After years of setting around being an adult, I am finally going back to school for graphic design. So I need a sweet rig, for gaming... oh, uhm I mean school stuff and of course graphic design. I am not tech saavy I am more user end saavy, so can anyone recommend a good website to order from? I want to buy a powerful computer and not have to pay for a fancy case and a cool logo (I am looking at you Alienware). I have about $1500 to spend.

Please help, and any suggestions on what I should be looking for in a comp would be appreciated.

My personal recommendation would be http://www.ibuypower.com

I've gotten two PCs from them and have had zero technical issues. The one I'm using now is about 3 years old and still runs great, unlike my Alienware laptop I got a while back, which came with a faulty video card, and spent a total of about 6-8 months at their warehouse for all the crap it had wrong with it.

build your own www.newegg.com

or if your not able too..

http://www.doghousesystems.com/

Don't buy any prebuilt systems. Purchase your parts individually and not only will you get yourself the best quality parts you can afford, it will also likely cost you less than any prebuilt box.
newegg.com is great, if you are in the USA. They refuse to ship anywhere else.

What guitar said.

Tiger Direct is also great, they like to compete with newegg.

Tiger Direct is very overpriced in Canada =(

Is it? That's really sad.

Leach, I was passing through today just seeing if I could locate a few old friends and saw your thread.

Any luck on picking up a new system? I've had a number of issues with both systems I picked up from ibuypower.com. The workmanship I received was shoddy at best - I had to completely rewire the latest system, as they had absolutely no ventilation or open space for air circulation.

If you can build your own system or know a guy who will put everything you purchase together for a case of beer, go that route and pick up your parts from newegg. It really is the best way to go. If you have any specific questions, shoot me a private message and I can go over it in a bit more detail. Just don't skimp on: motherboard, cpu, ram, or harddrives. Everything else can pretty much be replaced on a whim; plug and play, if you will. Those four things are essential to pretty much anything you want to do with your PC.

i would most definately have to be a little repetitive and say newegg.com thats what i did and the system i built is running great just make sure you do your research beforehand so that you can be sure all of your parts are compatible