At the moment I'm looking to max out at around 1500 to 2000 USD as I want to pick up the 2011 package deal.

I definitely want this to be able to render more complex scenes/ objects/effects as what I do continues to grow and expand.

All the memory is DDR3. I'm kind of (okay WAAAYYY behind) on what the difference is.

-GecT which two processors aren't exactly compatible?

As far as the bit rate and the type of core its running I'll have to check the store and get back to you guys with that. Those are the kind of things I wouldn't think to look for. Just doing a little research on the forums led me to look for something other than ATI just because many boardmembers have reported problems/unsatisfactory performance.

Thanks again guys!