For now the workstation build options are outdated here offering old hardware.  I work in the film industry and am familiar with your needs.  I use autodesk maya as well as photoshop but have only dabbled in blender.  I used to advocate getting a geforce card (which will work fine for a hobbyist) but it seems nvidia has been limiting its opengl drivers somehow with the latest geforce series to push people to get the quadro cards.  My old 480 outperforms my buddies 580 by a good margin and Ive heard other reports of this as well.

That said, dont go to amd radeons, as while there doesnt seem to be any intentional crippling, their opengl drivers are notoriously unstable for content creation apps.  Some people get lucky with them but I wouldnt risk it.

I recommend the below config and get DS to install one of these for your graphics card, as I know people with these who love em:

Quadro 4000 2GB

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133324


You can get by with a geforce 570 or 580 but performance won't be as nice as with a quadro anymore.  Quadro's can game well enough too as we used to play whatever the latest call of duty was last year at work after hours just fine, I think it was black ops and we were using last gen quadro's.


This will put you right at your budget, and later you can add more hard drives if wanted.


$2,201.00 for the below config without graphics card
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Cooler Master 942 HAF X
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 3930K 3.2GHz (Unlocked CPU for Extreme Overclocking) (Six-Core)
Motherboard: ASUS P9X79 PRO (Intel X79 Chipset) (Features USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s)
System Memory: 16GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested)
Power Supply: 750W Corsair HX (Dual SLI Compatible)
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (1TB Western Digital Caviar (7200 RPM) (Model: Black Edition)
Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x)
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card(s): - No Thanks, I will be installing my own video card(s)
Add-on Card: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 2: Corsair A70 Dual 120mm Fans High Performance Cooler
H20 Tube Color: - Not Applicable, I do not have a FrostChill or Sub-Zero LCS Cooling System Selected
Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Internal Lighting: - No Thanks
Enhancements: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: - No Thanks
LaserMark: - No Thanks
CPU Boost: Stage 2: Overclock CPU 4.5GHz to 4.8GHz (Requires Pro or Deluxe Series Motherboard)
Graphics Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Memory Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
OS Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-Bit Edition)
Recovery Tools: Windows Recovery Toolkit (Bundled with Windows 7 CD)
Virus Protection: - No Thanks
Office: - No Thanks
Game: - No Thanks
Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks
External Storage: - No Thanks
Exclusive T-Shirt: - No Thanks
Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 5-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed
Warranty: Life-time Expert Customer Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty

Okay, this looks good for the most part. I'm looking at the Quadro 4000 2GB card on Newegg and lots of the reviews are somewhat negative, complaining about how hot the card gets. Part of me wants to assume that these people put the cards in rigs that weren't designed to efficiently cool the systems, but I was wondering if you guys had any negative things to say about the Quadro 4000? And one more thing: We found that the Quadro 4000 is offered on the Digital Storm website if you were to start with the base Workstation build (under the Expert options). If I bought the rest of the computer through that 10% off promotion, would DSO let me buy the Quadro for full price and under warranty through them?

Also, say my budget were a bit closer to the $3500 - $4000 range; what kind of configuration would you guys suggest?

Thanks a bunch for the responses so far.