Bulding a high-end graphics workstation for school

[Dante_Caligari]

Once again, I have been put in charge of a project at school.
Our lab was recently broken into and the school is looking into replacing some of the machines that were stolen. However, my computer teacher is also leaving the option open of just building one BIG computer for Video Editing, Photoshop, Video Capture, Audio Processing, Programming, & Robotics.

A friend with more time than I suggested:
E6600
ASUS 680i
7950GX2
2GB Kingston

Whereas I suggested:
E6700
ASUS P5B Wi-Fi
ATI FireGL v5200
2GB Corsair Dominator

...and no, unfortunately, nVidia's Quadro® Plex 1000 is too expensive.

What do you guys recommend? I have always just built Gaming computers and never really worked with any of the Quadro or FireGL cards. At the moment, I am unsure of budget, but I will estimate at ~2000$.

 

[dave39]

I would go with your suggestion man. The video card that you have chosen is more dedicated to what you need it for. The video card that your friend chose is made for gaming. That cpu and RAM would kiss serious @ss.

 

[hmammen]

I would go with your suggestion man. The video card that you have chosen is more dedicated to what you need it for. The video card that your friend chose is made for gaming. That cpu and RAM would kiss serious @ss.

i agree totally.....getting a 7950GX2, while still a great card, would not get the maximum performance out of the computer you selected for editing and what not.

 

[Dante_Caligari]

Does anyone know what a good model of the FireGL or the Quadro I should recommend? I have heard that there is not too much difference between a 7800GTX and a FireGL v5100, but I haven't ever used one so I would not know.

Edit: Relevance.