Was wondering what is most important, ram / cpu or gfx card ?
I'll take a difffent tack on this (as I use these programs quite a bit
)
Here is the main pro's to getting a better version of each and then you can judge what you need/want.
OS - 64 bit - it does make a difference (in rendering with 3ds max 2008 - 9 has some issues - on a 64bit chip) and allows more ram usage. (I'm using Vista Ultimate 64bit)
CPU - faster the better for rendering/filters etc but will not make too much of a difference in general day to day use.
RAM - the more the better (I would recommend no less than 4GB)
GPU - Well I personally use an ATI FireGL v5600 (I couldn't fit any larger in case), theres also the quadro fx from nvidia, and it makes a considerable difference in the viewports of 3ds max, general usage its the same as a 2600xt more or less. The more expensive the quadro/firegl the faster the performance, however there's no impact to render times and also relatively little gain according to benchmarks.
Some say the 8800gt etc are ok for 3ds max but in certain scenario's it will have issues - depends more on how large the models etc are and how serious a user your gf is. They have around a 1/3rd of the performance of my v5600 in benchmarks. Photoshop will be fine with just about anything
HD's - well I have 2 fast drives with one having a seperate page file on it.
The rest of the components are upto you really.
