Enough for maya,3ds max,cryengine 3?

more RAM will speed things up when you are running applications , but you can add that later
Make sure you fit a kit of 2 x2 gig , low voltage

u will need more rams. is it 32 bits or 64 bits version? If 64 bits 8 gb will do, 16 gb is better. It will pointless even if u use 32 bits version considering 4 gb, rendering engine like mental ray will crash once it reaches 2 gb limit. Note that every view port is a real time render. A powerful graphic card will allow u to use hi quality or view-port 2 more easily with more realistic lighting and shadows. So, a good graphic card is better.After all u spend most of ur times working in the viewports.

i7 is out of budget

i will add more ram

Best answer selected by tigeryeow.

How is it that you can afford over $7000 dollars worth of software but can't go from an i5 to an i7?

School id say!

Go a sandy bridge i7 2600k, a little cheaper and you'll get the 4 cores and HT. Also make sure to go 16GB, i'm also using 2 460 (768Mb) in SLI which is also pretty cheap.

I strongly advise to go a I7...

I use 3DsMax2013, Maya 2013, CS5.0 and all these components are vital if you don't want to tear your hair out.

oh yeah. I forgot that Autodesk gives out free student software

i got it free along with rest of the software

"pinhedd", all autodesk products are available freely as student versions. These r all full functional version. Only catch is water mark and a small annoying pop up when u try to save ur file which always reminds u that u r using student/free version   . U can also get it from autodesk site (student community).