Looking to start learning FX and am looking for a new system…will also be running RealFlow and Fume…..


Budget roughly $2000, don't need a monitor.

If that was my budget I would definetely go for one of the new intel Sandy Bridge CPU / Motherboards. They're very new, but they get great reviews and they're not terribly expensive. You would also be future-proofing to an extent. (at least until Ivy Bridge)

Some parts might be difficult to get your hands on since the tech is so new, but I'm sure it's do-able.

Try to get the i7-2600k CPU. It will turbo boost up to 3.8Ghz. If you got this mobo, it would easily OC past 4.
http://www.evga.com/products/moreinfo.asp?pn=130-SB-E675-KR [evga.com]

Newegg seems to have run out of the CPU's but amazon has them [amazon.com]. For RAM I would look at theGskill memory [gskill.com] made for Sandy Bridge (P67). It's good stuff.

HTH

Wait a while before picking up Sandy Bridge gear, there was a product recall due to some chipset SATA port problems:
http://www.pcper.com/comments.php?nid=9695 [pcper.com]

Solution quite simple:

1. to build PC based hackintosh with retail Snow Leopard OS (around $500-800)

2. donate the rest money for the lessons (ever for mine :roll: )

Good luck!