Virtualization Build

[nano_nico]

Howdy,
I'm gonna be taking the VM5 test and want to practice doing the wild and crazy stuff. My dell XPS 410 is able to VT, but I have $800 I can use for a better box, so I'm looking at which mobo/cpu combo will handle multiple vm's best AND double as a low end gaming rig. Probably limit the graphics card to $150 or I can get a second 5670 and tagteam them.
What say the guru's? i5 2500K or and AMD setup ? which board will be friendliest to VM's?

 

[duxducis]

hmm i like 8 core AMD FX for this, its nice to have bunch of cores. can run 4 VM's and practice a lot.