BUT.. the box i'm building is based on the amd II X-6 1090T and the amd hd 7770.  main reason why i chose the hd over a similar firepro is that I use my box for a lot of other things besides rendering and the hd series are good gaming cards too.  stuff as much ram in it as i can afford.  prolly 16gigs to start and then grab another 16 as soon as i can afford it.  would like a hd burner in it but will prolly just go with another dvd-r.  the mobo i'm looking at has 6 sata ports, with onboard lan and sound.  pricing it out on pricewatch.com i'm looking at a tad over 600.