One thought comes to mind though - if you go Intel, get a quad. Don't go with a dual core. You may not need it right off, but a lot of games coming down the pike are claiming to use the third and forth cores for better physics, and environmental effects. You won't get that if you only have dual cores, or it will be reduced. Get one of those Intel Quads if you want to go Intel. They don't cost really that much more.
The length of time you seem to keep a gaming system, it would be worth it.
-S
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