[Dark Sonic]

I'm graduating from college soon, and with the money I get from that plus the birthday money I'll get, the first thing I want to do is get a really good computer. I'm tired of having windows run on a Macbook pro to get Sonic Generations to chug at low resolution. Only problem is is that I have no idea on what to buy. Basically what I'm looking for is a computer that can play any perfectly play any modern PC game, run photoshop well, and have a lot of memory (So I guess a good graphics card, lots of RAM, and a big HD). I also need a good monitor since I've been using my old dell monitor since I got my old desktop back when I was 14 or something. If I can get everything for like $1000 that would be ideal.

[winterhell]

You need a PC in the lines of
Core i5-2500 /3570 -$200 for the 2500K overclock version
&GB 1333MHz random DDR3 Memory . -$60
Faster memory has zero effect in games and Photoshop relies more on CPU/GPU power and disk speed/memory size.
GeForce GTX 660 -$200
WesternDigital 2TB -$100
Those are random prices from Amazon so you may be able to find lower.

You'll need a case, psu and a mainboard on top of that.
For blast processing you may want to throw in 60GB SSD.
As for display, the korean 27" 2560x1440 IPS displays offer big bang for the buck. Try Yamakasi Catleap. Basically you get similar quality as the Apple CinemaDisplay for less than half the price.

[Foolishoverlord]

I'm in the middle of sourcing through respectable Motherboard/Processor upgrades to finish off upgrading my current Rig from Core 2 Quad/Gigabyte Motherboard, so in a way we are in the same boat. albeit I've already got my PSU/Chasis/Graphics card/SSD already purchased a few months earlier.

One thing you may want to consider, depending on when you will have this birthday money, is if the intel haswell processors will be out, reason being you might want to go for the highest generation processor, or hopefully see ivybridge processors take a dive in price as a result of the new line being released. Value in the new line could be considered negligible depending on your needs and how much of an enthusiast you are (intel seems to be focused more on optimizing mobile processors along the haswell line, but there's still about a 13-15% increase in processing power for the new line, along with the processing core optimizations etc etc. haswell seems to have a new motherboard socket type though due to the architecture change, that will affect your motherboard choice come purchase time, (new socket means you're limited to new motherboards as well as price that goes with that.) But you will be on the latest architecture path, as such you wouldn't have to upgrade for a while theoretically (once again this depends on the type of computer enthusiast you are, if at all.) If you're looking at value through over clocking then ivybridge (gen3) or sandybridge (gen2) I-series processors are the way forward, once again waiting out for the new intel processor release may garner you cheaper parts.

Another thing to think about if your going to be going for overclocking is how the different processor generations are for overclocking, sandybridge enthusiasts favour the i5-2500K for high overclocks with relatively lower thermal temperature increases over ivybridge, which tends to run a lot hotter at similar overclocks (once again due to architectural changes) the extra heat means more energy used as well as more thought over what type of cooler your using to keep your processor from burning out, but keeping with higher generation processors usually equates faster computation from the new processor design optimization alone.)



If you're not too much of an overclocker or computer building enthusiast and I've just fried your mind with all the information; I'll put it into three categories for you to make the decision easier:

a)Wait it out for the new processors, then buy the latest and greatest, thus you don't have to worry about upgrades for a long while. You'll be limited in choice but that might make the whole thing easier in general, plus you'll have the latest technological advancement to keep your rig current for a while to come (Full USB3.0 maybe Thunderbird ports, SATA 6 & SATA 3 ports, UEFI instead of traditional BIOS for secure boots) which all of these features are around now, but are a bit hit and miss depending on the motherboard you buy which is unlikely to be the case with the new motherboard releases. You'll also be on the new processor socket which will make incremental upgrades a lot easier in the future!

b)Wait for haswell processors and hope for price drops on ivybridge processor/sandybridge processors then buy your parts for cheaper prices. Decent technologies and value to boot (probably the best value choice overall same motherboard features as above if you buy the right motherboards also, but more USB 2.0 ports, maybe more legacy ports depending on what motherboard you buy.)

c)you know you want to overclock and don't want to wait so sandybridge or ivybridge processor, respective motherboard for your enthusiast specifications. If you want to keep the thermal temp down or worry less about potential burnout but still get good processing increase, hit up a sandybridge processor. The dedicated user-base can help you there also for sure. Want the newer processor and the better overall processing power, but less overclocking potential (arguably) then go for ivybridge and be at the top of this current architecture design and technology.

