Was contemplating this one

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2550750

That price range is about the absolute MAX I can go. Any and all suggestions regarding this one (or in your opinion a better one, more bang for my buck so to speak) is always welcome! I'm looking for a nice higher end gaming desktop that will be able to play basically anything I would like it too lol.

I can't wait to see the build Quiz comes up with for that kind of money :)

Seriously though, why not build your own?

Was thinking about it but wouldn;t really know where to start. I've tinkered around with comps some but never really full blown put one together. I know it's not difficult. Maybe just lazy :P

In all honesty though I was looking at doing that, and started looking through all the available components and got a little overwhelmed o-o

I m just wondering why are you paying the markup from Tiger Direct when you can goto Cyber Power PC web site and get it for cheaper with more stuff?

Originally posted by Ronos

I m just wondering why are you paying the markup from Tiger Direct when you can goto Cyber Power PC web site and get it for cheaper with more stuff?

 

Because.... erm..... *insert casual excuse*.... Was looking at Canadian sites? Hehe... Fail on my part O_O

$3000 for a computer with a mid-range video card and no SSD?  There might be a use for which that makes sense, but gaming sure isn't it.

If you want to know why it's so expensive, the processor alone is over $1000.  If you need 6 cores with hyperthreading and 15 MB of L3 cache, then that processor is the thing to get.  But you're looking for a gaming desktop, not a server.  So you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between that and a Core i7-3770K that you can have for a little over $300.  Or a Core i5-3570K for $230.

On that sort of budget, have you considered going for an Eyefinity setup?  You can spread a game window across three monitors, for an enormous effective resolution.  In some games, that gives you a real advantage by letting you see more.  In others, it just looks cool.

If you're not interested in that, and don't need new peripherals (monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, surge protector), then you could get a high end gaming desktop for around $1500, or even a completely overkill gaming desktop for around $2000.  Well, if you build it yourself, that is.  If you're intimidated by the parts selection, then I could pick out parts for you.

With that kind of money to buy / build with I would personally build my own. However if you choose to buy a prebuilt and have that budget take a look at

Falcon Northwest

Digital Storm

IMO I would buy from them before I would tigerdirect. Not that its a bad system at all, i personally would rather spend the money in a company that specialized in custom builds.

I am sure if you decide you want to build instead of buy, a nice build for half the price could be put together.

Edit: and a $1k cpu for home/personal/gaming needs is uber overkill o.O

Help with the parts would be awesome. It's definitely the overload of parts that was intimidating. I had started listing some parts that I had saw looking around and intel core i7-3770k was on there, so good to know that I was kind of on the right path with it xD.

1500$ Would be great, but I do need keyboard and monitor. Have my mouse :P. But those ones I'd be able to find around here for a good price and not need to pay s/h.

Thank you for all your help so far guys :D

Edit- Also don't have a surge protector nor am I looking to go the Infinity Eye route ^^ Don't have the space for that one lol

You seem more interested in getting something that will be really, really nice than in cutting back the budget.  So let's ignore budget and get you something really high end.  All prices including shipping and before rebates:

Processor/motherboard combo deal:  $395

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1033220

Core i5-3570K is the standard high-end gaming processor.  And the motherboard is also very nice, with everything you might want and then some.

Video card:  $470

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202001

Because a Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition is the top of the line.  A Sapphire Vapor-X will have a very nice cooler, too.

Case/memory combo deal:  $159, before a $10 rebate

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1020813

Big case with all the features you might want.  And 8 GB of fast memory, because more than that is a waste.

Optical drive:  $15

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151244

Power supply:  $170

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151111

Because it's the best power supply you can buy.  Do note the promo code.

Processor cooler:  $52

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835288001

Very effective, in case you want to go for an unreasonably high overclock of the processor.  Which you shouldn't.

OS license:  $100

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

Because some games aren't terribly fond of Linux.

Solid state drive:  $210

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148443

Because a computer without a good SSD is slow.

Hard drive:  $90

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236339

Do you even need a hard drive, with such a large SSD?  If not, then skip it.  The idea is that you put the OS and your main programs on the SSD, and then they will be fast.  If you have a ton of bulk data, then you put that on the hard drive, so as not to waste SSD capacity.  In the unlikely event that you actually need more than 1 TB, get a larger hard drive.

Total:  $1661

Something else to think about is an uninterruptible power supply.  Here's a very nice one for $180:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842102133

If you occasionally have power flashes or outages or other such power "events", computer hardware really, really doesn't like that.  It wants a perfectly smooth 60 Hz 120 V sinusoidal input into the power supply.  It doesn't want to suddenly lose power when it's not ready for it (ready meaning that the computer is turned off) or have the voltage drop or go through various waveform weirdness.

The idea of a UPS is that it will monitor the electric current.  If everything is good, it just passes it through.  If something goes awry, then within milliseconds, it cuts off power from the wall and generates its own current from battery, the way your computer wants it.  That way, the computer keeps functioning normally and doesn't see whatever went wrong from the electrical utility when a tree took out a power line or whatever.  A UPS also functions as a surge protector.

This lets you save your work and shut down the computer when you're ready, rather than having it power down on its own for lack of power.  More importantly, whatever power weirdness comes from the wall doesn't reach your computer, and therefore, doesn't damage your hardware.

If you invariably had a perfectly stable electrical output, a UPS would be pointless.  If you have several power events per year where you live, I'd recommend getting one.

Another thing you might want to consider is buying more than one monitor.  The video card can run three monitors at a time, though one of them will have to be DisplayPort.  But it can use any two of the connectors at once.  Even if you're not interested in Eyefinity, having a game monitor on one window while you have a web browser showing a wiki or whatever on another can be very convenient.

One thing to add is IF you don't want to go the Eyefinity route due to limited desktop space have you considered picking up a 30" monitor?  You could take the build provided by Quiz and combine that with a Dell/Apple/HP or other brand and have just about the BEST single monitor gaming system money can buy.  If you have never experienced 2560x1600 resolution I can ASSURE you it's worth the money if you can afford it.  Not to mention the GPU he listed would really just be a waste of money if you don't push the resolution beyond standard 1920x1080 or even 1900x1200 for that matter.

http://www.amazon.com/HP-ZR30w-30-inch-S-IPS-Monitor/dp/B003RBNMJA/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1344478957&sr=8-6&keywords=30+inch+monitor

http://www.amazon.com/Dell-UltraSharp-U3011-30-Monitor/dp/B004KKGF1O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344478957&sr=8-1&keywords=30+inch+monitor

http://www.amazon.com/Dell-UltraSharp-U3011-LCD-Monitor/dp/B0046TX0VC/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1344478957&sr=8-4&keywords=30+inch+monitor

Also you can check out the following link to get an idea of what monitors are choice picks for every given price point.  Recent as of this past Spring.

http://www.hardware-revolution.com/best-monitor-spring-2012/

Thanks for the build Quizzical! Looks like it's the one I will be working towards :D I do have one question though, what do you think of this power supply? http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139011 It was a little cheaper and as of right now my total (s/h and gst/hst) is just under 2k. Probably because everything is more expensive in Canada -_-

And thank you migu for the links! I most likely will be looking into dual monitors!