Yeah i went with an intel q6600, because spec wise, it renders fastert then comparable amd processors.

Video card wise I really have no brand preference at all.. both nvidia and ati both have issues from time to time. I usually shop around some, check tom's hardware guide (every month they rate the bets value cards in price ranges) and after checking all that, I get the most bang for the buck. It just happens my last 3 cards were all ati based.

Note I say "based".. ati (the official brand) has only a 1 year warranty.. weith newer systems heat buildup and dust are very big issues and I fried a card last year. For ati card, get the Visiontek brand.. they weither have a 5 year warranty or a lifetime warranty.

Here's the link to the best buy system I just picked up:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9032316&type=product&id=1218010533213

To that I added on ati hd8450 old video card from my old system, (Tom's hardware guide best video card buy under $200 for about 10 months), I increaded the memory from 6gb to 8gb with kingston 4 gb x 2gb sticks (about $34 shipped), incresed the power supply to 550 watts (about $70 shipped), and then tossed in one second hd from my old system, to add an additional 500 gig of storage. Last thing I added was a usb hub off the back, because I have too damned many usb things, and I prefer them on the back instaed of on the front of my system. (You can snag those for about $15 at walmart.)

If you had to buy everything I added, the total for everything would be around $850 or so I think.

I've been very pleased with the performance increase and general use on this new system. I'm still installing software on it as well, since I picked it up a few weeks ago.

I'm running vue 7 I, poser pro, lightwave 9.5/.6, zbrush, photoshop cs, and a number of other things and all are running great!

(I do prefer my old mouse and keyboard though...I may swap them back in, but I am getting used to the new stuff more and more as time goes by.) 

The reason I went with best buy, was the store was local, and it was actually cheaper with tax, then from newegg of tiger direct when you include thier shipping costs.

Here's the link to all the best buy gateway systems...

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=pcat17080&type=page&qp=crootcategoryid%23%23-1%23%23-1~~q70726f63657373696e6774696d653a3e313930302d30312d3031~~cabcat0500000%23%230%23%2311a~~cabcat0501000%23%230%23%2329~~nf510%7C%7C47617465776179&list=y&nrp=15&sc=abComputerSP&sp=%2Bbrand+skuid&usc=abcat0500000

Way too many people take way too many things way too seriously.