[kaiserz]

the k is unlocked for overclocking. No sense getting a good Mobo unless you will overclock.

Make sure and get a nice aftermarket CPU cooler. Your temps will be lower, and the system will be quieter. $24 well spent.
XIGMATEK LOKI SD963 CPU Cooler bracket included dual fan push pull compatible - Newegg.com

Never mind, didn't notice there was a second page to this when I posted.

Is it true that when you get an aftermarket cooler the cpu's warranty would be void?

[kaiserz]

Thanks guys! I can't thank you all enough! I learned a lot here, and this rekindled my fascination on building computers again. My budget who I liked to keep down at 500 went to 800 and up to 1k!!!! That's crazy! After talking to myself, I did remind myself that I don't have enough money for the overkill set-up, but to me, if I'm gonna build something I wanted it to be good, and I wanted it to last me at least 3 to 4 years.

@northofpolaris I was originally gonna go with your set-up, I showed it to a friend of mine, and we had a long talk hehe. (I'm still considering it now )
@gda13 & interested_observer Thanks guys! I learned a lot from you guys. interested_observer you were my voice of reason, I was almost ready to pull the trigger haha

But here's what I'm planning right now. I'm thinking of just getting a cheap laptop

Probably this guy Amazon.com: Acer Aspire V3-551-8469 15.6-Inch Laptop (Midnight Black): Computers & Accessories

or I can go up a lil and get this guy
Amazon.com: Acer Aspire V3-571G-6407 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black): Computers & Accessories
or
Amazon.com: Acer Aspire V3-771G-6851 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black): Electronics

Or go over kill and get this guy!
Acer North America Online Store - Aspire V3-771G-9809 Notebook (Windows 8) <--- is on sale right now and is very tempting! hahah, but I'll probably stick to the cheapest one.

Anyway my main problem is that they're running Windows 8, and I hate windows 8... So I'm gonna look around my local bestbuy and costco tomorrow if I can get a cheap deal on W7 laptops, if not I'm just gonna build a desktop, I don't like the idea of getting w7 so I can put it on those laptops... I'm still planning on building my main work desktop in the near future, but for now I might just get a laptop so I can take it with me anywhere I go.

If you guys have any suggestions for a good cheap laptop please let me know.

Thanks!

[northofpolaris]

I have the Acer Aspire Timeline which is a gen behind the second Acer you listed... This thing is a beast and is awesome. The one you're looking it as even more awesomer. I'd recommend it.

[kaiserz]

I really want to get it... but it's running windows 8 and that's gonna set me back $100 for a windows 7 D:

[northofpolaris]

I haven't had any experience with Windows 8, but, isn't it possible to get rid of all the semi-tablet gobbledigook and just have it run like Windows 7?

[gda13]

Haha...you finally decided laptops are definitely useful and with HDMI can easily be connected to a monitor for serious image editing. They all look capable enough...incidentally we bought my wife's father the previous version of the cheapest one on your list last year and its actually pretty good. He uses it primarily for video transcoding, encoding, editing and converting and he's more than happy with it. This year he wanted a second one to keep at his office but with a larger 17" screen and ended up with a Toshiba with Win8(almost unavoidable now)...so while setting it up for him (installing programs he uses, removing bloatware etc...) I got to mess around with Win8. Not impressed...but it is usable in general so long as you keep in mind the start screen is supposed to take the place of the start menu. There's more to it than that of course but that seems to be one of the biggest problems people have I guess. Anyways good luck and let us know how it works out!

[gda13]

Couple of options to deal with that cheesy metro/tablet UI start screen....

Review: Start Menu 8 is a free Windows 8 Start Menu par excellence | PCWorld

Help! I’ve got Windows 8 and I miss my Start menu! | Ars Technica

[interested_observer]

Evening,

The problem with PCs is similar to camera bodies, and that is that they are eventually going to go to 0 value sometime. They are a depreciating asset. Here on the kitchen table, I am using a little HP netbook for a couple of hundred. Under powered with a small screen - absolutely, but I can take it with me to review images immediately (when I travel), and it works out pretty good. Note, I said review - not really post process. Down in my office, I have a Dell no name - pretty underpowered box from Costco that I picked up for $500. I did pop in a low end graphics card to help it along, and it does pretty well with Oloeno, LR4 and Bibble Pro 5. So, its not the fastest, but it does all right.

At work, I have a real small (form factor) Dell laptop because I just got tired of shlepping a large brick through the airports that weighs a ton. In my lab, I have the absolute fastest that Intel and AMD want to provide me for evaluation, along with a ton of servers paired with custom builds and network infrastructure, for special projects.

Now after having said all of that - on a budget, building your own system is really fun, but the bottom line is that Windows costs $175 bucks - that is a tax. Adding that on top of the hardware turns a $500 box in to a $700 box. The box makers get their Windows OEM for a lot less (on the order of $20), along with a lot of pretty cut rate parts in large quantities. Thus, the bottom line is that you can get a pretty powerful box, 4 cores, 8 GB along with 1T of storage out the door at $500 with Widowz. No graphics since it is built into the processor chip. An i3 or i5 has plenty of CPU power to brute force LR4. You can get a cheap $50 graphics card to possibly help with post processing, but the money would probably be better spent on an IPS monitor.

The laptop is yet another good idea. Asus and Toshiba are good brands. Building your own Laptop can be a real chore. We have done it at work for various reasons - special projects. prototypes, etc. You run into the same problems with laptops in terms of cost - it spirals up pretty quickly.

Where custom builds really shine is with Linux, since the distributions remove the Windoz tax. When you couple that with tuning your specific processing needs you can do very well. Trying to bring a custom build in at a $500 price point is pretty difficult, when you go down to Costco or wherever and start comparing raw functionality on cost.

Going up to something like a $700 - $800 cost, does give you sufficient margin to start to customize on a very powerful system. My son during Christmas - coupled with some really excellent sales, nailed an extremely nice system. Also, being a student, he was able to download windows for free (Microsoft essentially gives away software to students for nothing to hook them on their products when they go out to work). Thus, there is no OS tax.

[gda13]

Yep student rates are definitely a way to decrease the cost if your able to take advantage of them. For example the computer store at the university where I am taking classes offers Win 8 or 7 both 32/64-bit on physical disk media for a reasonable $14.95 and guess what the stock piles of Win 7 are dwindling. Also I was able to get a nice discount on LR4 from adobe and a really nice discount on CS5 (~$35 total price!) right before the introduction of CS6. If you're not a student maybe you know someone who is. Otherwise you can just try to get used to Win8...many have with varying degrees of success (though I am not one of those).

@interested_observer ...I will be firing off a pm to you a bit later regarding NAS setup, Bibble Pro 5 and dual booting a linux distro with Win, each on their own ssd.