[Dekker_Tifosi]

So..in december my current PC will be 3 years old. And as a fanatic gamer I can't have that ofcourse. I will be buying a new pc. Usually I configure them myself, chose all the parts, and build it myself. In the past, as student, I had a budget of around 700/800 euro's. And you would be suprised how far you can get even with that limited money. Better than some pre-manufactered €1500-2000 desktops... (and far better than €700/800 ones or laptops)

But now, I will most probably save up all the cash and buy a freakin supercomputer. These are the possible setups:
Most is in Dutch but I'm sure you'll understand

Setup #1
Basisconfiguratie:    Intel Socket-2011 basisconfiguratie
Processor:    Intel Core i7 3960X Extreme 3,3GHz (Hexa Core)
Koeler:    Enermax ETS-T40-TB processorkoeler
Moederbord:    Asus Sabertooth X79 ATX, USB3, SATA3 (maximaal 32GB DDR3)
Geheugen:    32GB 1333MHz DDR3 (10 jaar fabrieksgarantie)
Harddisk:    1000GB 7200rpm S-ATA2
Solid State Drive (SSD):    OCZ Vertex 3 Extended 240GB 550/520MB/s S-ATA3
DVD / Blu-Ray Brander:    Samsung 22x Speed DVD-Brander Dual Layer S-ATA
Cardreader:    Cardreader, met USB3.0-doorvoer in frontpaneel (kies een USB3.0 moederbord / kaart)
Videokaart:    Nvidia Geforce GTX 580 1536MB PCI-express (kies een 775watt voeding)
Netwerkkaart:    Wireless Netwerkadapter PCI (maximaal 300 Mbps)
Extra aansluitingen:    USB3.0 uitbreidingskaart met 4 poorten
Behuizing:    InWin Android ATX Midi-Tower Zwart met Grijs
Voeding:    Thermaltake TPX-875M 875watt ATX Voeding, 14cm Fan, 4x PCI-E, SLI-support, Modulair
-No keyboard, monitor, mouse etc because I have that stuff already. Also no windows/office because I can get them in other places *wink*-
Garantie:    Standaard 2 jaar carry-in hardware garantie
Overige:    Assemblage + 24 uurs burn-in test + installatie van meegeleverde software

Price: €2893,- (around $3000 for you Americans)

Setup #2 (Dell Alienware setup)



KLEUR KEUZE   Alienware Aurora ALX 875W-chassis (Matte Black)   
PROCESSOR   Intel® Core™ i7-3930K (Six Core, 12MB Cache) Overclocked up to 3.9Ghz   
BESTURINGSSYSTEEM   Legitieme Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64-bits, Nederlands   (had no choice, normally I wouldn't select it and spare the €150,-)
GRAFISCHE KAART   Dual 1GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 555 SLI™   
GEHEUGEN   8.192 MB (4 x 2 GB) 1.600 MHz Quad Channel DDR3   
HARDE SCHIJF   2 TB RAID 1 + 0 "Mirror" (4 x 1 TB - 7.200 rpm)   
OPTISCH(E) STATION(S)   8X Blu-ray Disc-rw-station (Blu-ray/cd/dvd lezen en schrijven) en 24x dvd+/-rw-station   
DRAADLOZE CONNECTIVITEIT   802.11n WiFi- en Bluetooth 2.1 EDR USB-combinatieadapter - EUR   
MEDIASTATIONS   19-in-1 geheugenkaartlezer van Alienware   
SERVICES EN SUPPORT   1 jaar Next Business Day Hardware Support inbegrepen bij uw pc   
Accessoires
AVATAR   Alienware Glow Avatar   
ALIENFX-KLEUR   Quasar Blue   
OS CUSTOMIZATION    Redefining Your Standards   
MUIS   Alienware - optische muis   (had no choice, but it's included in the price, so what the heck)
TOETSENBORD   Alienware-multimediatoetsenbord - VS/Euro (QWERTY)   (again normally I don't select keyboards)
GELUIDSKAARTEN   Geïntegreerde HD-audio met Dolby Digital 7.1   
Cables   European 250V Power Cord   
Verzenddocumenten   Western Europe Documentation (EN, FR, IT, GER, DUT)   
Standard Warranty   1 jaar Next Business Day Hardware Support inbegrepen bij uw pc   
Bestelgegevens   Alienware Aurora Order   
Mediakit voor Dell-systeem   Alienware Aurora dvd met hulpbronnen

Price €3159,- ((around $3300-3400)

Less attractive part is forced to chose a windows version + keyboard and mouse, it adds an unneccesary €250 to the price.

