Smells like a flame bait... Oh well, might as well jump in. :lol:
If, as anort3 said, a $30 difference is a waste of money in your perspective, then it is. However, if it's not, then just go for the i5. If you're planning on only using 1 GPU, then don't worry about the GPU compatibility issue, Intel's Motherboards aren't made by nVidia.
Sometimes when comparing 2 things, the decisive factor is our own perception. If you already have a positive sentiment towards 1 brand, the slightest margin of inferiority from the other brand would seem like a huge one. On the contrary, the slightest superiority will seem negligible.
Let's say you have a thing for Intel, any AMD product will look cheap and less powerful for you. From the favors of AMD's perspective, any Intel product will look like it will cost you a fortune. It's hard to be neutral because of the difference of perspective between individuals. Even the concept about price to performance ratio is considered to be a non-issue for some people. Must've been born with a silver spoon in the mouth.
And as for benchmarks, if you see the gap difference is not too far apart, in real time application it's usually negligible. Roughly, if brand A with a benchmark score of 100 can do a certain task in 5 minutes, the B with a score of 90 should be able to do it in 5.5 minutes. Again, as in the "waste of money" analogy, if that .5 minute is a big deal for you, then go for the better performing one.
I can only suggest to plan your purchase carefully, buying Intel will give you an edge in performance. Yet buying AMD, in exchange of (not light years away) inferior performance, will give you the extra budget to purchase other components.
Just keep it real, no fanboism, no understatements. Plain and simple.
These kind of threads are so sensitive, I got a death threat from one of the fan boy for breaking down the fact. Would you believe that?
Final words, stick for the initial concept, whether it's gaming, graphic designing, HTPC, etc. Visualize a reasonable expectation, for gaming they would be FPS, resolution, AA settings, etc. And the most important thing is, choose the right components within your budget. In your case, if that $30 dollars you spent for the i5 will cost you a shortage on the GPU purchase budget, you might want to think it over.
Hope this helps!