It really makes no difference to me whether I have an AMD or Intel CPU. However, I have been leaning toward an Intel CPU (i7 860) due to price, performance, and hyperthreading. However, the more I dig into the realm of the subject including mobos, the more confused I have become. Now, I am leaning toward an i7 930 because it seems to have a longer life span (more future proof) than the the P55 chipset.

The latest bit of confusion that caught my eye is that lack of true SATA 6 Gbps and USB 3 support by Gigabyte. In general, the PCIe bandwidth is restricted with the P55 chipset. But that's not the case with the X58 unless it has the ICH10 south bridge: http://media.bestofmicro.com/X58-dia...T-166025-3.gif.


Asus has a decent P55 mobo but it is limited in the number of PCIe slots and it really isn't that future proof.

AMD has a new mobo that has south bridge. It seems that it has all the bandwidth anyone could need.: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...deon,2571.html. Unfortunately, AMD doesnt have any CPUS at this time that are comparable to the i7 860 or i7 920/930.

In my case, I would like the ability to add a second video card down the road or another peripheral that will run at 16x (PCIe 2) without any bottlenecks. I plan to keep that system for a minimum of 2 years and maybe upgrading the RAM and/or Hard drives with SSD drives.

Any thoughts on how I should proceed? Wait until ??? we get some more new CPUs on the market that are more "future proof". Or buy now and live with buyer's remorse because you won't be able to upgrade later?