I'd like to get a reasonably powerful desktop PC which I would mostly be running CAD and Autodesk 3ds Max / other rendering programs on. Is a gaming PC reasonable, or does it make sense to get a workstation? I have read that for the most part workstations are not really necessary for home use, though they are specifically designed for CAD and rendering? Would it make any sense to build my own PC when I have no experience with it? It seems like it would be fun, but I'm not sure I really have the time to put into it.

Thanks, any thoughts would be appreciated!

Gaming PCs don't rely too heavily on CPUs (most games still run fine on the 5 year old i5 2500k) or RAM (for most games 8GB is more than enough) and instead focus on a monster GPU.

Building a PC can take as little as 45 minutes to an hour if you know what your doing, or 2 to 3 hours if you are completely brand new. Pcgamer.com has a number of recommended builds that are based on price that you might want to take a look at.

http://www.pcgamer.com/pc-build-guide-high-end-gaming-pc/

http://www.pcgamer.com/pc-build-guide-high-end-gaming-pc/

Sorry if this isn't particularly helpful. I have build Gaming PCs in the past, but CAD and Autodesk have never been something I took into consideration.

If you are looking for some kind of middle ground look into one of Asus' WS line of motherboards on socket 2011. They accept both Standard i7's and Xeons and have support for standard DDR4 memory and ECC DDR4 Memory. They are a little more costly however, what with the workstation bits and all.

Thanks. I would be doing both 2D drawings and modeling in 3D, then rendering those models. However, nothing as crazy as rendering Avatar or anything like that. Does anyone know what kind of intensity of work Workstation PCs and / or workstation hardware such as graphics cards are recommended for? Is it CGI in Star Wars kind of stuff, or does it make sense for something as simple as rendering one static image at a time?