So, you have $4,000 USD to spend on a rig, what do you do?

[Dismayed]

I've been managing on a low budget Compaq laptop for two years now. Needless to say I've had to make some sacrifices, mainly gaming, but until now that was ok with me. It saved me money and countless wasted hours gaming, but with Diablo III just around the corner that no longer concerns me. There's more important things at stake now, like killing Hell's minions. :shifty:

My budget is up to $4,000 USD not including shipping. All items will be ordered through Newegg this Monday (04/16/12). If you guys want, I'll keep the thread updated and show the final result.

For the monitor I don't want to skimp. A 30" is a must, and I'm loving the Dell UltraSharp U3011... even with the hefty price tag and slower response. I've seen them in person and the display is just beautiful.

For the case simplicity is key. I'm bent on either the R3 or XL from Fractal Design, unless there are others that follow the same modest design philosophies that you would recommend.

Everything else is up in the air and why I'm creating this thread. As for a mouse and keyboard, I'll probably be grabbing these from RAZER but that's still to be decided and not really important.

What is important is speed. I want this computer to be stupid fast, be able to play whatever game I throw at it on high settings (along with my other day to day computing needs), and last me for the next year or two before needing any major upgrades. I'm not a heavy downloader so a large HDD isn't really needed. A single, adequately sized, fast and stable SSD for installing Windows and other software would be more appropriate. So knowing all this, what would you guys suggest?

[Lyric]

$4,000 is overkill....visit overclock.net and post your question, they will make good use of your money by spending it for you.

[tsupersonic]

You don't need to spend that much to get a powerful rig. I would stick with Intel and Nvidia. If you can wait, get the Ivy Bridge processors coming out. If you can't wait, then either get a i7 2700k or you can get an i7 3930k. For GPU, get a GTX 680 SLI setup. Motherboard, optical drives, case are all personal perference. Any decent SSD from Crucial, Corsair, or Intel will do.

[Dismayed]

I'm looking for specifics. Motherboard, CPU, etc. tsupersonic's post was the most helpful so far.

[Albert]

a macbook air. a thundebolt display. some games. and one hell of a nice partay.

[Boxster17]

Instead, I would spend $1200 on the PC, then use the $1800 to buy everyone in this thread a beer :p

You still have a grand to spend there :p

[watchthisspace]

a macbook air. a thundebolt display. some games. and one hell of a nice partay.

lol a Macbook air couldn't play s***t.

Just wait until Ivy Bridge is out and get an I7 3770K

a nice Z77 mobo

one or two 680's in SLI

A corsair 1000watt PSU

Whatever case you like

8gb DDR3 ram, or however much you want.

That Dell 30" display

Samsung 830 128 or 256gb SSD OR an OCZ Vertex 4 in whatever size.

[TokiToki]

That Dell 30" display

or 3 Dell 30" Displays :woot:... except that'll be over budget :( haha

http://www.nvidia.co...technology.html

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

If I had this budget, I would pre-order this New EVGA Z77 Motherboard (I just got the announce email earlier today), and build around it.

Hell, I can build out the rest of the comp for you, keep it well under $4000, if you feel like preordering 2 of them and sending one to me. :woot:

Seriously though, yeah I am serious. I would build around that Motherboard, as the specs on it are insane. Would get a Core i7, the best DDR3 ram possible (I tend to like Corsair myself), a damn good PSU (I lean towards Thermaltake) and if money is no option, one of the higher end Nvidia cards out right now (I personally like Nvidia's drivers).

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

lol a Macbook air couldn't play s***t.

Just wait until Ivy Bridge is out and get an I7 3770K

a nice Z77 mobo

one or two 680's in SLI

A corsair 1000watt PSU

Whatever case you like

8gb DDR3 ram, or however much you want.

That Dell 30" display

Samsung 830 128 or 256gb SSD OR an OCZ Vertex 4 in whatever size.

Yep, this is all pretty much spot on. (Y)

[TokiToki]

one of the higher end Nvidia cards out right now (I personally like Nvidia's drivers).

Particularly the new Kepler cards. TXAA seems to be the new technology that could "future proof" video cards.

