The title pretty much says it all. Lightroom takes forever to export photos and taxes the whole system. Premier etc. also take forever. What should I be looking for when I buy a new one? I have no idea when it comes to computers as I usually just buy one for about $500 every 8 years or so and it suits me fine. This time I'm willing to spend 800-1K if it's a screaming deal. I'm no pro, but I need something better than what I have now.

I use Premiere elements and it uses the CPU, not the GPU to process video. I'm getting by with 2.5ghz i5 processor but it's running all four cores at max. I need an i7 3.6 ghz or better.

You can find good used iMacs with i7s all day long on eBay. for a grand , you can probably find one with an SSD which you need also. Look for one made 2012 or later.

You could also build a killer Windows box for under a grand.

I guess I should add that this will definitely be a windows machine.

Oh.

You need a decent amount of RAM (16 is probably fine, but 32 *might* be better), the fastest Intel CPU you can afford, and if you want GPU acceleration in Premiere, a decent GPU.

Take a look through this page, even a relatively modest GPU (by todays standards) can cut your rendering time by as 60-80% compared to rendering on the CPU only.

Unfortunately for your pocket book, the tasks you're talking about are some of the few tasks that take every bit of hardware you can throw at them, and leaving you wanting more.   For $1k, here are some ballparks...

RAM, $100
Mobo, $120
I7-6700K CPU, $350
480GB SSD, $140
Win 10 OEM, $100
Spend the other $150 on the fastest GPU you can get, going for a used one will take you farther.

I guess I forgot a case, but you can get a perfectly serviceable one for $40.

That will give you an SSD for OS/Apps, a smoking fast CPU for the non-GPU-enabled apps, and a GPU for those that will use it.  Move over your bulk storage drive from the old machine, and enjoy.  To get significantly faster than that, your costs are going to start going up a LOT faster, for much smaller gains.

$799 configuration will meet your needs nicely.

http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-8910-desktop/pd?ref=PD_Family

Look at what gamers are buying and get that.

Photo and media processing is very resource intensive. You want the best CPU you can get and a minimum of 16 gig of memory. A good video card is also helpful.
In all honesty, $500 is not going to get the job done if performance is important to you.

If you are not doing photo and media processing, $500 would easily do you for most "business" software you might ever run.

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I've started digging into one of the first links. I know I won't end up with anything fancy, but it's got to be a light year ahead of the $500 box from 8 years ago.

This,

 

Good starting point is http://www.logicalincrements.com