I also thought I'd get some thoughts from other people before I buy.

I probably won't buy a PC right away, but when/if my laptop starts acting weird, I'm in the market for a desktop PC. I found a site that lets you order custom PCs. Having said that, I'd only choose a base model and alter some specs. (I don't have the time and experience to build my own, so that's out of the question.)

I'd mainly use the computer for work (freelance translator: much use of office for freaking big Powerpoint and Word files...), internet, video watching and video editing/conversion. I'd probably not play many games, and expecially not very demanding games (but I'm not sure about that yet). Last but not least, I'd like to use that PC for 5-6 years without it being outdated too fast.

So, I came up with the following specs. In terms of hardware I'm a total noob, so if I made any obvious "mistakes", please point them out.

CPU: Intel i5-2500 (QuadCore, 3.30Ghz)

RAM: 8GB (PC10600)

Video card: AMD Radeon HD5670 1GB

HDD: 2TB

Optical drive: BluRay (read only)/DVD drive

Sound: Onboard (7.1ch)

Monitor: 24'', 1080p, matte

OS: Win 7 Home 64bit

MS Office Home&Business (needed for work)

Thanks in advance for any input.

Firstly, the system looks like massive overkill and you should never try and future-proof  computer, it will come undone in 2-3 years for various reasons. I would spend much less than you're spending and do a CPU/GPU/Motherboard upgrae halfway through its lifespan: you'll save money now and end up with a faster system overall, especially since the i5-2500 is overkill for your current demands.

Even though you say you don't play games, a much faster GPU is not that much more since you're already spending that much (especially on the CPU). Something at least of the HD 5770 / GTS 450 standard.

Other than that, looks fine.

I don't know if it's really in your budget, but a PC of today benefits very greatly from a SSD drive. Makes windows much, much, much more responsive and reduces the boottimes considerably. It's the one single thing I wouldn't want to be without in a desktop system, since mechanical HDD's are hopelessly slow compared to the rest of almost any system you can get.

If possible, get an SSD.

Yeah, you should get a SSD. But SSDs are very expensive and are currently 200-300GB big. So if you need more space, just buy a second HDD with 1 TB. That should be sufficient. Oh and a importantant thing: Don't save money on the motherboard.

Thanks for the input. For me the main point in a HDD is space, so SSDs are out of the question right now. Maybe a small SDD for Windows & a big HDD for storage would be a good idea.

Thanks for the info on CPU/video card. I figured that for office work this is much too much, but I'd also like to edit HD-video, which is virtually impossible with my current system. I can just barely play 720p videos. :P

And although now I'm not interested in playing games... I might just change my mind. >_< Maybe right now I'm not playing games because my computer can't handle them.

OK, CPU makes sense then. Still, $50 extra for a better video card is something you should look at even for the possibility that games will come out you will buy OR GPU encoding of videos becomes more mainstream.

I thought I didn't play PC games and then Starcraft 2 launched. Then I stopped playing any other video games but that.

Thanks again, Soleron, for the hint about the video card. Those extra 5000 Yen won't kill me (hopefully). :)

Since video cards are something you can install in 10s, you could just not buy one and leave it with the Intel integrated ones until you see a reason.

^^^ true, video cards are the easiest to install on your PC, hardrive are harder than GPUS. with those hdd tray things. 

But dont buy an older GPU if you do thinking that oh its cheaper its will be okay. GPU's outdate faster than any other pc component, so be carefull but dont buy anything over 300 because they outdate and the price will drop.