My vote is for Intel. WRT CPU for gaming; clock speed is the key. Depending on your budget E8400 is good (overclocks to 4.3Ghz on air) or if you are feeling flush a i7 920 (overclocks to 4.05Ghz on air). ATM games don't really utilise quad cores so E8400 is the best choice but if you want futureproofing then i7 is better as developers utilise the benefits of the quad core. P.S. you need to invest in a good motherboard to get the high FSB to achieve a good overclock.
Definitely not crossfire as the 3870 does not scale well. Suggest HD 4890 which has good overclocking potential and can give GTX 295 levels of performance when crossfired with another 4890. But check that your PSU has two PCI-E plugs as the HD 4890 needs them.
Suggest HD4890 for future proofing and overclocking potential. If you had the money later on you could crossfire another 4890 to give you GTX 295 performance.
Choice is really dependant on what you do with your PC. If gaming then duo core, if video encoding of multitasking then quad. If you are thinking about OC then duo core is easier.
The rankings seem to be: GTX 295 4870X2 GTX 285 GTX 280 GTX 275 and HD 4890 on par HD 4870 (1GB) GTX 260 (216 stream) HD 4870 (512MB) All above need a good PSU and at least 600W when you get to a GTX 280 and above. All the cards require two PCI-E plug for power. Good Luck.
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