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I am interested in buying a desktop computer for using Autodesk Maya 2012 and Pixar's Renderman Studio, both high end 3D animation programs. A fully loaded 27" iMac with 3.4 GHz, 16 GB RAM, 256 GB Solid State Drive, 2TB std drive, and AMD Radon HD 2 GB will cost about $3,500, and another $1000 for a second monitor. The graphics card is new and has not been certified by Autodesk for Maya 2012. However, all of the other AMD Radon graphics cards are listed as usable but as "consumer" (translate that to "gaming") cards. Would you recommend buying the new Apple iMac for these programs or would you recommend buying a PC? One of the things that I would like to have is at least two monitors. I attend the #1 computer animation college in the US, and they recommend (and run) only PC's for these programs, They currently are using HP z800 workstation configurations with 12 GB RAM and Nividia graphic cards, or Quadro FX 4800 graphics cards. They are suggesting HP z400 for an individual user, with a Quadro 4000 graphics card and up to 24 GB RAM. (They did not mention Apple computers for these programs, but the new iMac was not out when I got this information. Interestingly, they use Apple computers for everything else at this school) If you recommend a PC, what configuration would you recommend for these programs, and what is an estimated cost. Thanks for your assistance.