Servbot # 13
I wanted to thank you all for replying. Sorry I've been away! Work keeps me busy.
@:Saruwatari Kooji: While I'd love to go to a local computer shop, I don't have any. I live in a small town, where the computer is considered a majestic creature, akin to a unicorn really. Though, I have been looking around in the various towns around me to see if they have anything!
@Pubstar Hero: Thank you for the specs. I'll look into them. And at $1300? Certainly within my budget!
Unfortunately, you two seem to have gone into a conversation that boggles my mind. I'll observe a bit and try to decipher it. Haha.
If you're not interested in building the system yourself, then Pubstar Hero's list of parts doesn't help you all that much.
If you want someone else to build it (a boutique builder like
Digital Storm, or
Origin PC, etc) then you will generally be paying a premium on that product. Not only are these computers better tested than off-the-shelf systems, but they also tend to be better built, use higher end hardware, and have very good customer service and tech support. All of this is thanks to that price premium. Cheaper boutiques (CyberpowerPC, iBuyPower, etc) fail on those fronts but pass the savings along (to an extent) to the consumer. They definitely have some of the cheapest custom systems available, but with that accompanies horror stories of horrendous (as in destructive) builds and horrible customer service.
With all that said, let's look at some options.
This Digital Storm Marauder configuration comes in at $1300. Digital Storm systems come with lifetime phone support and a three year warranty, so you'd be well covered. The hardware included isn't high-end, but it's nothing to scoff at. A GTX 660 TI will handle any game very well. You won't be able to just max the settings on any and every game - there will always be games like Metro 2033 that just require absurd amounts of power. However, you will have a very good experience as the 660 TI is a very powerful card by most people's standards, and is a card you generally will not find in off-the-shelf OEM systems (ala BestBuy for example). That Core i5 is also an overclock-able processor, and since the system comes with a normal, retail motherboard you will be able to overclock it quite easily should you choose to do so.
Another good option would be the
Alienware X51. It's a compact system, and while it uses a completely custom chassis it uses mostly standard parts and was designed to be entirely user serviceable. It is also very portable making it great for LAN parties. The
$1079 configuration comes with a Core i7-3770 which is a very solid processor. It's not overclock-able (that would be the 3770
K) but that's hardly the end of the world. The graphics card is a step down from the previous Digital Storm system though - the GTX 660 isn't as powerful as the GTX 660 TI - but it's still a decent card. You also don't get as good coverage as the Digital Storm system; it comes (by default) with a 1 year warranty and phone support. To match the Digital Storm system with 3 years of coverage would bump the cost up to $1249. Alienware offers accidental damage protection though, something Digital Storm doesn't offer.
Looking around at various other boutiques, whether
Falcon Northwest or
Maingear or whoever, there definitely seems to be a trend for your price range - targeting $1300 (to leave room for a monitor and such) you can't really get anything better than a GTX 660 TI. Again, it's a good graphics card, but it's not super high end. I did find
this AVA Direct build that comes to just over $1300 when paired with a GTX 670. When it comes to high-end boutiques you are definitely going to pay for a high quality product, which is something all of these companies offer.
If you don't care about warranty or phone support, and just want to pay a company to slap some parts in a chassis, you can't deny that iBuyPower and CyberpowerPC end up being a lot cheaper.
For a point of comparison, iBuyPower has their
Revolt line coming out very soon. They are increasingly moving away from standardized hardware into more custom and proprietary designs. That makes servicing and upgrading more difficult, but it all helps reduce their costs and offer more unique products.
The Revolt chassis is similar to the Alienware X51, albeit not as small, but can be configured with much higher end hardware. Upgrade only three things in that list - 8 GBs of memory, a 500W PSU, and a GTX 680 - and you end up with a very high-end gaming machine for only $1264. Regardless of what you may think of their build quality or support, that's pretty cheap.
I hope this wall of text isn't off-putting. I'll stop typing now.