My Senior Project Maya/Zbrush/gaming build. Need some advice. All opinions welcome. :)

I agree - I'm building a box right now that's an LGA 2011 socket - that socket gets you i7-4930 or e5-1650. (the latter of which I'm building right now. I'm a vfx professional)

zbrush is ok on 64 bit
I also agree with looking at Nvidia cards

I know you're not necessarily looking for recommendations on software but mudbox is easier to learn (if you only know maya) than Zbrush. Also that said, if you're getting into higher end stuff and looking at something like Mari, you're going to want Nvidia cards because the amd cards aren't supported. so you might want to go with nvidia to save yourself that possible future hassle. I have a friend who used the gtx 660 on his computer at work for a large feature film recently (i do lighting in maya for features) so you're not going to be sad with a good gtx. the 770 is a $400 card but is pretty amazing - especially with 4gb of on-board ram. you'll want that higher ram to keep things in zbrush in memory at high res.

better: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1QQXE
cons: 680 more dollars. (I know it's a lot, I think I had $800 to spend on my first box, I really do understand it's not really easy to just come up with another $700, especially in short order, but if you can wait a little, try)
pros: i7 chip and gfx 770 which is basically unmatched in value, i added a cheap but very good heatsink, i added good thermal paste for you (important also) and I **doubled** your ram to 32 gb. you'll NOT be sad. that said, go make that extra money. you'll be way happier in the end. your stuff will run faster, you won't have to overclock as hard to get results (which maya doesn't like anyway) and you'll have a more upgradable system in the end.

it's your senior project, you want pro results because that's the portfolio you show to employers. no one cares if you get an A. they do care if your stuff looks amazing. put in the time and money now. its a bit more, but it's more of a pro system. get keyboard/mouse/monitor from friends or craigslist - they're not really hard to get a hold of for free. you can totally save money that way, without sacrificing anything in terms of a really solid computer. that is, if getting a job out of school is more important than games *edit* it'll also be good at games. and yeah I guess you already have the graphics card. but you can take these as suggestions for your next box!