Will be buying a computer and...

...Well, not ME, actually-- my parents have held back giving me a graduation gift and birthday present for this Christmas... which is a new computer :D

Originally it was going to be a 27" iMac, about 2000 bucks, but I've recently reconsidered that to go with a PC for the fact that I'm so much more comfortable with them and I could be that much more productive on one :l

Let's assume I have a budget of around 1300 bucks... (the money left over from the original 2K budget would go towards a decent camera and accessories, most likely) Do you guys have any recommendations of a good PC I could get with this kind of money? The whole package, as well-- speakers, monitor, harddrive, and I really don't care about the keyboard/mouse.

If any experienced PC buyers have great PCs that were under that amount, please let me know ;) but any people with knowledge in general of good computers please enlighten me on some good choices for my budget! :)

Don't be daunted by the change to mac, it's not that different, plus macs are infinitely more user friendly. I've had mine for 2 years and I've gotten acquainted with how comfortable it is to use, now whenever I go on PC I tend to shoot steam out of my ears.

I dunno though, it just seems like the simple functions I've grown used to (the beloved Windows key + D) is so lost, and it feels unnatural =/ for now I'm going to go with a PC; I'm guessing one day I'll make the switch, but not yet. I use them all the time at school (since they are what every lab in the Graphic Design dept. at my school provide) and they are nice, but just not what I'm looking for.

Just a good, brand spankin' new PC. :D

You had a lot of graphic design classes, are you a graphics designer? You will almost certainly be required to use a Mac at work, might as well learn to be efficient with it at home. What does Win + D do?

Minimizes all windows ;) very efficient once I start racking up the things that are opened :l

And I will be a graphic designer-- currently I am not one (well, on a very small scale), it's not required by any means in the field to have a Mac to do the work. The Adobe Suite works just as well on a PC, which is what I'll primarily use for the vast majority of the work. It's like the Mac is French and the PC is English, to me; I've learned some French, and I realize it does the same job as English, only it's a different viewpoint, and some words here and there don't exist in each other's languages. (wow, enough of the bad analogies)

I'm going to have a chance to work with Macs all through school anyhow, and I can make the switch anytime I might need to in the future. But for now I'm staying in my comfort zone; if I'm professional at the software that's distinct to both platforms, I'll be able to get into the workings of a Mac much easier. But I'm not all that comfortable with even the software yet.

I'm not trying to be PC biased at all-- I love Macs, I just don't want one right now =P

Honestly, I think you would get used to it quickly. Though with 1300 you could buy a 300 dollar computer, then another in three years when it falls apart, then another in three years when that falls apart, and still have money left over.

Yeah, plus it's more customizable in that sense.

My final decision is to build my own computer-- I've got people I'm going over with this; any of you guys have specific part recommendations?

But yes, I can build a good computer for around 600 bucks which sounds very good to me :)