Heya
video editing, digital art, and gaming. 3 things hmm.
The main thing here is bus speed not just the plain mhz or ghz as that is no longer the some factor, but the data moved per clock cycle, bit level, and processing power.
What do you have now ? Maybe some of those parts could be used.
Hard drive.
200g or larger sata hard drive at least 7200 rpm or consider 10,000 rpm, or go further and get a solid state drive.
2nd internal hard drive for storing your media, 1tb and 2tb easily avail, unless you want to use external to move the data between different computers.
CPU - dual core or quad-core. I will stick to intel and let someone more knowledgable hit AMD products.
Mine is core i5-750 quad which is only clocked 2.66ghz but the data rate per clock cycle is really good. And I haven't overclocked yet or disable 2 core to hit 'turbo'. I can game, convert vid files, download a few files, and virus scan - simultaneously. With the pc before that, just a file convert I was 'locked out' for a couple hours. The core i5-650 dual may be better for you 3.22 ghz clock and can o/c higher or 'turbo' if your board supports it. Somehow though I think you'd want a quad. Check out the core i7's for more high end and prob more performance. My build is somewhat 'casual gamer' that also works with some vid & music conversion.
Digital editing - maybe there are specialized vid cards for you. What cards are hot in that business atm ?
Any other specialized hardware ?
RAM - DDR3 1333Mhz or higher, 10666 data rate, 8 gigs. (get 2x4gb sticks for more stablility, overclockability and lower temp rather then filling all slots with 2gb sticks. Make sure it'll be compatible with your board. As always when adding ram, switching ram, or after building a new system, run the latest version of MemTest86 right away. If any ram has errors, take the defective sticks back to the store.
Video card - I'm no pro gamer but I love cod4mw and cod black ops. I went with xfx radeon 5770, pci express 16x2,
1gb of ddr5 memory onboard. ddr5 gives future compatibility, although its a 128bit bus on the card, cards with 256bit bus are now avail - go with one of those. Also consider running 2 cards in SLI mode for greater performance.
Motherboard - should be compatible to the above, USB3 is avail. 2 pci express16x2 slots would be nice for sli. Asus or Gigabyte.
PSU - 600 watt with 48 amps on the 12 volt rail that'll support 2 vid cards nicely should you want SLI.
I went with a corsair GS600.
Of cousrse serious gamer, the typical 800dpi mouse will not do. Also has low polling rate. Get a higher dpi mouse 1800 or higher. I went with ms razor habu. Razor and Logitech have some nice products. I went with the habu since it fit best in my hand. 2000dpi and high interpolling rate. Higher dpi keyboards are now avail. Just the mouse swap made a difference in control and response time, and somehow lowered my ping ! High dpi mice are also better for multiple screens or reaction time when gaming to large hi-def tv.
I'm not an expert so definately seek more opinions and do more research. Hope that start you on a good path
