an upgrade to an i7 would be worth it but your Q9550 is still great.
There are a few differences between the core i7s and the Core 2s. First, there is no more Front Side bus.
The FSB essentially carried data between the CPU and memory controller hub but that didn't attribute itself to multiple cores very well. In its place is a new tech called QuickPath Interconnect that'll fix old bottlenecks and make going to multiple core (4+) much better. QPI uses direct point-to-point connections that have a bandwidth of about 25GB/s, much faster than an FSB. The downside is that it requires a new QPI-friendly motherboard.
i7 also has brought back hyper-threading. This pretty much makes parallel processing more efficient.
i7 uses a triple-channel RAM now too, so you'll be wanting to buy your RAM in groups of 3. This means 6 and 12GB will become common.
The memory interface is also on the same side die as the CPU cutting down latency.
Pretty much, if you want the next generation get the i7. The i7 will make future upgrades much more smooth and you will notice a difference. Also, the i7 has built in overclocking capabilities so.... yeah... its' great.
Before you upgrade your new rig, is there any specific reason you need to upgrade the entire rig? a Q9550 is still pretty great. A new GPU might be all you need. Also, DDR3 is a little bit pricy still, waiting might be the best bet.
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