Just about to get a new machine, but had a few things that need clarifying.

I have VUE7i. 
Is rendering still handled by the CPU only?  Looking to get i7 920. 
Do any of you have experience with dual graphics?  Does it make a difference with VUE?   Looking at single or dual ATI 4870.  Any suggestions for graphics cards?

This is a sizable purchase and I've just about made up my mind. 

There are many articles about gaming rigs, but few about 3d animation rigs.  I assume they would be similar, but still am not sure.

Thanks for any advice.

personally i find dual gfx cards to be more hassle than its worth for a number of reasons.

1 - the temperature in the case is increased as there is less airflow as the gfx cards are close together,

2 - The increase in performance i found was minimal

3- Finding drivers that actually work is difficult

4 - the cost is doubled (obviously)

5 - you are limited to one monitor, unless you are willing to mess about with driver coding

i would also steer clear from ati cards particularly with an intel chipset.

ive said it in a different thread too, but if you are buying a i7, be aware that there is a new chip called nehalem which is due for release in the first quarter of this year so i7 prices should (theoreitcally drop)

hope this helps.

Vue uses graphic cards for opengl preview only, not for rendering. For rendering, it only uses CPU (and RAM). So, if you have a very good graphic card, the only difference is that you have a very good and fast preview, nothing else. It's good for precise positioning elements on a scene, for example, but you can have an average graphic card for that, you don't need a high-end one nor a dual one.

I'm not sure about differences between rigs for 3D apps or gaming (I'm not into gaming myself) but I would say they're not similar because games typically use the graphic card intensively, Vue doesn't. I don't know about other differences.

I just upgraded to an i7 a month or so ago. I would agree with the others and worry more about ram. I would suggest a 64 bit OS also, i got Vista 64 bit and after getting used to it, i like it. I would suggest atleast 6GB of ram, especially if you use poser characters. I have 6 and have ordered 6 more. Just my 2 cents worth.

if your going with an i7 go tri channel RAM too :) i think all the i7 boards are ddr3 but if not avoid DDR2 RAM as its the older spec stuff.

take care when ordering your board what speeds your mobo can acheive on RAM coz its a pain in the arse when you get faster RAM than your board can handle.

i7 processors will only perform optimally with ddr3 moduals in sets of 3 (or 6 etc).
The motherboard has three or six memory slots, and the DIMMs will have to be installed in sets of three if you want optimal performance ot of i7.

Thank you all for your info and advice.  I will look into just a good single graphics card.  6 or 12gig of RAM is still to be decided on. 

I have some project ideas that involve 1000's of objects and just want this system to work good enough to achieve what I want.