What a good comp would be:
intel 920 i7 core
ATI 4850 512 mb
6GB RAM
I'd say someone had done a really poor job budgeting if they suggested the above build. The
Core i7 processors are very powerful, but most applications there is little reason to spend so much on the CPU when compared to the GPU.
A better choice would be to get a mid-range
Core 2 Quad processor, a decent motherboard and either an
ATI Radeon 4870 or
Nvidia GTX 260 core 216. That would be a "good" comp.
For a cheaper, yet still powerful, build, you could substitute in a nice
Core 2 Duo processor and either an
ATI 4850 or an
Nvidia 9600GT.
Of course, there are also AMD dual and quad core processor available at very reasonable prices too. Not really my area of expertise, however, so I can't really help you there.
