Youtube is your friend. Also, have a look around whirlpool.com.au. It is an Australian forum but it is fantastic for this kind of thing. Just do a search and read some posts.

My little brother built an incredibly high-end PC that didn't cost more than 1400 bucks.

Blunt answers? Only in Washington or Colorado.

...Oh, I'd guess around $1000 or so, maybe a bit less. I think my $700 laptop should be able to run it, if not at max, so I'd say for a desktop bump the price up a little bit. I think the more difficult thing will be finding Windows 7 computers next year.

Depends what components you need. Do you need mouse, keyboard, monitor, optical drive? If so, your costs are going to obviously be higher. If you don't need those particular components, then I'd say you're looking at 1300 to 1500 dollars at least.

Here's about what I'd expect the breakdown to be:

Case: $100-150
PSU: $100-150
Motherboard: $100-200
CPU: $200-300
GPU: $300
HDD: $100 (tack on another $100 if he wants a second drive, or up to $200 if he wants an SSD)
RAM: $50
Optical Drives: $30
Soundcard (optional): $50-100
Windows: $100
Monitor: $200-400
Mouse/Keyboard: $50
Speakers: $50-100

Total: $1480-2250

If a person already has peripherals they can use it can drop the cost significantly. Skipping optional components (sound card, second HDD/SSD), along with stepping down a notch or two on CPU and GPU can also drop the cost by several hundred. All this taken together can very easily drop the cost into the sub-$1000 range that you mentioned. However, something to also keep in mind is that if people are looking to run their games at higher resolutions (greater than 1920x1080) then running at those resolutions with everything maxed can take some high-end hardware. 1920x1080 and below and you can usually max most games without having to go much over $1000-1300 for your hardware.

Same here, although I opted for a lower powered laptop, so obviously that can't keep up. But it's been years since I paid more than $500 for a computer. I'll then proceed to upgrade the GPU some time later to keep up.

Then again, I'm not obsessed with maxing out settings and for what I paid, I could upgrade about every 18 months or so and still probably come out ahead.

But, I realize there are people who have to max out their settings. Personally, I always thought those settings were there for gamers of the future with more powerful machines, not a challenge to spend $650 on a GPU.

Also it will depend if you go Intel/Nvidia or the much cheaper AMD/ATI route....and how particular you are in regards to brand and what not.

I got sick and tired of AMD and ATI over the last couple of years and finally switched although the cost was double. Am I happier, very much so, but you may be better off going AMD/ATI if you are looking at a more budget minded route as my CPU/Motherboard/GPU cost $1000 without anything on top of that and I had access to a free SSD, Powersupply, Ram to offset that.

Secondly peripherals can also hit you in the wallet if you have to have particular types, but if not...shop on a budget, newegg is a great site for good overall deals and price ideas.

Since the last couple of posts mentioned them, does anyone build desktops with optical drives anymore? I don't think i have touched a PC DVD in years.

And just now i realize that i have had my laptop for two years and i have never, never once opened the disc tray.

I did a couple years ago.

Edit: Which reminds me, I have a drive I need to salvage...

Depends on if you wanted your gaming pc to also function as an HTPC\Media Server like I did. If you go that route a Bluray drive is absolutely essential to the build.

Well, for starters I am going to take a different path here from what the majority is suggesting since you have indicated you don't want to build a computer. So long as you are aware and I am guessing you are at this point, that you will pay a substantial premium for a quality turnkey solution that is fine. It's your choice, your time, your preference and your money. I think you should do whatever you damn well please personally. It's good people have pointed out the options but you should not feel compelled to build a computer just because all the cool kids do it for example. They are right actually. It really is not very difficult generally speaking but at the end of the day, it is your computer not theirs and your money and time, not theirs. So do what you please is my suggestion here.

That said, Alienware is a popular choice for a quality gaming rig that just works out of the box and comes with a comprehensive warranty which you probably can and may want to extend if the price is something you feel is reasonable for the peace of mind. I would expect to pay somewhere around $2,000. or more, maybe even $2,500 for an Alienware that meets your requirements. You can look them over for yourself and custom configure them for yourself and see what price totals come to at their website.

Unfortunately, as was pointed out earlier longevity in terms of running the latest, greatest games at maximal settings is going to be limited to a relatively small number of years no matter what you buy. You could buy a triple SLI Falcon Northwest machine with water cooling and everything else for 10 grand but it will still not play the newest games at highest settings in a few years. It's not like buying a console which for its entire life will play games at their best for the system. PC gaming performance invariably degrades slowly over time as pertains to playing the latest greatest at max settings.

