So you have absolutely no loans for school and you have $1600 coming to you?
If any of that is loan money then you are proving my point. That money you spend today will end up costing you a lot more by the time you pay it off. I am the head of IT/IS for a small company so I know a thing or two about computers. The problem with getting the better system is diminishing returns. You will probably get a great system for 800 dollars. $1600 will not get you twice as fast a computer. The pricey super fast stuff is going to devalue quickly. It has nothing to do with priorities. You say no computer is overkill as if $1600 is the most you can spend. I know people who have spent over $3,000 on a gaming rig. Its overkill. You want solid state drives, I can get most of the benefit with non of the downside out of a striped raid for less than half the cost. You want to see real speed. Setup a ram drive. Not that you need to. Most modern games require a killer video card more than anything else. The original poster is making a big fuss out of a bunch of factors that don't matter half as much as the video card. I stand by my statements.