I have always said that the best CPU for you, or rather any component, depends on your budget. I set some sort of budget, normally $1500 +/- depending and see what performs the best at that time. Then I look at overall pricing by building two systems that are comparable.

I get the same performing AMD CPU and same performing Intel CPU. Normally I have built everything else such as mobo, GPU and memory etc. So they stay the same.

Then I look at the pricing. If Intels build is within my budget and has the best overall performance then I will buy it. If AMD does, I will buy it.

My last two systems were built that way. In 2007 I built Intel because the Q6600 was cheap, fast and OCed very well. AMD only had dual cores that didn't perform as well and then when Phenom I hit, it still didn't perform better than C2Q.

When I built my P4 system, AMD had the Athlon XPs out and hadn't gotten the Athlon 64 out so I went with the P4 since I didn't like SIS or VIA and Athlon XPs did run a bit hotter.

But my next build is set for about 2012ish. So I will have to look at Ivy Bridge and hopefully Bulldozer. Whichever performs the best for my price range will be in my system.