Built VS Buy

[pspmodandcfw]

I was going to buy a partly custimized pc (check my previous thread) then i realized it would be better to build my own (for the experience, thrill, cheaper etc), thing is i don't know where to start. I will be doing some serious image/video editing/ programming and processing on it so i don't want to cheap out on any of the good parts. Can someone tell me what kind of pc i would expect to get for ~2500 ish and if possible give me some parts that i would be looking to buy (motherboard, cpu, ram video card etc etc - new stuff)

Extra info - Im not looking for those gaming-esque cases with those flashy parts and lighting just a nice black case would do fine I want it to look professional.

Thank you for all your previous / future help in this. My first build

 

[teamo1]

You can build a very nice system that will meet your needs for $2500. Do you need everything including the monitor, keyboard, sound system, etc? You'll need to do some research to narrow it down to exactly what you want as far as performance and upgradeability in the future. I would probably start off by leaning in the direction of the new Intel Sandy Bridge chips. From there you have to research the motherboards that are compatible.

 

[pspmodandcfw]

Yep have to buy everything including Monitor etc. What are the differences between the sandy bridges processors and the i7-980x/90x ie which is more powerful and can do more processing?

 

[teamo1]

Well the biggest difference is the price. The I7 9xx extreme editions are about $800.00 more than the Sandy Bridge I7 2600K. That is about 1/3 of your budget on just the processor. I think that you would do fine with the Sandy Bridge a good motherboard and GPU.