(another) dual xeon vs single i7 vs quad amd

Gang,

I'm a huge multitasker, my present machine is run 24/7 and I reboot about three times a year. I don't close programs, I usually move stuff around between three monitors and tend to have 60-80 tasks running at once when displayed in Windows Task Manager. When I load the system particularly heavy, the interactiveness of the GUI really starts to be affected.

I'm building a new system. I'm running Windows 7 on a VM, and I hate the interface (I use XP and have stayed away from Vista because I hate its interface). I'm hoping Win7 either has a throwback interface to the Win2k/XP days, or, with some work, is fully customizable to achieve the same effect.

Having said that, after reading the benefits of Win7 on 64-bit hardware, I'm giving it a serious look.

Which brings me to architecture. I don't do a lot of gaming. Mostly I use a ton of desktop apps, mapping software, satellite imagery, and of course a million browser windows, Outlook managing several 2+GB PST files, etc.

Core i7 times one or Xeon 5500 times two? Or quad board with four AMD CPUS? Eight or more physical/sixteen or more virtual cores really has appeal. I understand that for software that is specifically written to take advantage of massively multi-cored systems will no doubt perform better, but what I am looking for is overall system speed when under heavy load. Most importantly, I want my GUI to remain interactively-instantaneous even when I've got a million things open and active. Perhaps trivial to most, the ability to have windows not "skip" when I scroll, fast window paints, instantaneous reaction to icons being clicked, etc., is worth a few extra dollars on system harware considering I want to future-proof this system and will be using it for the next 5 years.

Having said all that, will Win7 perform better with dual Xeons for "regular" user-level apps, vs a single i7 overclocked? Again, I know its trivial, but when I have 3GB RAM in use and 90% CPU load across most cores, I still want Word to open in the blink of an eye

What's my best option?

Thanks.

well if you want dual LGA1366 and tons of ram

SUPERMICRO MBD-X8DAH+-O, 18 DDR3 slots
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813182176

though you don't need it, an i7 + 12GB of memory should do you fine
or an AMD quad with 8GB

Hi,

Did you get any solution for your question, I am also looking for the same kind of "super Power" machine,
Please let us know what Recommended configuration you got for such high level multitasking heavy projects..

So... Progress report? How goes the i7 so far?