it has all you need including 10x sata and 1x pci, CF/SLI support too and good enough for 4GHz 24/7.
Only problem can be with pci slot when you use 2 or 3 cards.
I think I will buy it soon but wanted to test all before when I have that chance