Quote - I take it that you got the 3.2 with the DDR3 ram for i7. I don't know, I have my computer guy trying to find the best prices for what I need. I'm spending a bunch of money, He keeps telling me the same as you. of course he is not the one spending the money. I'm thinking over. If I can get a good price by cutting out some extras on some of my software extras we'll see. 

I didn't say anything about the 3.2 GHz i7. It's absurdly expensive. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I'm saying that the 2.66 GHz i7, the 920 (the least expensive one), is 40% faster in Cinema benchmarks than the Q6600 and 20-30% faster in most other benchmarks. I would probably go with the 920 i7. It's the least expensive i7 processor by far, but it is significantly more powerful than the Q6600.

And by going with the i7 chipset now, you have an upgrade path, because LGA1366 and DDR3 is going to be what Intel is developing for over the next couple years. LGA775 and DDR2 are going to be phased out and there isn't going to be anything more powerful for that platform a year or two from now. You'll have to buy an LGA1366 and DDR3 based system eventually. If you buy the motherboard and RAM now, you won't have to buy it later. You can just pick up a new CPU or another stick or RAM down the road if you want. You won't be able to do that if you go with LGA775 and DDR2. Even AMD is going to DDR3 and will not be developing any more DDR2 based chipsets soon.

If you can go 3-4 years without upgrading, then you might want to consider buying the Q6600 and DDR2 RAM, but do keep in mind that it is 40% less powerful than the 920 and DDR3 configuration. That disparity in performance will only become more apparent as time goes on.

Here's a comparison:
Intel i7 920 2.66 GHz CPU $295
MSI X58 LGA1366 Motherboard $220
6GB G.SKILL DDR3-1333 Triple Channel RAM Kit $145

Total: $660

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4 GHz CPU $190
Gigabyte P43 LGA775 Motherboard $80
Transcend 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 Dual Channel RAM Kit $68 (you'll want two of those to get 8GB)

Total: $338

So the i7 configuration would cost almost twice as much, but Cinema renders are almost twice as fast. You would also be able to upgrade in 2-3 years without having to buy all new hardware (which you're doing now with either configuration anyway). So the bang for the buck is almost the same, you just have to decide how much horsepower you want, and how much you think you'll need in the future. Either one is a very good value and the Q6600/DDR2 based system would be a very good system right now (a fair bit better than what I'm running at the moment - I'm overdue to upgrade though). That said, the LGA775 platform and DDR2 are near the end of their lifespan and if you want to upgrade 2 years from now, you will be forced to buy an LGA1366 motherboard and DDR3.