Please sir, may I have a suggestion (or many)?

[Jacksterson]

So, after more than a year and a half of being a nomad, I have finally settled down and gotten a job out on my own (with family, lawl). I'm going to be spending my next check on a brand new computer setup. I was wondering if anyone wanted to suggest any for under $450?

I'm trying to get a gaming rig going, but I also want to design graphics and dabble into level design, and I need a printer. Hah. Plus it'd be cool if it were a laptop. Anyone got any ideas?

[SnOwBunZz]

I hope you mean 1450, because 450 isn't going to get you anything good... :|

[Jacksterson]

Dude, 'good' to me is probably a lot lower than most. the best computer i've ever had is this laptop. the sony vaio vgn-ar730e with integrated graphics. I can barely play gta 4 on lowest settings. I just want to play games man :/ I can never play games ;/

Edit: *Whoah! you're a moderator now!

[Jacksterson]

My god. I love this computer. I don't feel comfortable making it myself though.... :/ dang. I'm going to look into this.

[TreyTrey12]

You can't just save up 2 paychecks and get one that would be double or even triple fold better?

[SnOwBunZz]

The mainstream gaming rig I'd get atm would cost about 1080EUR/USD (prices are nearly thesame except for valuta sign) so I believe that'd be triple the paycheck. This is without a monitor, keyboard and mouse though.

[SnOwBunZz]

Note that I said that's something I'd get, not what I want him to get. ><

No point in spending over a 100$ in a full sized ATX case unless you're aiming to sli, cause even smaller cases supply adequate airflow to cool newer cards, and combined with a overpowered PSU that he wont even remotely saturate, well.. Thats enthusiast territory. Its also going to look like a huge living room that only has 2 pieces of furniture in it.

Case: that's personal preference. You'd probably get annoyed of a midcase like me after you get a SLI-setup. :/
As for PSU: I wouldn't get lesser than 600W in any build, even if the GPU only requires 450W.

As for the monitor, thats going to be 200$ regardless.

You can get a good screen for 160-ish if not lesser.

Rather than spending money on things he won't utilize the full potential of (like a huge case and hefty powersupply) its better he gets something more suited to what he wants to do, play games.

I can agree on the case, not so much (but still) on the PSU.