New system around i7 2600k

The i5 2500k is pretty close in performance for $100 less, unless you're doing alot of video encoding etc

Thanx cmadrid.

The biggest problem is the video card. I have no ideea which one to choose.
Also heard about CUDA technology which makes a difference in 3D design but could not find info if a card does / doesn't support it.

CUDA is Nividia.. If you're going to go with an nvidia card I would suggest a 560ti gtx card. They are very good, and are pretty amazing in SLI if you need more performance down the road.

If you are planning on doing GPU computing like bitcoin mining or folding@home you should get an AMD 6950 2gb

Amen

Thanx for your help
I decided on the next config:

CPU: i7 2600k
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 PRO REV 3.0
Memory: Corsair Vengeance-2x4 GB 1600 MHz / PC3-12800-CL8-1.5V
Video card: GIGABYTE NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX560 SO-950 SUPER OVERCLOCK

Can I suggest against the Gigabyte 560Ti. The Gigabyte models of this card *can* be very poor in quality, losing performance or breaking very quickly, especially their highest OC version. I suggest TwinFrozr or another model of OCed card (heck even the Nvidia standard version is great.)

Nice build though   I hope you enjoy your cutting edge PC when you get it  

make sure you're getting the 560ti not the newer 560 non-ti's they're cheaper because they're slower

Thanx Nihilis.
Do you mean that I should buy
MSI GeForce N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II/OC 1GB
instead of
GIGABYTE NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX560 SO-950 SUPER OVERCLOCK
?

Price difference is 110$ so that would be a good saving. I thought I pay the extra 100$ to get the Super OC.

Get the MSI Twin Frozr II... I'm totally happy with it =) Or go for Asus or even Sparkle, as suggested above. This article above compares a few GTX 560 Ti's, Asus and Sparkle being at the top. And yes, beware of the newer GTX 560 without "Ti" - it's slower.

get the MSI card and use their software to overclock ityourself  

Thank you guys... your help is much apreciated.

For your case, I simply love the Corsair 650D. It is on sale at Amazon for $180.

http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Obsidian-Aluminum-Enthusi...

This case is the best high-end case for the money in my opinion.

There are cheaper cases available - Cooler Master 912 or Antec 300 or 600

The Raven RV02-e dominates the 650d IMO

Thankx again guys... Corsair 650D is 450$ in NZ so  
I have choosen a cheaper one Gigabyte GZ-X7 Black, ATX Mid Tower Case, No PSU, 120mm Fan, USB 2.0, Audio which is 50$ NZ.  

cool  

I like the RV02 it is a great case however it does not have the following:

1. USB 3.0
2. Sata III 6 GB/S Hot Swap drive
3. It is is not as conservative in its looks for a professional environment
4. It is a full tower and so it is much bigger - so if you want a mid-tower size it would be too big


The Raven cools better and it is a great case. I don't think it is as toolless as the 650D. It would be better compared to the CM HAF X than the 650 D or maybe the Obdidian 800D.

So it is kind of an apples to oranges comparison, except that they cost about the same.

I like the 650D for a mid-tower over the Raven because it is more up to date. Still, I can see why you like the Raven so much it is a great case.

the RV02-e does have a hotswap drive bay.. I wish it had front panel usb3.0.. the Raven RV03 does.

Hi. I don't want to confuse you but you may want to consider this. I do a lot of work in 3ds max and I have a gtx460. I noticed it performs quite poorly ind 3ds max so I did some research on the topic and found this:

It has been reported by users as well as developers that nVidia 400-series cards have severe performance problems with 3D content-creation applications such as Autodesk Maya and 3ds Max, Blender, Rhinoceros 3D—as well as some OpenGL games—to the extent that video cards two generations older routinely outperform 400-series in such applications and games. The problem, which affects any OpenGL application using textures, involves accessing framebuffer contents or storing data on the GPU. So far, one customer using an OpenGL based application got a response from nVidia support indicating that the behavior is expected in the GeForce 400 line of cards, and no software update is available to improve the performance of the hardware.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_400_Series#OpenGL_...

Knowing that the gtx 560 has pretty much the same architecture as the 460, I think it could suffer from the same problem. I have not found an answer to this question yet, however.

Is the hot swap bay Sata III compatible (6GB/s) this is important for new builds. Don't get me wrong I think the Raven is a great case and I understand why you recommend it. I love the Silverstone cases. However Silverstone has not updated them to Sata III and USB 3.0 standards to my knowledge.

I have no experience with 3DS Max. Sorry.

Hi azk.
You confused me but thank you. It is better to be confused before the purchase of the video card.
I will try and find a better solution for a video card though I have no ideea right now what should I go for.
More research has to be done.

I have done some research and guess what.. no exact answer. Well I wasn't even hoping for one but at least a close one.

ASK: When you say it performs poorly do you refer to when you work on projects in
3DS Max or when you're rendering?

I was thinking about an GTX 570 price difference here in NZ like 150 NZ$. Wondering if it's worth it.

Hi again playing_life. The viewport performance is really poor. For instance, I only have a few thousand polys in a scene and the fps drops to like 15-18 when in wireframe mode. That is definitely very low fps, considering that cards like 8800gts run millions of polys with no problems.
For GPU rendering it works great though. I guess a work around could be buying an older non-fermi card for viewport and a fermi for rendering (that is if you are planing to use a GPU based render).. Otherwise I guess you could just try to find some people who use nvidia's 500 series cards in 3d applications and ask them about the performence. Maybe the problem is fixed for the 500 series. Oh and there's always the quadro cards which are kind of pricey though...

p.s. i am currently using max 2011. As far as i know, max 2012 has better viewport performance overall.

Best answer selected by playing_life.