Not sure why you are only going with a 6 core. The i7 930 2.8 Ghz shows 8 logical cores in Windows 7 and by now (after christmas) is under $300. You might know these chips throtle up to around 4 Ghz on thier own. I am not much of an over clocker, even less so with a DAW. But there are tons of folks pushing this to just over 4ghz. Thus I submit you might read up on this CPU and see if it is for you. Take a look around as I see they are in short supply at newegg.com. Must have been too good to be true…
Now that I think about it I believe you are talking about an even higher end chip. but gosh, just how much can one toss at a DAW… lol - I know, allways need more speed… Thus the url below has one of the 6 cores at the bottom… wow $1k on a chip alone is pricey!
They have a a couple others like an i7-950 under $300 though:
Lbro