1200.00 Computer Build Suggestions and Opinions Needed!?

If you really want speed power and storage, learn to use linux. It will also cut out that rediculous cost for an os. Open office is much more handy than microsoft office and easily works across platforms. Linux is lightweight, effecient and free. Of course you'd be better off with an AMD chipset and Nvidia graphics ( intel and raedon don't run as well and drivers are harder to find). I suggest you do a little more research and spend some time on newegg looking at the amd phenom II. Hex core technology at 3.6 GHZ that intelligently drops to two much more powerful cores (two combinations of 3) when raw power is needed. You can build a pretty insane box on newegg for around 800 bucks and have free software. If you're deadset on running windows programs there are multiple emulators that work well and some even take fewer resources than running the same program on a windows box. If you are going to build a box you might as well do it all the way.