What is the best commercial processor put right now that i can get at say BestBuy or similar ?

I run Vue and Cinema 4D latest versions always.

Attached Link: http://www.cornucopia3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7593

In a couple of months there may be a new i7 with 6 cores 12 threads.
Core i7-980 XE will have 6 real cores that show up as 12 cores in the OS. Comes out in march 2010 according to Wiki.

Hm, are those 64 bit ? and whats the best one if that series ?

I don't think you can find a new processor without support for 64bit operating systems these days.

yeah all recent CPus (bar a few weird laptop ones, iirc) are 64 bit capable :)

um no such thing as "best" they always grossly WAY over charge for most recent CPU, so IMHO not worth it unless yer rich. a syou may only be talking about a 25% speed increase or less.

good cpu + good motherboard + good ram + good SYSTEM hard drive is much better than just a super dooper CPU :)

If money does not matter then the fastest rendering one I know of is Core i7 975 3.33gz it's 64 bit capable.

But  I agree with silverblade33

Anyway there is going to be a financial sweet spot (bang for buck) somewhere between the lesser Core i7 920 and the Core i7 975.  I would get a Core i7 920 and pickup as much compatible midrange memory as possible.
Because while the cpu matters much with render speed, memory plays a big role in render size (amount of pixels)and maybe in complexity as well . A lack of memory can really limit your render size. (I make large stills) I don't animate.

Ok, so i orderd today from TigerDirect and settled for the following:

i7 960(?) with "more than capable" motherboard

Nvidia GForce GTX 295

and 12G Kingston DDR3

for 1666.95 USD

sound good ?

Most interested in running Vue and Cinema 4D without headaches and crashes (;

...but enjoy a nice frag fest on ocassion as well :D

I'm jealous LOL!! contemplating buying a new pc this year but loathe to do cos I've upgraded my old one so much Win 7Prof  64 bit , 8GB Ram it all costs money LOL!!!!

Quote - Ok, so i orderd today from TigerDirect and settled for the following:

i7 960(?) with "more than capable" motherboard

Nvidia GForce GTX 295

and 12G Kingston DDR3

for 1666.95 USD

sound good ?

Most interested in running Vue and Cinema 4D without headaches and crashes (;

...but enjoy a nice frag fest on ocassion as well :D

Sounds real good.

I don't know when I can upgrade, right now I'm thankful to God just to keep the mortgage and bills paid. The last 9 months have been hard on the biz.

A little early for me to upgrade any way. I try to do a full system upgrade when I can affordability triple my render speed. My Q6600 quad is showing it age, but I probably got a year left.

Then it becomes my secondary system when I upgrade and it will serve 2 or more years as secondary. It's not like the upgrades that I made recently are wasted.

I hear that. 

The new cpus for the future will have HD decoding built right into the processor from what I read.  That is when I will upgrade.

Slonishko
I'd be very wary of running games on your art rig! some games come with horrendous DRM, rootkits etc. that's why I keep 2 PCs: 1 for games, one for art (also I can do renders or whatever one PC as I work on other).
IMHO, two "good" PCs are better than 1 "Uber" PC, plus lots of back up space and so forth.
but your specs should be a killer PC! :)

CobraEye
hm, why then? :)
to me, upgrading's based on 2 things:

1. when my PC breaks down/is on it's last legs! hehe that's the main one. Too expensive to replace except every 3 years or so. Hopefully my current PCs, being better spec will last 4 to 5 years.
2. Some major improvement, so, 64 bit/quad core and art PC was getting long in tooth made me upgrade.
   is HD capability on CPU that big a change? I honestly dunno :)

Yes, 64 and HD is important for me because most of my work is video. USB 3 is an important upgrade for the future too.  If vue users are making HD animations these 3 upgrades will work very well together.

Pardon the ignorance, but what is USB 3 ? Although I ave no interest in animation, i am just curious :D

The new usb standard, faster than usb 2.
Not that much of interest (to me atleast) unless you're a heavy user of external usb drives.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus

Hm, interesting article...how on earth are we supposed to keep up...geez

I have a Intel Core I7 920 with 12 GB DDR3 64 bit ...and it works fine looks like you have made a good choice

My new computer will be here in about 15 days.  Can't wait!  Sounds about like your system abumagic - i7 920.  I will start with 6GB and once hubby has recovered from the bill, then I will get 6 more GB...  :sneaky:

I  start with 6GB up to two week ago it still rendered pritty good but def better with 12 GB my the I7 motherboards go up to 24 GB

Quote - Pardon the ignorance, but what is USB 3 ? Although I ave no interest in animation, i am just curious :D

USB 3 will make driveless computers (using memory for C: drives) save/read faster.