PC Build Woes

Hello all, I am currently in the process of building a recording studio PC.



Currently I have Pro Tools 11 that just shipped in.





So to the questions.



1. How many cores should I be worrying about? I am usually a Intel fanboy so i would be looking at a i5 or an i7 (Quad Core) but AMD offers some 8 cores for the same price range.



So would 4 cores be enough or should I go with an 8 Core AMD?



2. Hard Drives, now I know I want to go with at least 2 ( one for my OS and programs and a 2nd for just sessions.



Can I go with a sub 7200 rpm for my OS and a Western Digital Black 7200 RPM for my sessions? This is to save money. Or or should I just go with 2 Western Digital Blacks?



Also is 500 GB session drive big enough?





3. How much RAM should I go with?



Was thinking 8GB but not sure what is recommended, is that enough?





4. Motherboard expansion slots and built in connections.



How many PCI slots should I be looking for, and what kind of cards? Like a firewire card, sound card, video card, etc





Thanks all, I tried to BOLD the main points so its easier to read and what not.