Can you guys suggest a build for a 3ds Max / Maya and After-Effects / video editing rig under $1500? I am college student learning CS and graphic design. I am also a console gamer trying to step into the world of PC gaming. I currently have a 1080p monitor which I use for all my work and I want to be able to go to a dual monitor setup in the future. Do you think I would be better off with a 7970 or a 780 for my kind of work? Should I go with ivy-bridge or haswell or richland for that matter?
Also are there any benefits to running a quadro and geforce simultaneously where the quadro is used for modeling/rendering and gaming card is used for pretty much everything else? This video got me thinking about it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk08DHhhxc4
I would say GTX 780 due to ATI cards making alot of problems for displays, at least that is what i experienced.
As for CPU i would suggest Haswell, if it goes over budget get a AMD but with that you will have to get a good cooler due to AMD CPU's coolers are terrible.
Here. I made a build for you that would have haswell, a decent motherboard, case, power supply, and storage options with a 7970. If you built the gtx 780 it would be hard to fit high quality components in there with an ssd and 2tb of storage. The radeon 7970 is about equal to the gtx 680/770 when it comes to gaming and a little slower than those cards in rendering. All in all I think this would suit you well but feel free to edit it or anyone else try to improve the build i reccomend. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1yniV