i build computers, so take this with a grain of salt;

i would opt for Ram, then a solid state hard drive, then more cpu power.

i'm running 16gigs of ram, 256gig SSD, with a quad core processor. my windows boot time is less than 3 seconds from power on to login. i can run anything i want without any problems.

cost for my pc build? about $650 (not including the monitor).

what works well is any gamer system - minus the large video card. i'm using onboard built-in graphics, which is fine for audio purposes.

an example of an inexpensive gamer pc:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229285