Best computer configuration (Windows7)

Hi gang,
I have been working with FF3 for about a month now and with some renders taking more than 20min, I realize it is time to get a system upgrade. Photoshop and Daz3D could do with some extra grunt too!) I run Windows 7, 64-bit.
My question is this: What system specs would best optimum for FF3? More RAM? Solid state drives for snappy disks? Quadcore? A higher-end 'gamer' graphics card? Basically, where should I invest my hard earned cash in the upgrade?
Cheers,
JS

Thanks GMM for remembering that I have put a thread about this in May 2010.

The most important thing and essential for Filter Forge is the CPU power and PERFOMANCE SPEED, and it can use as many cores as it have.

DO NOT BUY A CPU BY THE NUMBER OF CORES IT HAS !!

BUT you do not have to measure the CPU Power by counting the cores number, because this is not true at all, the new 8 cores from AMD are SLOWER than a 4 cores Intel 2600 (4 cores + 4 HT cores = 8 cores) as it shown in all the benchmarks I have seen

for example see this one here and here

a few months ago I have upgraded finally my computer and after many investigations and research in many websites and looking many benchamrks and looking at the hardware that was available and which one had a BALANCED priced and justified the price it had with the power it offers I have choosen the following hardware

Quote

MY OWN BEST CONFIGURATION CPU : Intel Quad Core i7-2600K 3.4Ghz (4 cores + 4 HT cores = 8 cores) CPU Cooling - Thermaltake SpinQ ANd choosen this after selecting MANY different ones, but should be balanced the cooling power and the sound it makes, and this has both very good. MEMORY: 16 GB in 4 Modules - G.SKILL SNIPER - F3-14900CL9D-8GBSR You do NOT need any of the higher speed if you are NOT going to make Overclocking, because there will be NO difference and will be much more expensive for nothing. Is very important to note that FF will NOT use more than 1.5 GB. BUT is interesting to have more RAM for other applications that is shared with FF at the same timne, specially Photoshop that really needs lots of RAM !!! Also is important that you MUST install Windows 7 64 BIT and NOT 32 bit for having more than 4GB RAM. Motherboard :---> Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3P (2 PCI, 3 PCI-E x1, 2 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR3 DIMM, Audio, Intel® HD Graphics Family, Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394 ) There are lots of Z68 Motherboards, even from Gygabyte itself, but comparing all of them and looking at the features, this has best of all considering the price/perfomance AND usefulness of the features. Motherboard Chipset Intel Cougar Point Z68, Intel Sandy Bridge (do not use any older chipset) System Hard drive for Windows 7 64 bit: OCZ SDD Vertex 3 SATA 3.0 120 GB. This is like paradise, as now all the software loads really quick and fast, and Filter Forge takes just 2 SECONDS TO LOAD !!! with lots of filters in the library. And all the other applications works much better and loads much faster, and Photoshop works faster too with FF. WHAT IS NOT NEW I kept my older Hard drives : 4 Drives of 2 TB (Terabytes) WD Caviar Green WD20EARS. The Caviar Black are faster, but they are more expensive and have a higher temperature and have more risk of having errors. I now ONLY trust in Western Digital for normal Hard Drives. I kept the same Graphics card as I had before and is a old one NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT (1024 MB) as I do not use any games, and for FF is NOT important the GPU because it does not have any kind of GPU optimization or acceleration, and as said by Vladimir Golovin it will not have it either in the future. I kept the same Power Supply I had before Modular NOX Krypton 800 W "80 PLUS"

Also kept the same DVD Drives


[B]INTEL HAVE JUST RELEASED THE NEW INTEL Sandy Bridge-E 6/12 Cores AND THIS MEANS CHANGE OF MOTHERBOARD[/B] as shown for example in this link

ALso has released the new i7-2700k

This is important for some things:

The price of 2600 will be lowered soon, and so it will be even better Price/Perfomance balance.

You will not be able to upgrade to a higher CPU chip becuase it seems that the newer chips will use the new SOCKET 2011 Motherboards and not the 1366 or 1155 as now.

The perfomance and speed of the new Sandy Bridge E (Enhaced) is better than the 2600 and has 4 more cores (2 + 2HT) BUT will you really see and notice this higher perfomance ?

BUT WILL THE NEW CHIP JUSTIFY THE DOUBLE VALUE PRICE ?

The problem as always is the price, as the new Intel® Core™ i7-3930K will cost about 550$ and the 2600K cost NOW about 270$

Well, from the benchmarks that are available between the i7-3930K and the i7-2600K I do NOT think that is really a better option to buy a i7-3930, because the difference is NOT double and the gain in perfomance is not much, EVEN in some tests the 2600k IS FASTER

See this link here