(way overdue) time for a new computer. Partially because still holding onto a 32-bit, 3meg limited Dell causes some new characters to freeze up and never finish rendering on firefly.

Question is... what's important - IN ORDER - and HOW much better is it? I, and maybe others, would love to know from the experts.

Meaning... i7 vs i5 might be $400 difference, but 10% rendering faster. Might not be worth it.

I read LOTS, even on these forums, and people sure differ in priorities and components.  I'd like to see a good (short) summary of required vs nice to have. For example, maybe you GOTTA have 8 meg memory to avoid swapping, but REALLY should have multiple cores to cut the render down to 60% time?

Clearly requirements and restrictions differ and must be identified, so, at least for me:

limits: <$1000 [I'm willing to build it!] (prefer 600) [anyone @2k or more likely already knows what to get and doesn't need the details to decide].

goals (in this space anyway): render hires poser/carrara comfortably without freezing or waiting TOO long.

specific questions: i7 vs i5 vs i3?  multiple cores important? quad vs duo?  8 vs 12 vs 16 gb memory?  Intel vs others?  memory speed important? cache?  SSD vs HD?  Ramdrive?   

Bonus: Places to purchase better than others? newegg? fry's (walkin)? dell?

Thanks!