It seems that there are atleast 2 diffrent max versions, a design one and a normal one, I might be able to get the design one really cheap, from a friend, but first I want to know, what's the diffrence betweet the two of them? I understand that the design is for architecture, but is there a real diffrence, of is it just a diffrent name with a few added functions?

So in short, should I get the cheap one, or should I buy the normal version for more money?

First, make sure you can transfer the license properly. Autodesk is very particular about reselling licenses. Contact them to make sure, before you plunk down some dough and find they won't send you a license.

The different versions explained:
http://area.autodesk.com/index.php/b...009_announced/

I think 3dsmax2008 and 2009 shipped with both versions (at least that's how our copies showed up) and rep we talked to said it wouldn't be a problem if we tried out both to decide. Then contact them and they could transfer licenses back and forth. I think the license tool even handled the jump, but I never tried it out. He also said 2009 would be the last release that allowed users to jump.

I'm not sure if we where a special case or if it was a "subscription only" kind of deal.

Pretty much the general consensus was that 3dsmax standard is for what we do and film. Design is a stripped down version, geared toward Arch/Vis. At this point there isn't much of a difference but they do have two seperate teams working on this. The regular 3dsmax team is listening to our industry & film while the Design team is listening to Arch/Vis. Moving forward the releases will start to grow apart.

So the good news is, no more garbage releases where we get a bunch of mental ray shaders and arch/vis BS. Bad news, it costs more...

It really depends on what you plan on doing with it. But considering you won't be able to upgrade Design to the regular version of 3dsmax2010 going forward I'd probably front the cash now. Or get Silo and concentrate on just modeling/texturing and stay fresh with maya and max's workflow.