3k gaming computer

jackspeed

Distinguished
Jun 29, 2011
650
0
19,060
My brother has no more than 3k USD He wants to purchase a computer with a warranty. He DOES NOT want me to build it for him or him to build it himself so I am wanting suggestions IT has to be either 3k with office business, windows, and speakers, or I am thinking he buys those - windows on amazon for about 300. so here is what I am thinking thoughts or suggestions, customer service is important.

http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadode.asp?id=566401

I have heard of cyber power but not great things about customer service. Is this true? I am open to seeing builds from any website that has a warranty the longer the better. He wants it to be a good gaming machine, he wants a blu-ray player and wants it to be as future proof as possible for gaming.
 
Solution
Aside: $3K is a HUGE budget for a gaming system. Does he really want that or is he targeting what to spend to get a system that runs modern games on highest settings and will last a few years -- which would be more like $1K than $3K. (Ok, I'm a whimp and the first $3K system I bought was the last one I bought -- pentium 100 based).

Suggest an I5-2500 or I7-2600 based system. Video card based on your pocketbook and Tom's "best graphic cards for the money" article which shows great cards for $300. Could be built by Cyberpower or some other.

I think unless you are good with PCs and mechanicals that going for a $2500 water cooled system is not the right answer. But would certainly give bragging rights. I would avoid the extreme...

mrjellybean

Distinguished
Apr 24, 2011
60
0
18,640
Digitalstorm seems to have great customer reviews, but Cyberpower has the best prices that I've ever seen in prebuilt computers. If I were you I would take a look at avadirect. It seems to have the widest variety of parts so you can customize the PC any way you want.
 
Aside: $3K is a HUGE budget for a gaming system. Does he really want that or is he targeting what to spend to get a system that runs modern games on highest settings and will last a few years -- which would be more like $1K than $3K. (Ok, I'm a whimp and the first $3K system I bought was the last one I bought -- pentium 100 based).

Suggest an I5-2500 or I7-2600 based system. Video card based on your pocketbook and Tom's "best graphic cards for the money" article which shows great cards for $300. Could be built by Cyberpower or some other.

I think unless you are good with PCs and mechanicals that going for a $2500 water cooled system is not the right answer. But would certainly give bragging rights. I would avoid the extreme overclock versions "Overclock CPU 4.5GHz to 4.8GHz" -- you want a few years of life and stability and gaming doesn't really seem to need or use much more than stock i7-2600 performance anyway.
 
Solution