Upgrading to an Intel Core i7

[TheWickerMan]

The GTX 295 is pretty much going to be 2 GPU's stuck together on the same board. Each GPU is going to be approximately between the power of a GTX260 216 core and a GTX280. It will run SLI directly on the board and will use a ton of power (somewhere around 289 watts per card).

If you want another incentive to get the i7, a lot of people are having great overclocking results with the 920. Most are able to get it at or above 4GHz on just the stock intel heatsink, which is rather amazing. We will be doing a review on the i7 920 as soon as one of the new x58 chipset motherboards gets in, so look for that because we will definitely be testing overclockability. Also with an i7 setup, you are not bound to either AMD or Nvidia's graphics platform as it will run both crossfire and SLI. I wouldn't recomend mix matching nvidia and AMD cards in the same rig though, as their drivers don't like to play nice with each other.

In regards to the Quickpath that's implemented on the i7, it's very similar to how AMD has been doing their memory controllers for a long time. Intel finally took a note from them and integrated the memory controller into the chip. Buying an i7 is more like an investment for the future, as not many programs will be able to fully utilize the 8 virtual processors for atleast a little while. It all depends on what you're needs are as to whether or not you'll use the full potential of the chip or if you'll be fine with your Q9550. I hope that clears up some of your questions. If not, just ask us what we can clarify and we'll be more than happy to explain it. That's what we're here for after all.