Black friday gaming PC for a returning former gamer

[ManicMonkOnMac]

Hi,
I used to game a lot in my college days(mostly quake, we were national champs back in india, now I am in Dallas) Since, 2008 I've been on mac(i am an iPhone programmer by day), and Ive been playing some games on it on low settings but I can't go though the pain of porting and wine. I am hoping to buy a Gaming rig this black friday.

Here are a couple of machines I assembled:
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/ManicMonk/saved/2Sxv
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/saved/1FKLYG

(above two have the same config and the price difference is 300$, I am ok with paying 100$ for convenience but not 300$, especially when I don't know the brands for some of the parts they would put)

Intel machine:
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/saved/1FKM06

Also I was looking through CyberPowerPc, because now that I am employed I don't mind spending 100$ extra if that means I pre-configured PC comes home.

Here are my questions:

1. What's the best way to get the best discount on black friday? I don't mind spending the money but it feels good to know that you got a 1500$ machine for 1000$.

2. Is it better(and cheaper) to source parts from newegg etc and assemble yourself, or should I go with something like cyberpowerpc.com? (I have assembled at least a dozen pc back in my college for my friends, gf, her fronds, neighbors lol, and troubleshoot a lot more)

3. the classic question, which is better AMD or intel? Radeon or GTX?

My budget is ideally 1200$ willing to push it to 1500$, but as i said I wanna buy a 1500% machine for 1000$ : )

Games i play are Call of duty series, and I would like to play battle field too. Other games, Bioshock, Batman Arkham City, Fifa, Company of heroes. Basically I hated playing FPS on XBOX, so tarts why I am buying a PC. I want it to be future proof. And the current games I wanna play are:
Bioshock infinite, COD ghosts, BF4.

All help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Guest]

AMD is basically off brand of Intel but is cheaper. So it is up to you with your brand of Processors amd or Intel. AMD is cheaper while Intel is more. I have heard Radeon is good and is also cheaper than GTX (Nvidia).

I feel I have more fun in buying the parts and assembling them myself than playing games itself but that is just me. It is sort of cheaper buying the parts but depends on where you buy them from. Could take a look at a few other websites as well and compare the prices. While comparing also you could look at the Cyberpower Computer you were looking at to compare the price to that Rig.

My build was
I5 2500K - $220 then now discontinued.
GTX 560 - $180
500GB - Worst Idea I made - $60 - Should of went with 1TB or higher
Optical - $19
Antec 300 - $49 with Blue LED'S
Antec PSU 630watt Bronze- $60
4Gb Memory Gskill - $24 ---- Later I bought a 8GB G Skill for - $32

All came to about $900 or so overall or more. Not bothering to add but i remember it coming out to be tht much.

 

[ManicMonkOnMac]

Hi, thanks for your comments. I built the same config on pcpartpicker and cyberpowerpc and the difference was 300$ so I am thinking of assembling it myself. Can you suggest some other sites I should look at?

What games does you machine run?
I'd like to add that another goal of mine is that I don't want my machine to run out of juice for next 2 years, at least.

AMD is basically off brand of Intel but is cheaper. So it is up to you with your brand of Processors amd or Intel. AMD is cheaper while Intel is more. I have heard Radeon is good and is also cheaper than GTX (Nvidia).

I feel I have more fun in buying the parts and assembling them myself than playing games itself but that is just me. It is sort of cheaper buying the parts but depends on where you buy them from. Could take a look at a few other websites as well and compare the prices. While comparing also you could look at the Cyberpower Computer you were looking at to compare the price to that Rig.

My build was
I5 2500K - $220 then now discontinued.
GTX 560 - $180
500GB - Worst Idea I made - $60 - Should of went with 1TB or higher
Optical - $19
Antec 300 - $49 with Blue LED'S
Antec PSU 630watt Bronze- $60
4Gb Memory Gskill - $24 ---- Later I bought a 8GB G Skill for - $32

All came to about $900 or so overall or more. Not bothering to add but i remember it coming out to be tht much.

 

[Guest]

Newegg is one which you know. TigerDirect is one but i haven't used. My most used is newegg

pcconnection http://www.pcconnection.com/IPA/Shop/Product/Category.htm?CatId=203847 , office depot. I have never used pcconnection or office depot.

There is some other sites for ppl who live in europe or that since it shows euro but i stick to newegg since its based in the U.S for it fast shipping.

Wouldnt recommend office depot

Oh yeah there is another one. Rakuten but i havent used. Looked at it though. http://www.rakuten.com/

 

[Guest]

Well mine runs World of Warcraft on Ultra i think is the highest. In raids on WoW though i sort of lag when 25man team. Starcraft its Ultra. League of Legends if the highest. PlanetSide 2 i think is on Ultra but havent played in awhile. WarFrame idk wat graphics that is on. Most of the games I don't lag in though. FPS always been at 60. Ping on games is usually 80-90 unless im torrenting its at like 120 or so lol