Need help building a $5000 rig

[Dricen]

Hey guys, I recently built myself a rig with the help of everyone on these boards. Now I come to you to see if you can build another for a much higher price tag. My friend is getting married, and his mom is getting him a new computer for his wedding present. His budget is $5000, and he wants to come as close to that as possible. He doesn't want to get anything thats lower quality, he wants a beast of a machine for gaming. He will be running Windows 7, wants an Nvidia card, intel processor, 1 monitor, buying all parts in the US.

Here's the kicker, he wants someone to build it for him that is reputable. He wants some kind of warranty that if something tears up, he can come to them. He is not very computer savvy and would not fix anything. So I'm also looking for a website or someone that builds computers with this type of service.

In any case, I would to get him an idea of what he wants in his system for this price. So have fun

 

[dowxp]

He wants a warranty? go OEM. dell.com

 

[Kenmitch]

Not sure if anybody on these boards runs a custom pc shop or possibly works for one of the many ones that seem to be in the biz! Google is your buddy and if you just search for custom gaming pc you'll find many options available. Some of these look interesting but I just build my own so can't vouch for any of them. 5K is a huge amount of money to waste on a PC that'll be outdated pretty quickly. I'd suggest that he at least get's a very nice monitor in the config before he starts adding things to get the price up to $5K

http://www.pugetsystems.com/gaming.php

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/

http://www.ibuypower.com/

http://www.avadirect.com/

http://www.alienware.com/

http://www.velocitymicro.com/category-gaming.php?cid=12

 

[max347]

$5k!? Holy nutz.

I would guess a boutique would be your only option for something like this. Is he looking for something more professional looking, or alienware-like?

 

[max347]

Id probably go with a digital storm build in the mountain mods case. You can do a setup with a 23" 3D lcd, 4.9ghz-5.2ghz 2600K, 16GB, 2x580 GTX, 240mm rad for the cpu, blu ray player + dvdrw, 128gb ssd+1tb drive and windows 7 for under 5k, and they give you a 3 year warranty.

 

[dpodblood]

With $5000 to spend he should be looking at getting a nice big IPS monitor, and a sound system using an external receiver, bookshelf speakers, and a subwoofer. With that kind of money SLI or Crossfire is also a must as well as an SSD. If he wants a warranty he should find a local boutique or buy from Falcon Northwest.

 

[philosofool]

God, what a terrible waste of money. It's one thing if you are a DIY person who can cannibalize parts from one build to the next, but this is crazy. What the hell does a "not very computer savy" person do with a $5000 rig? I have a rig that was about $750 when I built it and I don't even know what else to do with it; aside from adding an SSD (coming soon!), I wouldn't know what to do for a noticeable performance increase given my usage scenario.

Tell him to get a $1,500 computer and have his mom use the other $3,500 to start him a retirement account, or pay off some student loans, or make a down payment on a new car, or just about anything besides a computer. After about $1,500 spent, the diminishing returns in additional performance just aren't worth the money unless you are a HardC0re gamer or have special needs for work.

 

[TheStu]

I would start the build with the Dell U2711 (or something along those lines) and proceed from there. With that kind of cash, dropping $1K on a monitor that will be gorgeous and last for years shouldn't be an issue.

 

[tommylommykins]

God, what a terrible waste of money. It's one thing if you are a DIY person who can cannibalize parts from one build to the next, but this is crazy. What the hell does a "not very computer savy" person do with a $5000 rig? I have a rig that was about $750 when I built it and I don't even know what else to do with it; aside from adding an SSD (coming soon!), I wouldn't know what to do for a noticeable performance increase given my usage scenario.

Tell him to get a $1,500 computer and have his mom use the other $3,500 to start him a retirement account, or pay off some student loans, or make a down payment on a new car, or just about anything besides a computer. After about $1,500 spent, the diminishing returns in additional performance just aren't worth the money unless you are a HardC0re gamer or have special needs for work.

I agree with this. Computers age quickly. If he really wants to spend that much on hardware, I'd divide it into 2 or 3, and buy a new computer once every 3 years, or once every other new intel Architecture.

One megafast computer will get out of date in ~3-4 years, but 2 or 3 rounds of fast computers will easily keep you at the bleeding edge for twice as long.

 

[rivan]

I agree with this. Computers age quickly. If he really wants to spend that much on hardware, I'd divide it into 2 or 3, and buy a new computer once every 3 years, or once every other new intel Architecture.