Both options b) and c) will limit your upgrades in the future as you'll will be using a "redundant" socket type in years to come, although there will still be plenty of support for these processors and motherboards for a while yet, your next processor upgrade will require you too upgrade everything again!

If you're looking for some motherboard choices I've currently shortlisted the following as the best value for me (I'm in the UK so you'll have to do the conversion to be sure they are in your budget) I'm looking in the £150 range for motherboard and another £150 approx for the processor (both abut $200-$230 each I think: (Links are to reviews so you can source your own best price with an informed mind!)

Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H - Great for ports, alright for overclocking enthusiasts - (Probably my buy if I'm honest)
ASUS P8Z77-V LE Plus - Nice Value runner, less USB ports on the back plate, but can be expanded with the board headers when combined with a case that has USB ports built in plus its a better overclocker compared too the Gigabyte, more efficient allegedly.

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Extra Handy Info for motherboard searching (if you don't like the look of the options above, I'm looking at the high-mid enthusiast end)
LGA Socket 1125 = ivybridge/sandybridge processors
LGA Socket 1150 = haswell processors (soon to be released Q2 apparantly, so that around June hopefully)

as for processor choice, overclocking or not right now your best value buys are (like winterhell advised):
i5-2500K (sandybridge)
i5-3570K (ivybridge)

This is regardless of overclocking or not, they just give you the best bang for your buck and can be pushed further through reliable overclocking to increase that value!

For Graphics Cards I also agree with winterhell on the Geforce GTX660 (I myself own a 660Ti from EVGA, it ran Bioshock Infinite on Triple 1920x1080 Surround Monitor settings at Ultra smooth, with a Core 2 Quad No less.) However if power consumption and noise is an issue perhaps consider the Geforce GTX650, a bit cheaper, smaller circuit board and thus lower power consumption/temperature. but its a little under-powered in comparison too the 660/660Ti/660SC models for only a little bit more in price.

I'd also say an SSD is a must, the difference between performance against your mechanical Hard drives is like night and day, I have a SanDisk SDSSDH120GG25 128GB, not the most amazing model by any means but it does the job fine. prices are good per GB as well so its a good value investment, then you can back that SSD up with a either a 2TB or 3TB drive (4TB are around but not great value yet.) If you go straight for the bigger 3TB+ hard drives and skip the SSD, remember that some motherboards that use BIOS and not UEFI for booting may not recognize the full drive capacity, or the drive at all, which means booting issues, once you're in an OS thats not so much of an issue though, but something to think about. stick to the Z77 series of mtoherboards and you should be fine, or better still look out for UEFI boards (unless your a Lunix native, but you'll already know about those issues if you are.)

Hope my little bit of research helped you a little bit! sorry its potentially OTT in content, it's all fresh in my mind at the moment is all. It's a bit over the pace I suppose, but it covers your biggest issues

[Master Emerald]

.
Don't forget the SSD drive.

I can't put it bigger. It'll make your PC much faster. HDs are slow, so buy a small SSD (32gb~64gb) put your OS on it and get an common 500GB HDD for the other files!

This post has been edited by Master Emerald: 23 April 2013 - 05:40 PM

[Ell678]

Master Emerald, on 23 April 2013 - 05:39 PM, said:

.
Don't forget the SSD drive.

I can't put it bigger. It'll make your PC much faster. HDs are slow, so buy a small SSD (32gb~64gb) put your OS on it and get an common 500GB HDD for the other files!

This. I have a 120gb SSD as my primary, which has my OS, drivers, essential stuff and then a secondary 1TB drive for all my games. It is money well spent.

[Falk]

Hilariously enough, a good reference point for the past few years has been this column that runs every month or so over at mmo-champion.com - you get four tiers of specs to choose from, with interchangeable parts a lot of the time. You pretty much have scalability without having to worry if the cooling, GPU, etc are all going to properly fit in the chassis and have enough power.

http://www.mmo-champ...e-Month-TCG-Art Latest one, 2/5 of the way down the page.