[ShMaunder]

You still have a grand to spend there :p

:blush: :blush: :blush: woops :p

[Dismayed]

@DirtyLarry: You don't happen to know the release date on that motherboard do you? I didn't see it on their page. Maybe I missed it.

I'm signing off, I'll check back tomorrow for any other serious recommendations. Thanks.

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

@DirtyLarry: You don't happen to know the release date on that motherboard do you? I didn't see it on their page. Maybe I missed it.

I'm signing off, I'll check back tomorrow for any other serious recommendations. Thanks.

Nope I did not see one either, but generally speaking I have noticed EVGA tends to announce their new products a few weeks before they are actually released, so it should not be all that long. And I put it in the cart, went to purchase it, and no release date listed, they are willing to take the credit card info, so I think that means it should actually be pretty soon

[Krome]

I am also building a PC and the parts are already ordered. Here's my PC

CPU

Intel Core i7-980 Gulftown 3.33GHz LGA 1366 130W Six-Core

Motherboard

P6T Deluxe

Case

COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1

PSU

Rosewill RBR1000-M 1000W

SSD

Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2BAA 2.5" 128GB

HDD (Storage)

Western Digital Caviar Black WD2002FAEX 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s

2x GPUs (SLI)

ZOTAC ZT-40508-10L GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit DDR3

8GB RAM

All total to about 1,500 USD... The most expensive item here is the CPU... Almost 600$ :)

[capr]

As always, there is going to be 20 useless responses and 5 good ones. I am ashamed for all the people who contributed nothing, I hope to never have to deal with you in real life.

You have been waiting a long time to play games and there isn't much you can't buy with your budget. But it's stupid to buy stuff you dont' need. I will cover the major things.

CPU : You don't need the i7s. get yourself a nice i5 2500k, we have been recommending this for the past 10 months. It is great and hasn't been topped as far as bang for the buck goes. If it's important to you to say you have the i7, then just get that. Keep in mind that sandy bridge is towards the end of it's life cycle and the new ivy bridge will replace it shortly, I don't know if the wait is worth it.

Mobo : find an asus that you like.... There is H, Z, P models. Go with Z or P. differences dont' matter much to you. get Z if it's the same price and you are stuck.

Graphics : This is where all your gaming power will come from. look for ati-7950-7970. the nvidia 680 is the alternative but newegg is out of stock on these. Super nice cards if you can find it on tiger direct or amazon. PS: I wouldn't bother with SLI.

RAM : corsair or gskill or OCZ are good. 1600 is the speed you want as far as value goes. Higher is better of course but you don't need it and wont' notice difference. Get at least 8gb.

SSD : I love my agility 3 OCZ drives, vertex 3 are supposed to be faster but not to the everyday user. corsair also has some very nice ones. Get name brand and make sure it's 3rd gen. if you are conservative, a 120gb one will do fine. You can just go for a bigger one since you have the money and may not want to always pay attention to this. I have only filled up 31gb but i am conservative. Games are on a different hard drive for me.

PSU : Don't be cheap here, corsair makes the best as far as i am concerend.you dont' need more than 600watts with 1 GPU. go a little higher if you feel you may add a bunch of hard drives and a GPU later.

Monitor. I LOVE dells... Samsungs are also super nice. Spend good money here and get something you like.

Case : I LOVE the HAF X cases. make sure whatever you get is screwless, screws suck! Also make sure it has 2.5' mounting brackets or but them separately.

PM me if you have questions. I covered the big stuff.

[watchthisspace]

I am also building a PC and the parts are already ordered. Here's my PC

CPU

Intel Core i7-980 Gulftown 3.33GHz LGA 1366 130W Six-Core

Motherboard

P6T Deluxe

Case

COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1

PSU

Rosewill RBR1000-M 1000W

SSD

Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2BAA 2.5" 128GB

HDD (Storage)

Western Digital Caviar Black WD2002FAEX 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s

2x GPUs (SLI)

ZOTAC ZT-40508-10L GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit DDR3

8GB RAM

All total to about 1,500 USD... The most expensive item here is the CPU... Almost 600$ :)

I'd be using a Sandy bridge i5 2500k and a single GTX560ti than the crossfire 450's..

