I think one very important issue has been missed completely here; how often do you upgrade? By that I don't mean your entire system but lets say just RAM, just a Mobo, or just a CPU?
All this speculation leads me to believe you are going to be stuck with whatever you buy for quite a while. If this is the case then the Socket 775 option with DDR2 (or DDR3 if you can afford it) is the most obvious choice, which ever way you look at it at some point in 2008 you would have to change your Mobo whether it be an AMD CPU or an Intel one.
Nobody knows what performance the AMD is going to have but you have various sources around the web reporting back the Penryn CPU's are scaling very well and are going to be quite a bit better than the Conroe based CPU's.
I say go with Intel, go with a P35 and stick to DDR2. Why DDR2 you ask, its muck cheap at them moment and has reached it's performance pinacle, where as DDR3 is brand new, expensive and some what underwhelming. Choosing DDR2 would leave you enough left to justify and upgrade when DDR3 becomes much cheaper later next year and some what faster.
e.g. 2GB Corsair XMS2 800MHz is around £65 inc. VAT vs. 2GB Corsair XMS3 1066MHz at £220 inc. VAT
That leaves you with £155 left over for memory and a mother board next year
All this speculation leads me to believe you are going to be stuck with whatever you buy for quite a while. If this is the case then the Socket 775 option with DDR2 (or DDR3 if you can afford it) is the most obvious choice, which ever way you look at it at some point in 2008 you would have to change your Mobo whether it be an AMD CPU or an Intel one.
Nobody knows what performance the AMD is going to have but you have various sources around the web reporting back the Penryn CPU's are scaling very well and are going to be quite a bit better than the Conroe based CPU's.
I say go with Intel, go with a P35 and stick to DDR2. Why DDR2 you ask, its muck cheap at them moment and has reached it's performance pinacle, where as DDR3 is brand new, expensive and some what underwhelming. Choosing DDR2 would leave you enough left to justify and upgrade when DDR3 becomes much cheaper later next year and some what faster.
e.g. 2GB Corsair XMS2 800MHz is around £65 inc. VAT vs. 2GB Corsair XMS3 1066MHz at £220 inc. VAT
That leaves you with £155 left over for memory and a mother board next year