Best PC to buy?
 

I'm sure this thread is somewhere on here but I couldn't find it. I am in the market for a new computer. I am not sure if I am going PC or Mac, but that's not what this thread is about. If I am full on going PC, which company is best? I've had Gateways in the past and not been insanely impressed. I've heard Dell has gone downhill quite a bit.

Also, are these new all-in-one touchscreen PCs worth a shit or are they just a gimmick?

If it helps, I'll be using the computer for film and sound editing and light visual effects as well as some gaming.

Any thoughts?


Rep to legit advice. (And probably funny advice too)

Go through one of the hundred companies that lets you select the parts they have and build it for you. That way you know exactly what you're getting and it will be easily upgradable/modifiable.

Something like http://www.cyberpowerpc.com

Depending on how computer savvy you are, assembling your own computer would be the best value. You can then customize your components to match your needs. There was a thread about custom builds are here, will have to see if I can find it.

If you are not comfortable assembling yourself, this is also a great option. The key is being able to select your parts, so you can get the best machine to fill your needs.

Whats your spending limit? Or how much do you want to spend?

Here is the thread about home built computers, might find some options in there:

http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=246652

I'd like to spend no more than 1300 or so. I can possibly go higher, but that's my goal.

I like the idea of building myself, but I'm finding the link Pants posted fairly intimidating with it's number of technical options so maybe that's a little ambitious.

That's a nice budget. Do you need a monitor?

Yeah. And I'd like it to be as close to 20" as possible if not bigger. That's a big help from an editing standpoint. Memory and a good processor are important too for reasonable rendering speed. It'll be handling pretty big video files.

Building it yourself is almost always the best way if you are willing to study up a little bit. You get quality components throughout the machine. Many times general computer manufacturers get really cheap on things like motherboards, hard drives, and memory. If you build yourself you can can use quality components that will support future upgrades and will be easy to replace if something goes bad. Also, if you build yourself you don't get a machine with a stupid preloaded version of windows and bunch of crapware.

Man you can build an absolute stud machine for that much money. I just built a $600 rig and I can't really think of anything that I wanted that I didn't include (that price excludes monitor and video card - I already had those).

Get a:

Quad Core
24"

I'm building a quad core video editing machine myself this month so any hardware recommendations would be appreciated. I'll be picking up a new CPU, Mobo and RAM. I'll need a mobo with room for a Radeon 4890 and a video capture card on the PCI-E x1 bus....not sure what to get.

Yeah, he'll need to add $200 for a solid 22" inch monitor. Not sure what kind of GPU one needs for heavy video processing and effect rendering, though.

What are the specs on your new rig, if you don't mind me asking?