Setup #3

Game PC Max

    2 jaar carry-in (gratis service) (guarantee)
network:    Linksys (Cisco) 600Mbps Wifi kaart
    51-in-1 Cardreader
videocard:  Nvidia GTX 590 3GB x2 (!!)   
    Blu-Ray Brander LG
2nd hd    1000 GB SataIII Hardeschijf
1st hd   OCZ Agility3 SSD Hardeschijf 240GB
 ram   Corsair Vengeance 32 GB DDR3-1600 Quad-Kit (32 GB  :-* )
sound:    Creative SoundBlaster XFi Titanium 7.1
motherboard    Asus 1155 Maximus IV Extreme-Z (rev.3)
cooling    Waterkoeling Corsair Hydro H80
processor    Intel Core i7-2700K 3,5GHz
power:    1000W Cooler Master Silent Pro M1000
case:    Cooler Master HAF X Nvidia Edition

€ 3960.-  (almost 4400/4500 dollar)
Yeah, by far the most expensive but damn this is a BEAST. 32 GB memory + 2x 3gb Nvdia GTX 590 ...this thing could probably run 10 instances of Skyrim at the same time and STILL go too fast haha.
But yeah for this one I need to win the lottery I'm afraid, it's probably out of my price zone...

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Anyway, what I wanted to say is. If anyone also has suggestions for an extreme PC in the pricezone between €2500-€3300... that would be cool.

[Dim]

crikey, our main house pc, well lets just say the oldest part in it is from 1994

an 8gb seagate scsi drive that back in '94 cost me over £70 (its in the machine purely for swapfile), Two of the fans are from 2000, but sadly the cathode tube from 1996 died recently.

the motherboard is a gigabyte from around 2004, but it has been upgraded. Still running off a Athlon XP 2600 with 4gb ram, and a 1gb graphics  card, so it runs like a bat out of hell. Faster than any budget sub £500 pc you get in the shops.

The pentium 1 motherboard with 66mhz processor finally got binned on the last house move

Laptop -Toshiba Satellite, 6gb ram, Amd e-450 64 bit cpu, 1tb hdd, windows 7, windows 8, suse triple boot, and runs like a dream

[Dim]

as for what to spend three thousand euros on. build it yourself. obviously.

[timmy]

alienware is always over priced. build yourself imo, make an awesome setup. you could probably afford to even sli (unnecessary tho) that way.

Most importantly for the gaming aspect you'll want a really good video card anyway, imo most decent CPU's on the market are gonna be fine, games cant even make the most of said cpu.

but still, anything in that price range is gonna be pretty epic. 

[Tuart]

I've always been amused at how Dell runs Alienware.

[Ryaguas]

CPU is just important for strategy games who use A LOT of CPU... for the new games MW3, Battlefield 3, Assassins Creed Rev, Batman Arkham City, Skyrim etc... is all about the GPU...

My game pc is 4yo but is doing great with all the new games... I always played them in high resolution... ultra is too much but high is more than enough... the difference between high and ultra is not that much...

my pc is

MOBO: G33 MSI
CPU: Intel 6750 OC at 3.2
GPU: XFX GTS 250 nvidia OC edition
Ram: 4gb Corsair is an OC edition but dont remember the name...
Cooler: default
and everything else default...

I built it myself... my first GPU was an Nvidia BFG GTX8800 OC edition but had to change it last year cuz I broke it hahaha

Alienware is nice but I dont trust them... dont know why... I prefer to build it myself

[Arb]

You should definitely build it yourself again.

