The i7 is definatelly a welcome addition as far as CPU-Intensive tasks are concerned, such as encrypting, decrypting, encoding, decoding, compressing, uncompressing and so on and so forth... but for gaming? Hell, you could have an i3.

As long as your gaming rig has a relatively good GPU, you are IN THE CLEAR, 100%. Most calculations when it comes to 3D games are done by the GPU, not the CPU, so don't rely on it and don't buy into the "quad-core" craze as the two cores of a quad-core have a pleasant nap most of the time - not all software is properly prepared for multicore operation. Hell, not all software takes full advantage of x64 architectures altogether. CPU's are the least important part of a Gaming Rig as of today. More is always welcome to make the PC operate smooth, but definatelly isn't a necessity.