I wonder if this is worth put into my AM2 board. Hoping to improve VMware workstation performance with the 8GB ram I have.

Currently have a x2 5600.

#1 will not work on your AM2 board, you need a AM2+. Recommend board 790, will work on some 780 and 750.. Tempting.. NE got it at 245.00

isn't the i7 920 this price and doesn't it offer double the performance?

The Phenom II X4 940 is $189 at NewEgg. The 940 is the same as the above processor, but it's only 3.0 GHz instead of 3.2 GHz. IMHO, .2 GHz is not worth the extra cost.

The i7 920 is ~ $50 more (it's the 2.66 GHz version). But in addition to the $50 more you're going to be paying for the processor, you'll also be shelling out at least $100 more for the motherboard. I just recently built my own computer, and going with the i7 was going to cost me $300 more than going with the AMD Phenom II X4 940.

That having been said, I've used both the i7 and the Phenom II X4, and it seems to me that the difference is negligible. The i7 is more powerful on paper, but software has yet to utilize it's 8 logical cores...

#4 You are way wrong.

This is in fact not same as the 940 with .2GHz difference.

DDR3 memory controller being a key factor to future-proof the purchase is probably one of the most noteable facts on it alone.

With NewEgg's pricing; yes maybe the i7 is better.

But taking into consideration the cost to get a quad-core AMD processor with an unlocked multiplier, with a good stable overclocking motherboard is VERY MUCH so cheaper than an i7, then where do you draw the line? Sure you can build an i7 build for around the same price, but you'll be missing on alot of the OC stability of a higher-end motherboard.

I just sold my evga 790i ftw + q9650 and I replaced with a Foxconn A7DA-S 3.0 + Phenom II X4 955BE (790GX/SB750 mobo chipsets for a good, stable OC.)

And for $80 more I could have bought the Foxconn BloodRage X58 board. Don't know.. Just not too interested in going back to Intel after playing around with the boring q9650