Hey GAF, here's the build I've put together so far. I'm pretty new at this.
Current Specs: MacBook Pro lol
Budget: Around $800 not including monitor
Main Use: Maya (Animating, Modeling, Rendering), Gaming, Emulation (PS2/Wii), Photoshop, Video Editing
Monitor Resolution: Depends what kind of monitor I can get for ~$200 :/
List SPECIFIC games that you MUST be able to play: Starcraft 2 max settings would be nice. Mostly interested in PS2/Wii emulation though.
Are reusing any parts?: I have Intuos 4 tablet with a mouse. Other than that no, except maybe an ancient keyboard or something.
When will you build?: The first few weeks of June hopefully.
Will you be overclocking?: Yes
I went with a single card of 4GB RAM so I can later upgrade to 2 4GB RAM cards. I'll probably need that extra RAM for Maya and rendering, correct me if I'm wrong.
And I wanted to make the jump to the Radeon 6950, but it's $50 more and I lose out on a free game (though I dunno if I'll ever actually play that game). Is it worth it? The 6870 seems pretty powerful still and I don't care too much about running games at super ridiculous resolutions. As long as I can play most current games with high/max settings. I don't want my rig to get outdated right away though.
Also I don't know much about monitors, but I'll need one. Recommendations for a ~$200 one?