Computer question for the tech geeks
 

Hey guys so im looking to upgrade my computer. Here are the specs. thanks guys i appreciate it, ill check back later i have an interview to get ready for!! Wish me luck

Amd phenom 9850 BE 2.5ghz
MSI K9A2 platinum 790fx motherboard
4gigs ddr2 1066
500gig HD
Ati radeon hd3870 512mb

Im looking right now what would help me render/simulate faster. Heres some of the componets im looking at

CPU Is there much of a difference between this and my current one?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103471


RAM i was thinking of maxing my mobo since its dead cheap right now. which would be 8gigs

GPU do to some issue my ati is having with houdini. Im going to go with nvidia. Is there a huge diff between a game card vs workstation?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814133273

I expect ram is the biggest bang for your buck, especially since you can softmod a "low end" radeon or geforce to a "high end" firegl or quadro... (don't try the geforce to quadro in windows 7 yet :<)... look it up on google if you don't know softmodding, there's lots of stuff. Pretty sweet.

Thanks Petersrin! I will look that up. My card was fine in maya and xsi, but in houdini there can be slow view port manipulation, or almost freeze like lags.