There's nothing wrong with getting a new system. I just doubt you really need one (and it's not like Core 2 CPUs are obsolete - Q6600 is a bit dated tho, and Q9550 is a nice step up).

I haven't gotten around to building an i7 yet (and I'm not in a big hurry), and I haven't tried fooling around with Premiere in years. I tried Premiere a few years back and just didn't care for it much at all (personal taste). Actually, there really is no NLE that I can say I think is great. They all have what I consider considerable weaknesses, but I do like Edius Neo quite a bit for basic editing (cut, splice, transitions). If Edius allowed access to encoding directly with 3rd party Windows codecs, I'd like it a whole whale of a lot more, and I'd really love to be able to encode directly from Edius with x264!

I agree, Premiere is a resource hug, unlike Vegas. I wish engineers at Adobe would realize that making lean tight software benefits all in the game.

I admit that Q6600 is dated even for the Feb. 2007 when I built it. But I stuck with reliability/price ratio when choosing this CPU.

I guess I will wait and see what the reviews say about the upcoming i9 before considering any upgrades or builds.

Thank so much for your input!

With MicroCenter fire-sale pricing Q9550s at $169, I look at replacing a Q6600 as sort of a no-brainer. When I saw they were doing that, I grabbed one the next time I was in the twin cities area (Minneapolis/St. Paul) to replace a Q6600. Q6600s are fetching around $140-$150 on eBay, so it took me about a nanosecond to do that math (total out-of-pocket cost of about $50 after sales tax, eBay fees, etc.). I talked with the manager there and they are indeed selling those below cost just to get people in the door.