Not sure what the price difference is between an i9 and an i7, but, depending on what your requirements are, an i7 would probably be plenty and you could take that extra money and use it on something that will give you a bigger bang for your buck, like a better interface, perhaps a second internal drive for data files, stuff like that. CPU is important, but it's just one small piece of the overall puzzle.
I'm a big fan of using expansion cards for video, audio, NIC, things line that instead of the motherboard controllers. The embedded MB controllers tend to add CPU overhead.
Maybe post what your requirements are, number of tracks, plugins, live recording etc. I'm sure there are lots of people here with similar requirements and they can let you know what they're using.
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