Where to get a new desktop

[Igantinos]

Hello I have been running on old faithful here for about 6 years upgrading him and such he was able to run most games on high graphics but lately he has been falling behind. I am probably going to have about 3000 to 3500 to spend and I am not sure were to get an okay desktop. I feel that goggling "Gaming Desktops" Will just get up a lot of cheats. I would like to play WoW on max settings and a few other games on high settings at least. That is basically all the information I have to give so please tell me where to get a good desktop.

[Cilraaz]

It really depends on where you live. I'll assume USA for the below information.

If you want to build it yourself, NewEgg has good parts at good prices (and awesome customer service).
If you want a pre-built, either iBuyPower or Cyber Power PC would be good choices.

[chaud]

If you just want to spend that much without a monitor, http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Confi...78&t=w&c=22015 will likely last you several years. The CPU might last for 3-5 years, along with mobo, RAM, etc. Only thing that might be upgraded before then is the GPU, but it is not likely that a game that can stress it will come out before then. The CPU I selected is mostly a waste of money, the i7 930 is just as good for gaming.

[Cilraaz]

If you just want to spend that much without a monitor, http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Confi...78&t=w&c=22015 will likely last you several years. The CPU might last for 3-5 years, along with mobo, RAM, etc. Only thing that might be upgraded before then is the GPU, but it is not likely that a game that can stress it will come out before then. The CPU I selected is mostly a waste of money, the i7 930 is just as good for gaming.

Bad link? That links to an $800 i7 920 build.

[chaud]

Check your noscript, it loads my config after a second.

[Cilraaz]

Check your noscript, it loads my config after a second.

D'oh! Was certain I opened up ibuypower and cyberpowerpc a long time ago.

[edit: And now that I've looked at the build, I need new pants.]

[None]

This would be my suggestion:

Case: Lian li Aluminum Full tower A70F or Cooler Master HAF 932 Full tower
Hard drive: Western Digital VelociRaptor Sata3.0(6gb/s) 600gb and Samsung F3 1tb
Video card: XFX 5970 Black Edition
Power supply: Seasonic 80+ Gold 750Watt full modular PSU
RAM: Mushkin Redline CAS6 3x2gb
Motherboard: Asus P6X58D Premium
CPU: Intel i7 930
Heatsink: Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme

Hard drives are a bit complicated here. The 600gb velociraptor has better performance in all the things that matter than an equally priced SSD that's only 128gb, the Samsung F3 is more for storage and isn't totally necessary unless you feel you need more than 600gb.
The video card is the best available right now and will play any new game you throw at it for the next couple of years at max settings.
The power supply is based on the assumption that this build is meant to plug it in and play for the next couple of years without problems. The system itself will use about 550 - 600 watts at max load with an overclocked CPU, if you choose not to overclock the CPU it'll probably use closer to 500 watts. The brand is VERY good and it's very high build quality.
The ram is the some of the best ram available, there's room to put more if you need it (12gb is overkill in my opinion unless you're looking to compile code, render images, all while playing 3 or more games)
The motherboard is very high quality, if Intel releases anymore socket 1366 CPUs it'll be fine in the future.
The CPU overclocks very well and depending on the batch can overclock just as well as the 980X, though if you want the 980X there is room in the budget to include it.
The heatsink is the best available for Intel CPUs according to many review sites, I've never used it myself but I trust all of the reviews I read.

Total cost: About $2400 depending on changes to the build.
It showed $2352.89 with both hard drives, the HAF 932 and a 3.5g syringe of Arctic Silver 5.

With the 980X it comes to about $3000, that's $500 less than ibuypower, though as Chaud said the 980X is mostly a waste of money. At the price of my build there's room to buy a few high quality monitors as well with a copy of Windows 7 and any other gaming components you may want.

[chaud]

Heh, it is cheaper to get the lowest end video card from ibuypower and upgrade from newegg yourself, saving ~$100.

[None]

Heh, it is cheaper to get the lowest end video card from ibuypower and upgrade from newegg yourself, saving ~$100.

Ibuypower might by operating under the assumption that supply for the 5970's is still really slim. I was picking up a can of air and thermal compound at a local store the other day and saw two or three 5970's in the display box behind the counter with a computer running a 5970 on display. It's ridiculous regardless of availability.

[himladinkie]

Well I just bought the most awesome computer in Holland. The ''Dominator Deluxe'' its a super tuned computer for wow. When you walk trough dalaran there is 0.0 lagg. I just have a normal 20 MB connection and still. So i really vote this computer. I bought it from www.game-computer.nl . They are selling more computers but i thought some were to expensive. Its a dutch website but they do ship to the rest of Europe more people in my guild bought computers there and now we kick ass in pvp

[chaud]

Well I just bought the most awesome computer in Holland. The ''Dominator Deluxe'' its a super tuned computer for wow. When you walk trough dalaran there is 0.0 lagg. I just have a normal 20 MB connection and still. So i really vote this computer. I bought it from www.game-computer.nl . They are selling more computers but i thought some were to expensive. Its a dutch website but they do ship to the rest of Europe more people in my guild bought computers there and now we kick ass in pvp

http://www.game-computer.nl/a-109744...minator-deluxe

Wow, assuming those are euros, you got amazingly ripped off. ~$1600 USD, the parts are worth maybe $700 at most

[None]

I'm too lazy to post the components for the build he bought for 1100 Euros from that website, but when I built it on Newegg it came to just under $800 without a DVD burner, so about 600 euros for that build. I was also being incredibly generous with decent brand parts and a fairly expensive case. Of course parts in Europe are a bit harder to come by than in North America and are therefore have a slightly higher price tag, but $800USD or 500 Euro difference is a bit big.

That was a totally bad move, if you had asked around a bit more you could have found a cheaper company that would've given FAR better performance and upgradability down the road, right now in a year or so you're going to find your computer as good as dead as far as future gaming goes.