09-02-2013, 06:22 AM
Are you doing actual gaming as in need a dedicated GPU? Or are you just doing casual web based games? If the former I recommend building your own system, it will be half the cost of a prebuilt system of the same performance. Toms hardware has configurations for a variety of budgets with up to date choices of the latest and best parts, here is the guide for their budget intel gaming rig:
http://www.tomshardware.com/system-confi...on-54.html
It only costs $650 and you would pay $1000 or more to get the same performance prebuilt, buy the parts on newegg.com
If you are just going to be doing casual gaming and web browsing then buy a Mac mini, you can dual boot windows if it makes you feel more comfortable. Its got 4 usb 3 ports thunderbolt and hdmi so you can run a monitor and hook it to your tv as well. The fusion drive is a worthy upgrade, as would be 8 gb of ram, any of the processors are more then fast enough. With the fusion drive its boots in about 15 seconds and all file access and application openings are instant.(far better performance then any of the faster processors) Get the wireless keyboard and mouse and you have a HTPC as well as a desktop. The $99 apple tv works pretty darn good as well, seeing as you can send any audio and video wirelessly from the computer. Educational discounts are not hard to get...
http://www.apple.com/mac-mini/
http://www.tomshardware.com/system-confi...on-54.html
It only costs $650 and you would pay $1000 or more to get the same performance prebuilt, buy the parts on newegg.com
If you are just going to be doing casual gaming and web browsing then buy a Mac mini, you can dual boot windows if it makes you feel more comfortable. Its got 4 usb 3 ports thunderbolt and hdmi so you can run a monitor and hook it to your tv as well. The fusion drive is a worthy upgrade, as would be 8 gb of ram, any of the processors are more then fast enough. With the fusion drive its boots in about 15 seconds and all file access and application openings are instant.(far better performance then any of the faster processors) Get the wireless keyboard and mouse and you have a HTPC as well as a desktop. The $99 apple tv works pretty darn good as well, seeing as you can send any audio and video wirelessly from the computer. Educational discounts are not hard to get...
http://www.apple.com/mac-mini/