Buying new computer soon... no idea what to get

So I really need to upgrade from the computer I've been using for the past six years.  It was custom built in 2004 for $700 and has an AMD Athlon 2.1 with 1 gig of RAM and XP.  I've recorded five full albums with it and I'm happy with how it's lasted, but I need something better to keep up with the video and audio work I'm doing.   This old girl is definitely slowing down...   I was amazed to browse through a catalog and gasp at what I can get for $700 today... a terabyte hard-drive, 8 gigs of ram, quad-core, etc.  So given about the same amount of money spent ($700-800), I'm fully confident that what I'll end up with will be leaps and bounds beyond what I have now.  But that being said, I really have no idea about what I should be looking for...  I don't want to just grab the first thing I see with good sounding specs, if it's not necessarily going to be a good fit for audio/video work.  I was in a store the other day where a salesman was excitedly showing me these computers with i5 and i7 systems as if I should be oohing and ahhing but I was just nonplussed, because I don't know if that's really what I want.

In any case, I'm looking for some recommendations.  I'll be using Vegas Video 9 and Sonar 8.5 and Adobe Audition 1.5.   I suppose a good graphics card for the video work would be essential, but again, I have no idea what's good as far as that goes.  I'll also be upgrading my audio card, so whatever comes with a system for audio probably isn't important.  I could either have something built, or just buy an existing system if there's something ideal that has a good deal going currently.

Thanks much for your input!

I agree with "The Hydrilla" go for the intel chip - I find the AMD chip fans very noisey whereas the Intel standard fan is much quieter.  Don't bother about those fancy chip fans.  I find the Gigabyte x58 Motherboards one of the best around they have a firewire plug as well.  All those young gaming geeks tend to love the X48, x58 machines as they have lots of slots and provision for lots of periferals.

Definately try to build you own system, its easy.

There is a new standard called USB3 and is backward compatable with past standards and much faster bus. You don't really need 2 x $1000 video cards, just a mid priced one with lots of video ram to take load away for CPU and system RAM.  Check to see if your programs can utilise multiple processors because more cores does not mean faster works. 

Buy as much system RAM as possible and check the max amount that the Motherboard can take. Mine takes a max of 8 Gigabytes of RAM - some of the newer versions perhaps more.  Finding 2 x 4 Gigabyte DIMM sticks is a hassle though. Check how many pair or triple slots on board - mine has 4 DIMM slots but can only use 2, for because some ram is DDR2 and some DDR3. From most reports the DDR2 is very capable and a lot cheaper, and in hindsight, good quality #2 is better than cheap #3.

Windows 32bit has a max headroom or 4 Gigabytes but Windows 64bit is sqillions of RAM limit.  Hard drives have a limited life, and 7 year olds are risky business.  Gigabyte
Motherboards come with a very good manual and have great online resources.  I built my machine with 4 drives in a RAID array and notice a 50% read / write increase.

When doing a transfer from old to new, search around for dedicated transfer cable to move across all your files and settings.

My advice to clients when they ask about buying a new PC is "buy overkill" (more than you think you need). 

My home built PC is using a Thermatake CPU cooler and the fan "idles" most of the time around 375 RPM.  I have a Q6600 and they generally run around 36 deg C for each core and rarely get above 40.

I'm using an Antec "ninehundred" case that is sold as a "gamers" case with two front fans, a top fan and a rear fan.  It is quiet and with all the fans,  components run cool including the hard drives that are mounted behind the two front fans.

robinmarkk


Always buy high quality computers with latest configuration. The latest computer configurations are :

1) Processor : Intel P4 Core 2 Duo E6550 2.33 4MB/1333 CPU
2) Memory : 1GB (2x512MB) DDR2-667 RAM
3) hard disk drive : 80 GB (SATA)
4) 16X DVD+RW SuperMulti SATA
5) Sound card : Realtek ALC262 integrated high definition audio with internal speaker
6) Keyboard : PS/2 standard keyboard
7) Mouse : USB optical scroll mouse

It this a joke, or are you speaking to us through a time warp from the distant past?

I have a feeling robinmarkk is not from around these parts.

My Dell laptop configuration :

- Processor Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
- Motherboard Asus P5K-VM
- HDD WDC WD5000AAKS SATA 500 GB
- RAM 2 GB Corsair 800 MHz
- SMPS + Cabinet Cooler Master
- Monitor Samsung 740NW 19”
- DVD RW Samsung Black
- Keyboard + Mouse Microsoft
- Graphics Card Palit ATI HD 2600Pro Super
- UPS APC 650 VA

My Acer Aspire 4736Z Laptop Configuration :

# Intel Pentium mobile processor T4200
# Supporting Intel 64 architecture
# Mobile Intel GL40 Express Chipset
# Dual-channel DDR3 SDRAM support
# 3GB of DDR3 1066 MHz memory
# 8x DVD Super Multi Double Layer Optical Drive
# 14-inch LCD display

My Hp G62-140US 15.6-Inch Laptop configuration.

-1) 2.13GHz Intel Core i3-330 Processor
-2) 4GB DDR3 System Memory (expandable to 8 GB)
-3) 320GB Hard Drive (SATA)
-4) LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support
-5) 15.6" Diagonal High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1366x768)
-6) Intel HD Graphics with up to 1696MB Total Available Graphics Memory
-7) Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
-8) Battery life is 3.75 Hours

Intel i5 750
4gb ram
ASUS MB w/ PCI slots for expansion
2 SATA drives 350gb & 1TB
Tower case, cooling fans, 750w PS.
Basic dual head video card
No sound card. Using the Saffire Firewire interface.
OS=XP
Very fast, very quiet. Built for around $800 reusing my old flat screen 19" monitor.