First, I would stress that Xtreme is actually less desirable for the home "power user";  Infinite is the most powerful home user's choice. Xtreme is good for studios meshing the output with Maya and such.  Xtreme is designed to network render primarily using Linux nodes, whereas Compleat and Infinite network in Windows using Render Cows - much easier to set up.

     Regarding the computer upgrade, I was not suggesting upgrading the existing computer plus buying a Xeon machine.  I'm saying that Vue renders using CPU cores, so your best option for an upgrade is to put a dual CPU mobo in your case and buy a pair of used Xeons.  They are available for pennies on the dollar of original price. Xeons are the industrial level processor, and large enterprises find it cost effective to upgrade their gear every three to five years.  But who can they sell the old gear to?  So, commercial traders will pull the processors and clean off the thermal paste (hence the term "clean pulls") and offer them for sale cheap.  These outfits commonly offer blades, processors, etc. on eBay and Amazon.

     The Xeon is more heavy duty than the home consumer oriented core i7 series, and you can run two in parallel, which you cannot do with the core i7.

     A H/T hex core i7 is a good choice, but a pair of H/T hex Xeons would be cheaper and pack twice the rendering punch.

     Vue previews relying heavily upon video card memory, so you want a card with plenty of onboard VRAM.  Doesn't need to be the fastest gaming card, just needs to have generous memory.  4GB would be great.

     As for system memory, the more, the merrier!  But practically, I 've found that Vue rarely reaches 32GB, so I think 32GB (36GB if triple channel) should be enough for nearly any job, and I tend to make huge/complex scenes.    

Poser 12, in feet.  

OSes:  Win7Prox64, Win7Ultx64

Silo Pro 2.5.6 64bit, Vue Infinite 2014.7, Genetica 4.0 Studio, UV Mapper Pro, UV Layout Pro, PhotoImpact X3, GIF Animator 5