Advice for new system

I am currently running a 3.5 year old system that has had minor upgrades over its lifetime.
The only hardware that I am carrying over from my old system is my pair of 8800GT's and my Razer Barracuda sound card.
I was also recently given a WD Velociraptor drive 150GB and I have a few spare DVD drives hanging around.

I have read the numerous comparisons between i7 and PII and my head hurts.
I am a gamer. I play MMOs and a few FPS's on a 24" LCD. I prefer to run everything at native resolution. I like eye candy as much as the next guy so I turn up the effects as far as they will go and remain at a playable frame rate.

I am familiar enough to feel comfortable overclocking but won't feel I am missing life if I run stock.

Win 7 is my planned OS.

My budget is ideally $800 but I can stretch that a little if needed.

So what I need to figure out is do I go with a new Intel or AMD system?
The entire purchase will include CPU, Motherboard, Case, CPU cooling, Power Supply, Memory.

Can anyone give me good reason to select one chip manufacturer over the other?

That gives you a bit for cooling - best bang for buck there is the Xigmatek 1283 and a few others - shouldn't spend more than $50 unless you plan on some extreme overclocking (very little gain)- because it is not necessary.

Ok just noticed a problem with that MOBO.
Slot layout will not support 2 dual slot cards and a PCI sound card....

Thoughts on this one?
asrock

I think it's a good one, since you have quad-cf/3sli with it, so you can basically upgrade later to an ATI card and still get the support for 4 of them...

Ok, I am a little paranoid about the power I guess, but the price difference for the 750w was minimal so I upped to that one. I also would like try my hand at overclocking so I tossed in what I think is a decent CPU cooler.

Here is the build I am considering, comments and suggestions welcome.

ASRock Board

I7 920 CPU

Dark Knight CPU Cooler

6GB Memory

Antec 300 Case

PC Power and Cooling 750w PSU

Add to that the pair of 8800GTs, the Razer sound card, the Velociraptor 150GB drive and the LG Bluray DVD that I have on hand and I am getting excited about this machine.

Thanks for the help guys!

I agree they aren't that powerful compared to what is available, but they are hardly junk.
Consider that the 8800 is essentially a 9800 and that is essentially a 250.

Moving from an Athlon X2 with 2GB of DDR1 to an I7 system is much more of an improvement than moving up form the 8800GT's to any other card within my budget. I am really hoping to see some new 40nm cards from ATI by the end of the year. Now that would justify an upgrade for sure! AND, the board I am looking at here can handle quad crossfire, so that would certainly be an easy option later on.

Reviewed the case options and decided to take the CM 690.
Seems like it has a bit more space than the Antec 300 from what reviewers had to say. Thanks for the suggestion.

Pulled the trigger this morning....

Order Summary
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1

COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Item #: N82E16811119137

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$84.99
$74.99

1

ASRock X58 Deluxe LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813157155

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$229.99
$219.99

1

PC Power & Cooling Silencer PPCS750QBL 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI NVIDIA SLI Certified (Dual 8800 GTX and below) CrossFire ... - Retail
Item #: N82E16817703019

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$169.99
$119.99

1

Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920 - Retail
Item #: N82E16819115202

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$288.99
$279.99

1

OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ3G1600LV6GK - Retail
Item #: N82E16820227365

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$139.99
$91.99

1

FREE GIFT: IMC KE-11 Blue USB Wired Optical 800 dpi 3D Diamond Mouse - Retail
Item #: N82E16826717004

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$15.99

1

Rosewill RCX-TC050 Thermal Grease - Retail
Item #: N82E16835200040

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$9.99
$5.99

1

XIGMATEK Dark Knight-S1283V 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler - Retail
Item #: N82E16835233029

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$39.99

1
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-$15.99

Subtotal $832.93
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UPS 3 Days $32.94
Order Total $865.87

Glad you like it mate and looking forward to the update

I believe your system is good =)
Although I'm currently building a x3 720 system... well, it's just that I can't afford anything more
I think you can push you i7 a bit more, especially since your not on stock cooling, just let the thermal grease install itself correctly (about 48 hours of running) and you'll see your temps drop again.