Computer guys? What should I get?

[HyperMark]

I spent AU$600 a few month ago on:
AMD FX 8-Core 3.8GHz Black Edition Processor (FX 8150)
Gigabyte 970A-D3 Motherboard
16Gb G.SKILL ram
500Gb Western Digital HD
Samsung DVD burner
And a copy of Windows7 Home Premium(to put on the old system for my son. I'm using win7 64Bit Ultimate)
Every thing else I swapped over.
But I built a budget gaming machine (sort of, my video card cost AU$600 about a year ago).
I've been using AMD processors for years and never had a problem, and they are cheaper than Intel.
You should be able to build something cheaper than I could seeing as you dont need it for gaming.
But the better you build now, the longer till your next upgrade.

[danielk]

Jeremy, we have a microcenter? Wut.

[losikid]

Windows 7 runs faster than vista...so i'm not sure what happened in your case...and honestly your current setup is perfectly fine for browsen the web.

But for a new computer....i'd recommended

Gen 3 i5 cpu
at least 8gb ram
at least 512mb dedicated graphics memory
And a solid state drive (you'll probably have to buy it separately)

[JeremyH]

Originally Posted by danielk

Jeremy, we have a microcenter? Wut.

Ha! I drive past it about 10 times per week. More than once have I stopped in there just to look around and spent $500 in a matter of minutes...