A system for print designer, light gamer for $500-$650

[scav]

I was looking at building a new computer after a long time of using only a laptop. I already have a 22" lcd.

1. What is this PC going to be built for?

Print Design (Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator all running at the same time with very large files), a little gaming, general tasks like surfing the web. It will run both Windows and Mac OS X with about 70-30 on the OS X side. It is very important that all the parts work flawlessly with OS X

2. What is YOUR budget? $500-$650

3. Do YOU have any unreasonable brand preferences?

I love Lian Li cases and had one a couple of years ago, I would love to get one again. Also, I'd like an Intel processor (or is there a good case for an AMD processor?). Oh, something else, Asus motherboards always worked well for me but if there is a good case against it I can live without it

4. Have YOU performed any research yet?
sure, here and other such sources. I am not very clear about gpu's yet though. Ati or Nvidia?

5. Do YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts? I have an LCD, an IDE dvd burner and a mouse + keyboard.

6. Do YOU plan on overclocking? No

7. When do you plan to build it? 2-4 weeks

8. Where are you located? USA

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I like gaming but I have an xbox360 and will mainly use that as my gaming platform, I will however play some games on pc once in a while. I am not looking for a hardcore gaming machine just something I can play current games here and there.

The pc should be as silent as possible and I was thinking about watercooling it but I think that would be a little expensive and crush my budget so I guess I am going to steer clear of that for now, maybe later on.

Since I am a print designer I need quite a bit of memory, at least 4 GB

Thanks everyone

 

[mpilchfamily]

At that price your better off going with an OEM. Be sure to one with 4 or more gb of RAM and the best CPU you can find at that price range.

 

[batuchka]

Hmm i'd say go multicore and here is a suggested sub $6xx build
Heka BE

 

[zerogear]

I think you need to goto OSX Project and go pick out processors/motherboards there. I don't know the the parts for OSX compatible system off the top of my head, but it involves a lot of hacking and workarounds, no motherboard I know of works without some sort of hack w/ OSX. If you need flawless OSX, I suggest you go the Apple route.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: zerogear
I think you need to goto OSX Project and go pick out processors/motherboards there. I don't know the the parts for OSX compatible system off the top of my head, but it involves a lot of hacking and workarounds, no motherboard I know of works without some sort of hack w/ OSX. If you need flawless OSX, I suggest you go the Apple route.

I think a lot of *hackintosh* problems with OSX86 are getting better but like you say, most likely some annoyance, even if it is small, will creep up. I think it's less of a hardware problem than finding someone who has done the hard work for you 😛

And I think all that stuff has been moved to InsanelyMac ....