Best PC for an Artist?

[Atamask]

First off I need to say I'm not looking for a tablet PC...

Now,:( :( :confused: :confused: :confused: I know basic information about computers but I'm afraid I'm not a genius to distinguish which one is right for me.

Recently my Dell dimension 8400 from 4 years ago has recently gone out on me...memory sticks blew out...operating discs aren't working..It's a complete mess, and simply "out of date" I think It's time for a new desktop. However I need to keep a budget of about $800. I need to know what's the best decision.

I tend to multitask a lot,
I play games occasionally.
I use Photohop CS4 and Flash.
Basically I need one that is good for long periods of time and has good quality in graphics.

I checked through macs and they seemed almost perfect for media and entertainment....however biased comments made me think otherwise. I read several, that stated "There's no comparison" PC's are just as capable. Of course this is true, but over the years I went through 4 PC's and they gave me nothing but trouble.

[astoroth88]

Well, generally I do hear that MAC's are the best for media purposes, so don't totally rule that out over biased opinions, my friend went to college for graphics design and he had a mac book pro and gave nothing but praise on it's usefulness for his needs and he's used PC's all his life up to that point.

If you still want to go with a pc, look for something with a good amount of RAM, and a Nvidia Quadro series video card, they're the best video card for media editing purposes and don't make half bad gaming cards. Granted they can get pretty expensive, the highest-end quadro runs 3 grand lol, but don't get discouraged they go as low as 100 bucks now days. It's all a matter of how much you wanna spend for the card vs what you need, just come to compromise on that. I would suggest going for a Core 2 Duo, or even a Core 2 Quad processor, duo's are down pretty low, and you can get a decent quad for around 180 to 200 dollars. RAM is dirt cheap now days, I can pick up 4 gigs for roughly $35 - $40 off of newegg. (DDR2 RAM of course, DDR3 is still decently high.)

[Ajmukon]

you could try a business computer.
they tend to be geared towards "graphic design"
http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/precndt?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd

i assume artist needs are very close to engineering needs. (both use high end graphic engines (engineers use AutoCAD while artists use Dreamweaver, both are about the same on resources)