Slightly off topic, but what about the amd Phenom x6 1090T?

Seems like having 6 cores might serve 10boxing better than the still quad-core i7. I think some of the reviewers remarked that it out performed the i7 for extremely threaded cpu-intensive applications (http://www.anandtech.com/show/3674/a...55t-reviewed/7) Not sure wow counts in either instance, but when running 10 it might. I dunno. Something to consider. (since he's looking at Mobo's, i assume the OP isn't stuck with existing infrastructure...but that would obviously change things).

i really don't know; with 10 processes competing for 4/6 cores i'm not sure if processor speed continues to be the king. Be an interesting case study, perhaps, lol.