It depends on the tasks you are going to do.
Cycles can render with your cpu or gpu.
Gpu based render engines are faster, but limited to the Vram.
They are faster, because a Gpu can handle more Threads than a Cpu while rendering.
Gpu render engines only can use the Gpu Storage (24gb with a Quadro M6000)
Most common used Gpu based render engines are Octance, Redshift, Moskito and Cycles.
I think V-ray got a gpu support as well.
Most of the Gpu render got an IPR mode which is absolutely great for previewing.
Redshift is a little bit different. It can use the main storage and is not limited to Vram.
For example a typical Redshift Workstation got 4x GTX970's.
Like wizardy mentioned, what are you going to do?
I'm using V-Ray, Mantra(Houdini), Corona and Renderman from Pixar.
In my case is a Cpu based system way more important, because I'm making large scaled explosions and
other visuals.
Sorry for any written mistakes, my english is not the very best.