Budget multimedia PC?

Heartcloud

Beta member
Messages
1
I'm a university student and was looking for a laptop to use both at school and home, but after 5 months of searching I haven't found a single laptop that meets my needs and budget, part of the reason is that I live in Canada not the US, with much less selection and much higher prices here. So I decided that I might simply purchase a netbook for school, and a PC for home.
I use all the documenting and design software like Word and Photoshop, I compose music so I might need slightly-higher-than-average audio specs (or not, if desktop sound cards are better than laptops to start with), and I play some games as well. My GPU requirements aren't high. I know that a laptop's ATI Mobility 5650 can run Starcraft 2 on absolute highest settings with no lag, so I'd expect any low to medium range desktop GPU will do the same right? As for CPU, I prefer Intel over AMD, I think an i5 should be enough. I don't need any of the fancy stuff like extra ports or something. All I need is the standard setup, standard sound, standard number of standard ports, a GPU capable of running Starcraft 2, and an Intel CPU. Approximately how much will this cost? I'm not great with computers, so I won't be buying all the parts and building it myself, unless it's one of those customization sites like Dell where I choose all the specs and they build it and ship it to me.
Since my budget originally for the laptop was around $900, the netbook will cost around $250, so would approximately $700 for this desktop cover it? Or should I simply continue finding a $900 laptop?
Thanks for any suggestions.
 
Back
Top Bottom