I disagree that price is not a factor. Your system will perform similarly whether you get an i7 920 or a phenom 2 940BE, once overclocked. The i7 will be a tad faster, but the chip is a tad more expensive, the mobo is much more expensive, and ram fast enough to be worth putting in the i7 setup in triple channel is expensive.
Right now the price difference between i7 core setup and P2 one is 150-300 depending on how much yoy skimp on your i7 mobo & ram. Whereas you can just get great cas5 ddr2-1066 and the best 790gx/fx mobos for cheap.
I would almost always rather go with the ddr2 solution and invest the extra money elsewhere. Stepping up to a higher grade video card, or a second card in crossfire, will benefit games more than a few extra % cpu power. Or a slightly bigger monitor, ect.
If you need performance for other cpu intensive things like graphics type work, then I would probably go i7 every time since it has a more significant advantage in raw processing power.
On pure performance without price being a factor though, there is no question nothing AMD has can mess with Intels most expensive chips
Granted, AMD is the budget choice and good for budget gamers mostly... Like me... If someone else pays the bill for you, why not go i7, it's the greatest thing out there atm.
