PC Build around $1100

Depends on the exact models you are looking at ie SSD, HDD & PSU
For SSDs Samsung 840 series seem to be a popular choice for the best performance vs price
Try not to save to much on the PSU, stick to quality brand like corsair seasonic antec or similar
Gigabyte & Asus are good choices for your mobo personally i would go with the asus
Thinking the ram would be better as 2x4GB running in dual channel mode

If you plan on doing ANY overclocking, skip Haswell......it's not worth the trouble at the moment. If you can spring for it, get an i7 CPU to help rendering. Go with at least an "H" series motherboard, and if you plan on doing any real tweaking/OC'ing, you need a Z series board(Z77/Z87 depending on whether you go Ivy Bridge/Haswell). I recommend Asus as well. Always go with 2/4 sticks of RAM so you can take advantage of the dual channel architecture; a 2x4GB kit will be perfect. 1TB is the new standard in HDD capacity because you can often get them for just a few dollars more than a 500/750GB HDD, or sometimes even cheaper depending on sales. The case is subjective, but make sure you get something with good airflow, enough room for your equipment and some cable routing grommets. Spend the extra money on a 120/128GB SSD, you'll be glad you did, and they aren't that much more expensive. As far as an optical drive goes......unless you just HAVE to have one for certain programs, skip it. Pretty much everything can be done via USB flash drive these days. The power supply isn't the place to skimp because if it goes bad, it can ruin everything that's connected to it. I recommend SeaSonic and for a budget build, you can get a 500-600w PSU for $75-100. I would look into the 22-24" Dell Ultrasharps because they are great monitors with great features and you can find them on sale for about what you'd pay for a middle of the road monitor. The display is also not a good place to skimp because you spend every second on your PC looking at this piece of equipment. Don't bother with a wireless card unless there is no way you can run an ethernet cable to your PC.

If you shop smart, and maybe save up another couple weeks to extend your budget a hundred dollars or so, you can get a really nice system with quality components. Here are the components I would use.

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K
MOBO: Asus P8Z77-V PRO
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB(2x4GB) @ 1600MHz
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 760
PSU: SeaSonic G Series 550W Semi-Modular
SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB HDD
CASE: Fractal Design Arc Midi R2
DISPLAY: Dell UltraSharp 23" IPS Monitor

That adds up to about $1375, which I know is above your budget, but that is just a general list of common components that most of us have experience with and can attest to their quality. Plus, that comes with a really nice graphics card, which will help your encoding/gaming immensely. I would seriously consider something very similar to this because not only will it do what you want it to do, you won't be needing to upgrade parts for several years if at all.

Look at my system specs. Its a year old, but still current. It is what I built for my recording studio "DAW" system but it would also serve you for what you want, plus. The entire system came in under $1100.

I have a friend that builds custom audio recording and video recording systems (is a major company in this area) and he says the Intel SSD's are the most reliable.

You'll not be able to build that system now for $1100, I don't believe. Also, I had 2 Intel 520 series SSD's go bad within a day....the model with the Sandforce controller. Samsung definitely has set the gold standard in reliability.

Johnnycash, what is your point here.

Johnnycash said:

I totally agree on the fact that the recent sandforce based SSDs are far more reliable as suggested by fireberd. kbrady1979, unless you describe how you Intel 520's have gone bad, it is hard to agree upon your point. It is a world known fact that Intel 520 is a classic example especially in terms of reliability & best performances. If you want to blindly overshadow your views, I doubt if this would really work out for you!

Excuse me? I have taken the time to describe the problems with both Intel 520's on this forum......numerous times. When this happened, I read of other's having the exact same issues, although not nearly as widespread as the problems with early OCZ SSD's. I bought and paid for an Intel 520 for a new build and it went bad within a day.....RMA'd it and the replacement went bad in a day the exact same way. RMA'd that one and outright bought a Samsung 830 and haven't had a single problem. If 100% of a product I buy ends up being bad, I'm not going to recommend that product to other's. It's THAT simple.

I have nothing against Intel, in fact, the first SSD I ever owned was the Gen 2 X25-M 120GB model and it is still working flawless to this day. It should be noted, it used an INTEL controller instead of a Sandforce controller.

I'm not some idiot who can't figure out how to use an SSD correctly. I don't need you to agree with me, and I'm not trying to convince you of anything. I'm not on here spouting off about how terrible Intel SSD's at every turn for whatever reason. I bought two, and they went bad within 24 hours the exact same way........would you be able to recommend them if you were in my shoes?? Also, I can't respond to your last sentence as it makes no sense........try again.

kbrady1979 said:

I can't respond to your last sentence as it makes no sense........try again.

To address the reliability of newer Sandforce SSD's: Yes, they largely don't have the issues that plagued them a few years ago, they have worked on that, good for them. The issue is, with the options available today, why even bother with a Sandforce based SSD? A few years ago, people thought the SF drives were faster because on some benchmarks they put up good numbers. Sandforce put up good Sequential Read/Write speeds when dealing with compressible data.....incompressible data was another story. The sequential read/write numbers don't mean anything to 99% of us.....the Random 4K(Queue Depth 1) and access times are what makes an SSD FEEL so much faster than a regular HD.

There are far too many options out today that don't use SF controllers that I find it difficult to even recommend one.......unless you can get it for practically nothing. Samsung, OCZ, Corsair, Plextor, and Crucial all make SSD's without SF controllers and they are some of the fastest and most reliable ones out there.