AMD or Intel for Games machine?

I am looking to get myself a new rig for games as my current machine is not giving me decent frame rates on ARMA2.

Looking at AMD Phenom 2 or Intel i7 920 or Intel i7 860.

Any ideas which will give me the best results, My Graphics is a 4870 x2 which I may crossfire at some point with a second one.

Also which would be a good motherboard to marry to these CPU's?

Any help would be great as I am a bit confused on choice.

Wel, although the i7 would be a great setup, as far as price/performance goes, honestly .. I'd reccomend a Phenom II chip. The 720 is great and very OC'able .. and then there are the great 955 and 965 Phenom II x4's which are very, very good when it comes to gaming performance. So yea if you just have a lot of extra money, the i7 920 is a win but considering the triple channel DDR3 RAM and 1366 mobo's are fairly costly, you're going to spend a good bit more than you would for some good DDR3 1333/a 790GX mobo/Phenom II core. So it basically depends on your budget. Either way is fine though. A Phenom II 955 and a good video card, coupled with good RAM would be more than enough power for ARMA 2 and pretty much whatever else your'e going to play in the near future.

I run the 955 and will soon have a Radeon 5870 and I don't think ANY games will give me any trouble even maxed for a hot minute. So don't get the idea AMD is any less of an option! ^_^

p2 965 is only 5 dollars more than 955, so why not

But I tend to lean to i7 because it has already been proven that motherboards and CF or SLI setups scale a little better than AMD mobos

id say go for an intel processor. depending on budget either an i5 750 or an i7 870.

for the graphics though ATI is the way to go. a 5870 (or maybe two?) would give you amazing performance.

Most benchmarks show that the 750 will outperform any current AMD chip at stock or comparable overclocks. The 860 will outperform the i750 and when OC'd come so close so often to a 965 that the price isn't worth it.

Here's some data you should find relevant, using 4870X2s:

http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 403-3.html

i5's platform is more money though. 955, 920, or 750, depending on budget.

You won't be sorry, esp. if they throw in a Razer for that 'hairy' bum