quad core or i7? decisions, decisions

My choice would be - omitting screen - a PC like this for a good $300 cheaper or an i7-920 for this price with more RAM etc, or an i5 nicely decked out right in between them. The i5-750 is a pretty good compromise unless you really use programs optimized for multi-threading, I think, at least if money has any importance. The i5-750 real world performance is very close and infrequently even exceeds Bloomfield i7s, as I read evaluations. But I wish they would sell more with W7Pro included or $35 upgrade; I want the XP emulation as a fallback till I really know what all runs on W7. So I am hoping I'll get these choices in January. Both Core-i series are still too expensive in assembled PCs.

I'm in your camp, h5678. The good desktop deals aren't around. I really like the i7-860 compared to the i7-920. Almost as fast, but drops into a less expensive motherboard.

#1 i5 or i7 studio dell xps starting @ $699
http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/desktops/studio-xps-8000/pd.aspx?refid=studio-xps-8000&s=dhs&cs=19&redirect=1