Alright GecT maybe I'll look around and see what I can come up with

soooo... anyone want to help me shop for my computer parts? haha

I'll help if you want. Whats your budget?

Since I'm still in the process of saving up a bit more I'm going to say $1500

Ok... So you have a Quadro FX 3450 eh? So you need PCI-E for that...

If you want good preformance with Maya, a dual or quad core should do the trick.

I prefer AMDs over Intels. There have been some problems regarding the i7s while rendering (dropping cores). Not sure if this has been fixed though. Problem with the i7s, is that the motherboards cost a fortune.

So, for a general CPU there are:
AMD Phenom X2 (Dual Core) clocked at 3.0 Ghz, for ~$88 USD
AMD Phenom X4 (Quad Core) clocked at 2.8 Ghz, for ~$140 USD

I would go with the quad core, as rendering is very computationally expensive. If you're just modeling, then the dual should work just fine. You can of course up, and lower the clock speed if you wish. The black edition is built for over-clockers, but I wouldn't think about that if you don't know what you're doing, or if you don't have money to burn.

You'll need a new fan for the new cpu, or use the stock cooler provided with the cpu.
Great fan. Quiet and cool. Big though (94 x 131 x 152 mm)

Note: You may need to buy a new case for this fan

Your old power supply should be fine. Check the connectors though on the motherboard; they might be different.

Video card: 85 W
CPU: 80 -> 95 W
= ~180 W

Your motherboard will need to be replaced as well, as the Pentium 4, and the AMD Phenom X4's have different socket types. The X4's use the AM3 socket.
* ASUS AM3 Motherboard with 4 DDR3 ram slots, 2 PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots (for multiple video cards), 2 PCI-E x1 slots, and 2 PCI slots. Comes with an ATI Radeon HD 3300 built into the board, HDMI, eSata, etc
* GIGABYTE AM3 Motherboard. Less features, but cheaper. Same amount of ram slots, 1 PCI-E x16 slots, 2 x1, and 2 pci. No onboard video.

You might be able to use your old ram. If not, you could try these:
* G.SKILL 4GB (2x2GB) (For some reason say they're for i7; will check this out)
* Crucial 4GB (2x2GB)

So right now you're looking around $450. I'll ask the tech guy at my work and see if he can make any other recommendations.

Hope this helps mate.

I can vouch for the i7... renders using all cores, at least on my machine. The pro for the i7 is the hyperthreading, so I can render with 8 virtual cores (granted, not as good as 8 physical cores, but better than just 4).

Ehh... I don't know. I don't like "virtual" things. Just like "virtual memory".

The i7's themselves may be cheap, but the motherboards can be pretty pricey.

One of these days I'll try turning off hyperthreading and do a render test to see what kind of improvements it actually makes.

My motherboard is an Asus P6T Deluxe v2, which has a lot of capacity/features. It was about $300 if remember correctly. You don't want a cheapo mobo either, cause if you have to replace that, you might have to replace everything.

thanks everyone for all the help, I really do appreciate it!!

Just overheard some of the guys at my work talking about this. It's a card that you put into your computer, that allows most machines to play 1080p video.

http://www.anandtech.com/gadgets/showdoc.aspx?i=3701

It's a mini-pcie card, but you can get converters. I'll talk to them tomorrow (today now) and see what I can do.

There is also Nvidia's PureVideo Decoder. Pretty cheap, and your card is supported. Try it here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/dvd_dec...223-trial.html

Hope all this helps mate.