[Krome]

I'd be using a Sandy bridge i5 2500k and a single GTX560ti than the crossfire 450's..

yeah but I am on a budget :)

[HawkMan]

that's not the point isn't it. with $4,000, who would be dumb enough to spend it all on a freaking gaming rig.

Seems a better investment than a MacBook. Though I'd go witht he ones saying 1000 to 1200

As for all the people saying to wait for the next generation i7. Why, what's the point. He's gaming on it, there no game today making use of even half the current i7,mabe if he was buildings 3d workstation needing to do fast WIP renders in between. But for a aming rig and general workstation, jus get a current i7, it's more than you'll ever need. Just beef up on the graphics cards.

[watchthisspace]

that's not the point isn't it. with $4,000, who would be dumb enough to spend it all on a freaking gaming rig.

If you read his first post, he has UP TO $4000 to spend, that includes the monitor and peripherals.

[+devHead Subscriber²]

Whatever you buy, make sure you get a good sound card. If you're spending that kind of money, get the ASUS Xonar Essence STX sound card. It's what I have, and it is the greatest sound card in the world.

[Anthonyd]

Here is a 6k config, remove the useless crap (screens,...) and you should have 4K : http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/qir5o/build_help_building_with_the_latest_and_greatest/

[Japlabot]

Sorry for not being specific but buying now is not the right time to buy. When Z77s come out then the sweet spots will be more clear.

I have gone down the high-end gaming route to overcompensate for having ****ting hardware in the past and let me tell you that it a complete waste of money. You'ld buy brand new generation of Graphics Cards, and then 6 months later a new generation will come out and you find that all the games that come out you can only play on medium settings even though you bought a brand new top of the line card only just released just 6 months earlier. Not worth it, you are better of pacing yourself instead of buying everything in one hit. But a $1000 mid-range gaming PC now that is still decent enough to play everything you want based on reviews of that hardware with that game. When the next generation comes along- upgrade.

$300 for new generation mid-range graphics card upgrade every 6 months is a lot better than $1000 on a new generation high-end graphics card that is really more than you need for the first 6 months and then after that isn't good enough because it is the old generation. This is real future proofing, with a budget to constantly upgrade you will get good gaming performance right through 4 years, than if you bought top of the line only once which will look quite antiquated in a couple of years time.

For me I find that without a once-off or a constant upgrade budget, a PS3 or 360 fits my needs better because I know that the games coming out are going to be optimised for these consoles enough that I can pretty much play any game in good quality over many years for the once-off investment. Comes at the price of flexibility however.

[Rudy]

Probably not what you want but you asked what I would do with the $4k

• 2.7GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
  
• 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
  
• 1TB Serial ATA Drive + 256GB Solid State Drive
  
• AMD Radeon HD 6770M 512MB GDDR5
  
• Apple Magic Mouse
  
• Apple Wireless Keyboard (English) & User's Guide
  

$2,139.00

• 1.7GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5
  
• 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM
  
• 128GB Flash Storage
  
• Keyboard (English) & User's Guide
  

$1,249.00

+

Apple Thunderbolt Display (27-inch) $949.00

TOTAL: $4337 (but I get 2 machines ;))

[threetonesun]

CPU : You don't need the i7s. get yourself a nice i5 2500k, we have been recommending this for the past 10 months. It is great and hasn't been topped as far as bang for the buck goes. If it's important to you to say you have the i7, then just get that. Keep in mind that sandy bridge is towards the end of it's life cycle and the new ivy bridge will replace it shortly, I don't know if the wait is worth it.

Mobo : find an asus that you like.... There is H, Z, P models. Go with Z or P. differences dont' matter much to you. get Z if it's the same price and you are stuck.

Graphics : This is where all your gaming power will come from. look for ati-7950-7970. the nvidia 680 is the alternative but newegg is out of stock on these. Super nice cards if you can find it on tiger direct or amazon. PS: I wouldn't bother with SLI.

This, then get a nice monitor and some really kick ass speakers and call it a day.