Hello, first time poster, long time lurker, etc, etc. I've been wanting to start getting into modeling and painting with Maya and Photoshop, but my old laptop just doesn't cut it. I can run Photoshop without too many layers, but Maya crashes on me a lot or I get a lot of clipping when I set up image planes. I've been watching some Gnomon tutorials, but it's frustrating cause I can't follow along. I'd like to buy or build a desktop, but I don't really know anything about computer specs or what I need for modeling. I'm looking to start saving up some money and hopefully get it by June or so. Somewhere in the 2-3 thousand range.

Is your computer also too old to do a forum search?(hint)

For sure, you don't need that much money at all. 1500 will get you a very top of the line workstation if custom built (by a pro preferably)

yeah 1500 would be great, do you need a new monitor, mouse/keyboard, and speakers too?

You can easily build a nice rig with that price. I highly recommend researching hardware and builds at toms hardware as well as newegg.com if you're considering online purchasing.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...form,2469.html

Make sure you check that out if you're inexperienced in building your own PC. Good luck, you'll be running Photoshop, Maya, Zbrush, and 50 tabs of firefox browsing goodness in a matter of no time!

$599 bought the comp im using now, $15 for a craigslist 20", and ~10 mil normal poligons in zbrush and still having photoshop and maya open. bought at frys

Hmm, I've been reading up on a lot of stuff and searching the forums as Frump suggested. The link kauran posted is also very helpful. I'm thinking about picking up an extra moniter ZacD. I had an old one, but it broke when I moved and I miss having dual screens for my painting references, especially since i have a 15 inch screen on my laptop. Thanks to all those who replied!

Perna had a nice workstation build thread a while back: http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=64997

I succumbed to temptation on a Fry's Electronics run yesterday, and purchased the necessary components for a new rig. After mail-in-rebates, I spent no more than $325 on it after tax. I have an extra monitor at home, so that did not figure into the price. It's not a 733+ system, but I'm going to use it as a Linux box so that I can learn more about Linux servers. (web designer/programmer by day) I assembled it last night, and I'm going to install Ubuntu on it tonight. (64-bit version) Now I finally have everything I need for true cross-platform development.