For what it's worth, here are my personal guidelines for buyin a PC -

• don't overspend. High-end components are always too expensive. You pay 100% extra for 5% more performance. Buy in the middle, that's where price/performance usually is decent. Paying less for hardware will leave you some money for software, a decent chair or desk or taking your loved ones out for dinner.

* keep it balanced. Don't spend everything on an expensive processor and then save on RAM or get a cheap slow hard drive to finance the expensive high-end graphics card.

• think outside the box. My #1 most important component is the monitor, that's what you'll end up starting all the time. Second and third are mouse and keyboard. Those three impact your physical health, the rest doesn't. If you're buying a laptop,  buy an external keyboard, mouse and monitor too. Your back, wrists and eyes will thank you later.

* keep it quiet. Personally, I can't stand loud computers. When I have to focus, I don't want a loud whiny GPU fan. This may not be everyone's preference, but I rather have more silence and less performance than the opposite. What good is the best computer if sitting right next to it makes me go bonkers?

• keep it cool. Unfortunately an opposiing force to the previous point, insufficient cooling is one of the main reasons for crashes. Make sure there's good airflow in the case. When picking components, look at their power ratings. The more power they consume, the more heat they generate. And the highest end alwasy runs the hottest. Pick something that's not top of the line and it will run cooler, require less fans and be quieter.

• keep it powered. Get a good strong power supply. The other main reason for instability, small power supplies. When you have your CPU pegged at 100% for a background render, then move your preview image and stress the GPU, cheap power supplies won't be able to support that. The result can be a crash or a spontaneous reboot.

That or get an iMac.