Best combination for 1,200-1500 dollars

I am asking what would be perhaps the best combination of processor, mother board and video card for 1,200 to 1,500 dollars? It's been some time since I've built a new computer (six years), and I am clearly out of the loop. I want an AMD system, something that could handle high end rendering done by Maya, Photoshop and for audio processing like in Soundbooth. I would like to link up video cards for extra power if possible. Over-clocking is not an option for me. So for the amount I've put forth, what I want to cover is only motherboard, processor and video cards. Any suggestions are welcome.