Interview the next Cruncher

[karl_eller]

When I first built my main rig almost 3 years ago: AU$2000. It was:
E6300
2 Gb Corsair Value Select 667 Mhz RAM
Asus nForce 570i
XFX 7900GT
2x 160 Gb HDDs (RAID0)

Since then it's just been a constant stream of upgrades, although I'm forcing myself to not buy anything (except maybe a cheap Q6600 rig) until I pick up a Core i7 rig.

Should I buy a cheap AU$600-ish Q6600 rig before or after I buy a Nehalem setup? Considering that the Nehalem rig will be a completely new system, taking pretty much just the water cooling from my current rig, and will probably end up costing me around the AU$2000-2500 mark? Or should I instead buy 1-2 Sossaman rigs?

Eller