Sandy Bridge or Phenom, Spec me.

Agreed but tbh just wait till bulldozer.
Don't agree on waiting for Bulldozer (for people that are upgrading from older platform than i5/i7).

Let's face it...it simply ain't gonna be faster than the SandyBridge, and it still a long time away from its launch. AMD's approach has always been complete on price, but not performance...just look at Phenom II vs i5/i7, or 6950/6970 vs GTX570/GTX580...
 
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Don't agree on waiting for Bulldozer (for people that are upgrading from older platform than i5/i7).

Let's face it...it simply ain't gonna be faster than the SandyBridge, and it still a long time away from its launch. AMD's approach has always been complete on price, but not performance...just look at Phenom II vs i5/i7, or 6950/6970 vs GTX570/GTX580...

Couldn't agree more with this.

Regarding the OP its a close one to be honest. Looking at resolution you will be gaming at you would be able to max most things out with a 1GB GTX 460 (then get SB i5 2500K). If your likely to grade your monitor then I'd recommend going with a Phenom II X4 and a 6950 (flashing it to a 6970). Could always pick up an X6 later down the line if you really were in need of more cpu horsepower.

On the other hand for FSX i5 2500K @4.5GHz+ would be incredible I would have thought!

Very close tho between the two.

Re. GTX 470s, cracking card and overclock amazingly. Wouldn't knock it, as I have one myself, but at their current price their not the best option. Can be had still for <£180 but I'd say wait for a couple for weeks for the GTX 560 release. Should offer GTX470 performance at ~£190-210 but run cooler and quieter.
 
Fallen victim to Intel's chip numbering confusion here. It's actually a replacement for your i5 range and the difference to a current i5 760 is closer to the £130 mark. The true replacement for the i7 is the socket 2011 which will make all those with 2600k chips look like over zealous puppy dogs. All those with pockets deep enough to have the fortune to currently run a i7 970/980X or the soon to come 990X are still laughing into the old pint pot.

I pay very little attention to what Intel calls an i7 i5 or i3. It has become completely meaningless over the last few years. The top end 1155 chips are faster than all the 1366 chips except the 6 core gulftown ones though. 2011 looks like overkill to me.

The real winners at the moment are those picking up socket 1156 i5's.......
 
I pay very little attention to what Intel calls an i7 i5 or i3. It has become completely meaningless over the last few years. The top end 1155 chips are faster than all the 1366 chips except the 6 core gulftown ones though. 2011 looks like overkill to me.

if it was meaningless... what influenced you to purchase your 750? pot luck? :)

as for overkill on the 2011... shout it at the noobs who will be dropping the 2600k at a loss to purchase it :)
 
The i5 branding on my chip is meaningless :) it bears no resemblance to the dual core i5's, having much in common with the 1156 i7's although without the hyperthreading. These in turn have little in common with the 1366 i7's. The whole naming system is a bad joke based purely on marketing.

As for the new chips, I've been referring to them as Sandy Bridge, as splitting them into i5 and i7 is also meaningless.
 
That's one little niggle for me with SB, the GPU is just completely redundant. I know I shouldn't look at it from this angle but you're probably paying for something integrated on the core which will never be used, on the P67 chipsets.
 
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