Andrew, what you're gonna buy depends on what you already have and going to move to the new computer. so, what video card do you have and what processor do you have? Rendering performance is dependent mostly on your processor. Will your old processor satisfy the new needs? Probably not. Count on a new processor then. Note the word mostly in the first line of the second paragraph. RAM also plays a role in rendering, but it's not as direct as with processor. That is, if you don't have enough RAM, a part of your scene will reside in the virtual memory on your disk and that will slow down the rendering. In general, more RAM, the bigger your scene can be and more comfortably you can work. Graphic card will play a (significant) role in rendering the Open GL view/preview - important in Studio, Vue and Hexagon. As far as I know, Nvidia still holds an edge over ATI in that regard. My new computer (four months old) has the following specs, and the prices I paid then: - processor: AMD 64 3800+ (didn't have money for a dual core 4400+ which was around $700 here) - $400 - motherboard: Epox 9NPA+ Ultra - Socket 939, Nforce4 chipset, integrated LAN and audio, SATA - $140 - RAM: Kingston 2GB 3200 DDR in 4 x 512 MB modules, cause the bigger, 1GB, modules are still mostly slower than the smaller ones, and if not, then more expensive - $220 - video: Nvidia 6600GT, 128 MB RAM - $220 - disk: 200 GB SATA Maxtor 7200 RPM - $110 - Case: RaidMax Scorpio 868WB, a gaming case with a see-through side, but it comes with three fans of its own - $50 - Power Supply: Enermax EG485AX - 480W, two fans - $130 plus a dual layer DVD burner and a DVD-ROM. All in all, something like $1500 without a mouse, a keyboard and a monitor. I've been running Bryce, Cinema, Rhino, Vue Infinite, ZBrush, Photoshop on it without a single problem. The speed is quite nice.

-- erlik