If you always want to play PC games at max settings all of the time, you are in for an expensive ride in the coming years is what I am getting at.

Lastly, here is something important that I think you need to keep in mind when purchasing a computer next year. While buying the best rig you can afford (within reason) is generally a good idea for what future proofing you can get, which again is always going to be limited, big changes are coming to PC games when the new consoles hit which could be as soon as about a year from now.

When the new consoles come, this is going to up the ante substantially in the graphics department and possibly the processing department too. At this point, many triple A titles are ported to PC from the consoles where the big money is for game developers. We can reasonably expect these next gen games to be considerably more demanding for max settings folks in particular on PCs. So what I am getting at in going on about all of this is that no matter what you buy next year, it is going to take a hit performance wise when next gen consoles and the leading gaming titles which will be ported to PC arrive.

Why is that information especially important now? Well in my opinion it means sure, get a nice machine but do not go overboard spending a high premium for "the best one" at say a place like Alienware where you'll pay dearly for it. Because in just a couple of years or less it is not hard to predict that you will need to spend even more money upgrading the thing, particularly the GPU(s) in order to continue being able play everything at max.

Anyway, if you have the money then knock yourself out. It's expensive to be able to do PC gaming at max all of the time but it can be done. It's just expensive as hell.

The only other thing I'd add which occurs to me now is that in my opinion, max settings are greatly overrated. A lot of times the difference between max and high would be hard to perceive if you were tested with two systems and did not know which machine was running what, most especially if you were not told you were being tested. I wonder how often people would even be aware there was a difference in just sitting down to play since high settings on modern games look quite good in many cases. In fact, medium settings can look pretty decent on modern games. And then there is running high settings but turning down resolution which ultimately produces a pleasing display that requires pushing a lot less pixels.

I am someone who has never bought the top end. I do not consider the relatively minor gains to be worth the premium cost for them. With gaming requirements soon to ramp up quite a bit I'd say, next year is not really an ideal time to buy a top end gaming rig unless you are saving a lot of money perhaps by building one. Unless money is not an issue here for you. If that's true then well, enjoy your Cadillac of computers. I respect your right to do whatever you like there. It's your PC. :D

I hope all that rambling was somehow helpful.

You'd be amazed how often specific hardware or software won't let you play a specific game. However on total I have probably spent £1.5k on my pc over the past 2 years. You could definitely do it for less. Alot less.

If you don't have an optical drive then how do you use that $100 Windows disc you bought to install on your computer?

Don't buy from Alienware. Their machines are usually stupidly overpriced for what you are getting. There are a fair number of places that you can order a pre-built computer from while still being able to pick from a good selection of parts and getting a decent price. Alienware is not one of these places.

Crysis 3 is looking to be the same as Crysis was, with maximum settings on the best hardware available only getting to the 20 fps range on release. CryTek makes huge leaps in coding with the assumption that eventually hardware will be made that can use it, and then they make it tunable all the way down to console level options in my experience. Many gaming sites and magazines used the first game as a benchmark for years since it could overpower the GPU and CPU of whatever they threw at it so the numbers meant something. Metro 2033 is used the same way for benchmarking even now.

So, to get the BEST results with the HIGHEST settings possible you will need to go into the rare air of top end equipment, but be aware you will not likely get smooth silky gameplay even then, since, in the words of Deep Thought, 'I speak of none but the computer that is to come after me, A computer whose merest operational parameters I am not worthy to calculate. And yet I will design it for you.'

Many boutique manufacturers exist to build these top end machines, Falcon Northwest and Alienware off the top of my head, but it will cost you more than the price of building it yourself will. The use of an off the shelf Dell or HP will end up costing more since they do not have the GPU you want and most likely not the top CPU either so you'd have to replace those, and most likely the power supply as well to support the new parts above stock.

Overclocking and water cooling are the last thing you can do to try to eke out more speed and power but again it is additional cost.

My advice? Pick up a copy of the latest Maximum PC and look on the back pages, they have three suggested system builds for value, performance, and extreme levels with parts and prices. Over the years I have built many systems and my own research very often leads me to the same place they end up lately so it is a shortcut to a LOT of time spent learning all about the guts of a PC.

I don't bother with DVD drives any more, I own one USB2 drive from Samsung, that I plug in on the rare occasion that I need one and I use it with all the computers in the house.

Admittedly, this is more cost effective if you have several computers, or if you keep it for years, but I've found that I plug it in so infrequently that the annoyance is worth it.

Also, doesn't Windows now support install from a USB stick? As long as one has access to a computer with a drive and a USB stick, that should work.