I am ready to build a new system and after not keeping up with all the new tech I find myself with too many questions. What I am looking to build is a system (primarily gaming) that will play anything that comes out over say the next 3 years without me having to play at all the lowest settings just to get it to run. Im mainly focused on cpu/mb issues here as i realize that nobody knows how things will change on the gpu end. Im trying to get away with spending around $1,000 but im not going to worry about an extra $200 or so if it will have a real world benefit. I was originally thinking of a i7 based build, but i thought about is it really worth it for a say 5% increase in actual not synthetic gaming benchmarks for the extra cost? Im afraid i dont know enough about the differences between am3/i7/quads, etc. so im asking for help to find out what my best bang for the buck is. I do not have a brand loyalty... intel or amd makes no difference to me. I figured it was a waste of time trying to build a future proof system only to have a new socket type come out in a few years so i would have to start all over again. I currently have no graphics cards, hard drives, etc. that i will be trying to carry over so everything is wide open to me. I plan on sometimes using a lcd monitor and sometimes using my 52" lcd tv (samsung LN52A650). I was thinking about 1 gpu card to start, but i heard that if you use a large screens it is beneficial to use crossfire/sli at higher res. I know the crossfire/sli are brand specific, but is there really one that has an edge over the other as far as ease of use/reliability/stability? One area i do not want to skimp on is my mb and power supply so if you recommend parts please dont recommend a so-so part if a good one is only a little bit more. I dont know if this matters, but i am leaning toward using windows 7 when it hits retail release (in the fall of this year i think?) but to start i will be using XP. So if some combination of cpu/mb/gpu will benefit a few months down the road using windows 7 please let me know what my best bet is there. I tend not to overclock, and if i would at some point it would be pretty conservative. Well I think i covered all my major points. Thank you to anybody who helps and can teach me a thing or 2.