I have the same original question but change the budget to around $5000
I have been currently looking at this workstation from dell for my 3d max application.
Any thoughts or changes.
My System Details
Genuine Windows® 7 Professional, No Media, 64-bit, English
Dell Precision T5500 Workstation
Dual Quad Core Intel® Xeon® Processor X5647, 2.93GHz,12M L3, 5.86GT/s
No Productivity Software
3 Year Basic Limited Warranty and 3 Year NBD On-Site Service
Precision T5500 Power Supply, C2 Motherboard
12GB, DDR3 RDIMM Memory, 1333MHz, ECC (6 DIMMS)
Desktop Chassis Configuration
1.0GB NVIDIA® Quadro® 2000, Dual MON, 2 DP & 1 DVI
C33 All SSD drives, Raid 0, 2 drive configuration
Integrated Intel chipset SATA 3.0Gb/s controller
256GB Solid State Drive,2.5
16X DVD-ROM with Cyberlink Power DVD™ No Media
No Monitor
No Floppy Drive and No Media Card Reader