32GB of RAM is crazy, although maybe I'm just jealous, it would be more for the lulz than anything!

I know you want to spend that much but I couldn't needlessly drop money for very little performance gain. With those Intel CPUs you are basically paying a little for a small performance increase, and a sh*t load for the fact that it's "Extreme", look at it compared to the 3930K which is almost half the price: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

Also take a look at the high-end motherboards and see if you actually need all the "features". That Sabertooth does look nice though, not sure why it gives you 8 RAM slots when you can get 4x8GB though!

SLI does pretty well these days doesn't it? I'd consider that an option. I'd prefer to spend money on the GPU, or on an extravagant HDD/SDD setup.

[Arb]

This is what I'd do if I was going to spend around that on a top PC today, based on my own preferences.

CPU: Intel 3930K LGA2011  $600
CPU Cooler: Corsair H80 $95
Mobo: Asus Sabertooth X79 LGA2011 $330
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32GB (4x8GB) DDR 1600Mhz $300
GPU: MSI TwinFrozr GTX580 $500
HDD: WD Caviar Black 1TB 64mb Cache SATA3 $200
SSD: Crucial 256GB SATA3 $340
Case: Lian Li PC-B10 Mid Tower $230
PSU: Corsair HX850W $175

= $2770 (just used Newegg because it's the easiest place to find things, taking into account higher prices in the EU it would probably be 2.5-3k Euro).

Then $100 for a DVD drive, card reader and wireless card if you need them. I'd also spend $200 on a soundcard if that is what interests you.

To spend more I'd look at another $500 for SLI (or swap it to a GTX590), or another SSD to use as a cache drive.

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Ofcourse I'm gonna build it myself in the end anyway.

But these sites are handy for checking out setups. Building it myself will save at least €300/400.
My current PC runs everything on ultra btw. So yeah, you might ask why I want a new one next december already 

[Dim]

CPU is just important for strategy games who use A LOT of CPU... for the new games MW3, Battlefield 3, Assassins Creed Rev, Batman Arkham City, Skyrim etc... is all about the GPU...

my laptop runs mw3 just dandy with no lag or problems and thats with Intel HD 3000 graphics integrated which use up to 1gb ish of the system ram

[Zam]

One advantage i have here is i order from this shop and build my system. I am not a gamer..i only play online poker and blackjack
http://www.costtocost.in/list/pricelist.pdf

[Dekker_Tifosi]

I build my own computers as well from salland.eu

The thing is, the setups listed above are easy to make with pc builders. You at least get an idea what I want

[GreasyMonkey]

Current beast is a home-built unit, Intel i7-920 CPU, OC'd to 3.4GHz, 6 GB of RAM (DDR3 1660), huge CPU cooler & fan (Noctua NH-C12P SE14 Top-Down CPU Heatpipe Heatsink with NF-P14 Fan, http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/cpucoolers/nh-c12p-se14), a decent video card with dual 22" monitors.

As a dedicated NON-gamer, but as an electronics engineer, I use my good desktop for doing most of my design simulation work - a lot is analogue design (yeah, op-amps, etc), so the simulations chew up mega-CPU resources, and a good dose of RAM, with the Quad-core devices, usually 7 of 8CPU's allocated for sims, and they are normally going at 95 - 98%, with 4-4.5GB of RAM used too.

Ploughs through the simulations, even with multiple analogue integrators and other math-intensive circuit elements, without getting hot enough to fry eggs on.... CPU temps normally peak at 55-60 deg C, the 920 CPU can go up to 90C, so got plenty of temp headroom.

I get my bits from www. 360buy.com a Chinese mail-order place. Cost me EUR1100 for the above setup, with the displays bought locally in Spain.

[timmy]

also 32gb is absolutely overkill, no way you need that. not even close.

i agree with fermy, get a nice HDD setup, dont overspend on the cpu.

nice mobo (lots of good ones out there), sweet hdd setup, sufficient ram, good gpu, good cpu etc.

Personally I'f i spend that on a pc, i'd also want a nice case = good cable mgmt, quiet etc.