System for 3d design and game design

[aldrinstorm]

I'm starting up a small game design studio for the purpose of creating 3d games for both the computer and smartphones.

I'm needing to buy a couple computers for the engineers and I don't want to go with dell because they never seem to show the performance that I need.

I'm a home builder, but have been out of the loop (not built a machine in 2 years) on what parts work well together.

Could some of you help me out to create a couple machines that could handle 3d rendering and game programming well.

Right now im running an outdated system:
Geforce 8800 GTS 512
2gb ram
intel core 2 4300 1.80ghz (i know its old)

Software that will be ran is:

Unity3d 2 (upgrading to Unity3)
Blender 2.53

And must be good at running dual monitors

Price limit on tower alone is $1000 (less expensive would be preferable)

Please let me know of some good builds or if there are some prebuilt systems that are equally good

 

[Proximon]

I think you need to establish the GPU first and then the rest will follow. Can you get by with a 5770 or are you going to need a V5800? A GTS 250 or a Quadro FX 1800?

I'm no graphics person and my programming days were long ago, but I believe it all comes down to poly count.