Quote - 2. yes.... I've been checking out i7s vs AMDs 1000s and it seems to specifically for rendering i7s do quite a bit better... which is however also reflected in the price tag.... hmm might spend the extra couple of hundred... don't think I can hold out till next year... I want it during the xmas holidays... hopefully some specials before xmas as well!

As far as I can tell, Intel gives you better performance on the high end for a high end price, where in the low and mid price segment, AMD will give you more cores for the same money.

When I built a machine earlier this year, I went for an Athlon II X4 600e, which is one of their energy saving CPUs. Yes, it's slower than a Phenom II or i7, but I love energy saving computers (considering the price of electricity here) and I enjoy silence.

Quote - 3. I'm going for 8GB, if I see any sort of bottle neck I'll propably upgrade to 12GB

Make sure you have the extra slots free. My system has 2x 4GB sticks with room for another 2x 4GB for a total of 16GB (which I don't need right now, so far 8GB are sufficient).

Quote - 5. 3D card not important? ... I suppose only the privew right? but do you get better/ faster previews

I put a GTX 460 in my computer that previously had just ATI HD 4200 onboard - a world of a difference for preview speed.