New PC Advice - Not sure where to start.

[FR4NOx]

Hey everyone,

I've been wanting a computer that's capable of my needs since 2009, and back then my needs were minimal since all I played was MTA: SA, and surfed the web.

If you want to read more: (Click to View)

After a PSU and graphics card upgrade (245w to a 600w and nvidia 7050 to a GT 240) and some bus speed overclocking, I fried the motherboard in Sept 2011, so I didn't have a computer to use, especially since school had just started.

My old computer was good enough for my needs back then, these were the specs: (Click to View)

Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5300 775 (wolfdale) 2.6GHz (OC to 3.2/3.6GHz)
Mystery CoolerMaster cooler
4GB DDR2 RAM
Seagate 7200.12 750GB 7200RPM HDD, running at 5400RPM (shady OEM brand)
XFX GT 240 1GB GDDR5 OC-550->750MHz

I used to only play GTA: SA:MTA mod and LFS and ETS, maxed them all out with 60+ fps. I did edit video until Aug 2010. I wanted an upgrade from the Pentium to handle FRAPS in LFS.

Since 2009, my needs have changed dramatically. Currently I edit photos on a daily basis, I do a lot of research (meaning about 12 tabs open per Chrome window), I edit a lot of video along with recording video. I also run 2 distros of Linux (sometimes simultaneously). In the future I do want to get into programming and would be testing software on a variety of OS's in a VM. I do play more demanding games with GTA IV being the most demanding, and probably will be since most games don't interest me. I do sometimes compress large files and move them around the hard drive when I'm organizing, and I find that it normally takes about 3 hours to move 300GB and that bothers me. My laptop locks up, freezes, BSODs, and in general runs slow. I do run out of ram on multiple occasions. I want something faster that can handle whatever I want.

Laptop specs (Click to View)

Intel Core i5-2430m (HyperThreaded - 2.4GHZ - usually turbos itself to about 2.8GHz during games)
6GB DDR3 1333MHz RAM
640GB 5400RPM HDD
Intel HD Graphics 3000

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OK, enough of that. On to the interesting stuff.

I've been doing a lot of research but I haven't been sure of what CPU/GPU combo is best for me. I've looked at the Sandy Bridge processors, and while they do boast fantastic single core performance for games along with a lot of power, I'm not exactly sure if they could handle the multitasking power I desire. I'm not really sure what programs are compatible with hyperthreading in the i7's and what benefit it would be since hyperthreading takes away some power per core to power the extra threads.
I've also looked at AMD's Bulldozer platform. I've heard some good things, but generally bad things. I feel that most of the negativity towards that platform is because AMD overhyped these processors. The low cost of the 8120 (I can currently get one for $150) is appealing and I've been interested in trying something new, in this case AMD since I've only used Intel processors. The benchmarks don't look good, but from everyone I've asked that owns any of the bulldozers say that it's incredibly fast.

For a graphics card, my first one was my GT240 (my mom had a Radeon 9800PRO (dead) and a x1650 Pro (on its way out) in her old Dell) and it was really good for my needs, including the great drivers. I'd rather have an NVIDIA card since they've been more reliable than ATi card's I've used in the past (my cousin's Geforce MX 420 is still running fine, just as incredibly slow as it was new 10 years ago).

Other parts I don't care too much about, as long as they're reliable and trusted by others then I'll hop on the bandwagon.

I don't want to replace my Thermaltake TR2 600W PSU since it's only had 3 months of use on it and I don't want to do any multi-GPU configurations. I'd like an SSD as a boot device, but it's not the end of the world if I can't afford it.

I can't spend more than $800 USD, unfortunately so AMD's cheaper alternatives are appealing to me.

I'm not sure where to start for something that's right for me and my budget, and I can wait a couple of months for new hardware to be released. Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated![/b]