Computers

[K-S-U-Wildcats!]

I know there's gotta be some computer geniuses on here, so figure Saturday night is the best time to post this. My PC died after about a dozen years. Actually pretty impressive it lasted this long.

I want to stay under $700. I'm not a gamer and I don't need a fancy graphics or sound card. I just want applications like Photoshop, Chrome, etc. to load and run as fast as possible for that budget. It seems like buying a PC is actually about the same cost of building one by the time you factor in the cost of Windows 7. So with that in mind, I'm thinking of this PC for $599 plus a SSD for another $80 or so. The PC has an i5-3570k CPU, 8gb of DDR3-1333, and two SATA 6gb/s ports (3 more at 3gb/s). I'd install the SSD to one of the 6gb SATAs and then reinstall Win 7 there.

Can I do better? Any suggestions appreciated.

[bubbles4ksu]

hemmy can help you. But you should get a mac.

[hemmy]

Building yourself is much more fun.

[K-S-U-Wildcats!]

I know. I built my HTPC because I had some very specific requirements, and it was pretty fun. Nowadays it seems a lot simpler to build a pc yourself. But by the time you factor in an OS, it's sometimes cheaper to buy something premade.

Not doing a mac on this budget. I just want a fast relatively simple desktop tower that gives me some room for a little tinkering and expansion down the road.

[puniraptor]

Do you have access to a Microcenter?

[K-S-U-Wildcats!]

Do you have access to a Microcenter?

I do. The one I've linked above is sold there.

[john "teach me how to" dougie]

That looks like a good deal. The parts and OS would cost more than $500.