its called futureproofing. no HT, for all you know, next patch will enable it. I guess to me, id pick a i7 over a i5 anyday, because that $100 is going to buy me some time, and in the end people do alot more with their computers than d3.
i dont like the i5, because im not a cheapass fanboy. I pay money for high end. You want to do shit in windows while your game is botting? get the i7, you just play d3 and nothing else, no photoshop, video rendering (avi -> dvdvideo) then the i5 is "fine"
when im going to shell out cash for something new, bang for buck includes - potential overclock, time til obsolete (futureproofing), raw power, and newage/current gen features.
go ahead, buy some shit without a current modern tech, then when things you like embrance it, go shell out another part because you didnt want to afford it
basically if you wanna save money, dont even go through intel. go through AMD, thats the only reason AMD even exists is because they cater to the poormans market which is big