I need some platform advice

[Sentientbydesign]

Ok, I used to read every PCWorld, PC Magazine, CPU, and Laptop that came out. Then I got a life and a job and a wife...etc.

Anyways, I've been out of the loop for a WHILE.

I need to build 3 rigs preferably before Christmas. One of them is going to be an all around power player with emphasis on Graphic Design and maybe a little CAD.

The other two just need to be stable, scalable, and have most basic features.

So I could really use some advice on processors, mobos, HDDs, graphics cards...the whole nine yards. I usually lean heavily towards AMD, but they seem to be falling really short recently. So I've been looking at the Intel Core i7. Can anybody shed any light on it? The 920 is the only one in my price range (still a little high, but doable).

I'm thinking about another Asus board because the last one was really good to me. The P6 is a little high in the price department, any alternatives?

One of the biggest problems I'm seeing (and have for years) is that you can have really fast memory and a really fast processor, but the HDD and FSB seem to create a huge bottle neck to the processor. Will dual or triple channel fix this?

TIA

[Sf2fan]

For everything I have been doing lately, my new setup seems to be just fine for anything I throw at it. I went with a Dual Core AMD 5000+ CPU, 4 Gigs of RAM, 2-640 Western Digital Sata hard drives, Asus Sata DVD burner, Nvidia Graphics, 24" HP Display (This is what really love about this system) Antec 900 Case, Vista 64 bit and of course an Asus Mobo. You can save quite a bit of money if you go with a small display. Righ now you can get a faster tri core CPU for what I paid for the dual core a few months back.

I would definitely recommend newegg.com (located in Pomona, CA). I didn't buy the monitor online because I got a strong guarantee from the local big box store that if I didn't like the monitor or if there were any bright/dead pixels they would be happy to exchange it or refund my $$.

[Sentientbydesign]

Here's the build I've started (x3- there will be slight variations in OS, vid card, and HDD for mine).

Asus P6TIntel core i7 920 processor.Corsair 3x1 GB DDR3 1333WD Caviar Black Edition (32 MB cache) 750GB

Variants:Vista Ultimate x64XP Pro x323rd OS undecided

ATI Sapphire HD 4550 512 MB PCI-E 2.0UndecidedUndecided

Additional RAM on x64 system

OS dedicated SSD

Antec 300Antec 900Undecided- I'm a little more about form over fashion.

[Crazyirish]

Check out the ATI 4830. They are about $40-50 more than a 4550 but the performance difference is huge.

[Sentientbydesign]

Check out the ATI 4830. They are about $40-50 more than a 4550 but the performance difference is huge.

Looks great for gaming, but can you explain how this would apply to graphic design, DVD playback, and some light Turbo CAD?

GPUs have never been my forte.