Yeah, I'm with Craze. If you have to upgrade all your components anyway, i7 is worth it. The mobos are expensive, I believe they start at 200 bucks or so, but it's a new chipset, and that's future-proofing for ya. Also, the AM2+ is going to be relaced with AM3 sometime soon, so really, I don't see a point to buying a whole new AM2+ board if you are trying to buy a high end system. Budget systems are a different story, but you wouldn't be buying the Phenom 2 if you're building budget.