Are all the Windows 8 deals done with - is it really $99 for a license now? =/
Tomshardware.com will have charts if you're interested in comparing performance between AMD & Intel. I see what these guys here are saying, but if you're playing *mostly* P99 for your gaming habit then I think you'll be fine.
I'd recommend a small (<120GB) SSD for your primary drive, but that might be beyond your budget. I use them in my home PC & work laptop, and it's rough to work with anything less once you've used one.
Just google'd this - if you know someone who bought a Win7 PC between June last year and until the end of this month, you can score a really cheap Win8 key. (assuming they could care less about Win8)
www.windowsupg8adeoffer.com/