So my current rig is getting on in age and has already had it's video card go out so I am in the market to put together a new one. I don't really keep up with the hardware trends and I have had bad luck when timing my purchases. Back when I bought my first computer with my own money, literally 3 weeks later the stores were flooded with shiny new multicores and I was stuck with a single core.

So what I am looking for:

-Price range: $1500-$1800

-A GPU that'll be able to run the latest DirectX/OpenGL APIs for a decent amount of time.

-I am starting to study 3D animation so I would like something that will work well with 3DSmax/Maya.

-Something with good Linux compatibility. I'll probably be running Xubuntu.

So any recommendations for parts? Is now a good time to buy? Anything I want to avoid?

Intel is supposed to release new motherboards that support DDR4 memory like August 29th.. not sure what the price range will be but check it out before you buy.

In my opinion the one most important part is SSDs over HDDs, followed by lots of RAM, and as always 10% below the maximum performance available is ~50% the price, so right where the price-increase goes from linear to exponential is where you want to be.

I went through the same process recently http://www.gamedev.net/topic/657645-another-building-a-pc-thread/

If going Intel, a mid-low range i7 CPU will probably give the best bang for your buck. The top-of-the-line CPUs are always ridiculously expensive.

If you want to overclock it later in life to delay upgrading, make sure you get an "unlocked" model, such as the "####K" in my thread.

The AMD FX chips are also pretty damn awesome, and cheaper if you want to save a bit of money. My other PC has an FX-8350 (eight-core) and I have no complaints other than that it is a very hot CPU -- but that is fixed by the Noctua NH-D14 fan/heat-sink that I've got on it.

IMHO, SSD's are mandatory these days Get at least a 100GB one to put Windows/Linux and your main apps (Max/Maya/etc) onto. If you want to spend more, then get a bigger SSD so you can fit games/projects/etc on there too. Then get a regular HDD for storing files (1TB+ size is cheap these days).

RAM is pretty damn cheap these days too, so you may as well go for 16-32GB, even if you only think you need 4-8

As for GPUs, for price/performance/lifespan, I'd go for a southern islands or sea islands AMD GPU, because these are extremely similar to the GPUs used by the XboxOne and the PS4, which means developers will be supporting them for a long time to come.

Sites like tomshardware give some good comparisons to find a sweet spot between getting enough performance and not spending too much money.

I'm also about to start a new build. August 29 is the Intel X99 release, so that's where my eyes are focused. For a more mainstream part lineup, the Z97s just came out and look great. One of those boards, plus an i5/i7 chip as appropriate, will do nicely. Pick a suitable GPU of your preference (I'm thinking GTX 780), and a Samsung 840 EVO for the system drive. 2-4 TB magnetic data drive, depending on your preferences. Definitely at least 16 GB of memory; I'd suggest 16 in 2x8 now so you can add 2x8 later for a 32 total.

Personally, I'm increasingly unhappy with AMD's offerings. Their CPU offerings are focused around wide multicore, which isn't that helpful. More importantly, their damned GPUs and drivers have given me no end of problems. Whether it's the poor OpenGL code, or the output jitter, or the overall stability, they seem to do badly in whatever I use them for.

When people talk about building a PC one thing always comes to mind, but I can not express it, so I will leave it up to Tim the tool time talor

(sorry bad quality, only link I could find where he said his catchphrase :( )