One megafast computer will get out of date in ~3-4 years, but 2 or 3 rounds of fast computers will easily keep you at the bleeding edge for twice as long.

Another vote here, but I also see that he's trying to soak up the full offer value of the gift.

I'd start with a ROCKING monitor. At work, I use the following, and it flat out blows my mind:

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC914

It's something that would last longer than any single computer.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Tell him not to waste so much money, even if it is a gift.

Even a high-end Alienware, CyberPower or Puget Systems should be under $3,000.

 

[happinessism]

computers outdate quickly, might as well use 2000 for now and use the rest to upgrade in the future.

 

[Dricen]

His mom is very wierd. She would not want to give him money, she really wants to spend that much on a computer for him. This isn't the first time shes spent this much on a computer for him. When he graduated she did the same thing. She likes to see it when shes visiting and admiring how it "looks" lol.

Anyway, this will be a full setup, monitor and all. So I'll give him you guys recommendations on the monitors listed already. He doesn't want SLI because the last PC he had was SLI and one of the video cards burnt out and he was pissed about it. He does want something that he will NEVER have to mess with again. If it requires overclocking, he will not do it, or install any other program. He doesn't go to websites that are not used for games, and ONLY plays games on it.

Right now he has a rig here:

http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Level_10_-_X58/w/76411

But he has no clue if they are ripping him, or giving him a good deal. So if you guys could help me out that would be great!

 

[LuluTheMonk]

How about a $2,000 computer with 3 27" displays?
dell.com
alienware aurora, i7 2600k + radeon 6950 2gb + 3 27" displays. Done.

 

[dpodblood]

So because one of his video cards burnt out in SLI he now doesn't want it? That doesn't seem to make sense. Now if 1 video card burns out he'll be left with none.

 

[gorcorps]

His mom is very wierd. She would not want to give him money, she really wants to spend that much on a computer for him. This isn't the first time shes spent this much on a computer for him. When he graduated she did the same thing. She likes to see it when shes visiting and admiring how it "looks" lol.

Anyway, this will be a full setup, monitor and all. So I'll give him you guys recommendations on the monitors listed already. He doesn't want SLI because the last PC he had was SLI and one of the video cards burnt out and he was pissed about it. He does want something that he will NEVER have to mess with again. If it requires overclocking, he will not do it, or install any other program. He doesn't go to websites that are not used for games, and ONLY plays games on it.

Right now he has a rig here:

http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Level_10_-_X58/w/76411

But he has no clue if they are ripping him, or giving him a good deal. So if you guys could help me out that would be great!

So because one of his video cards burnt out in SLI he now doesn't want it? That doesn't seem to make sense. Now if 1 video card burns out he'll be left with none.

Kind of my thought as well. It doesn't matter how much you spend... things break. Hard drives can fail, memory can fail, motherboards can short out, video cards can overheat... anything. The chances of each may be small but blowing $5000 on a PC doesn't mean it'll last any longer. If he's going to get bent out of shape about things failling... he's better off ditching PCs entirely and getting a top of the line Mac + huge monitor and good sound system. At least he'll have a store to go to and get it fixed quickly then when something goes wrong.

This guy doesn't sound like the type to really want or need a PC. If reliability and warranty support is the biggest thing, he needs to go Apple as sad as that may be.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

I would say 2k build with 3 monitors (need sli or crossfire{Eyefinay }) and upgrade every couple of years

 

[Dricen]

He only plays on 1 monitor, and doesn't want to use 2 monitors or more. He will never buy a mac. He's very stubborn about stuff, and doesn't budge at all. If stuff fails, he wants a warranty so he can just send it back and get it fixed. The SLI video cards burned out after his warranty was up, and he will never go back to it no matter what anyone tries to tell him.

It doesn't matter that hes blowing money, he just wants to get as much as he can without going over his budget. So please help get as close to that as possible =)

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Well, can i just say that hes a total dumbass and is blowing his money on something that might possible berak 1 dy after his warrenty is up?
stuff will break unexpectedly. and warreties will be gone by then. might as well save some money.
To other members: This is going to go against our "rule" on how we try to get the most for your money since...this is going to be the bigest waste of money ever

Ill post something in a couple of minutes

 

[Snakecharmed]

Pfft. You guys are only suggesting a 27" monitor? Try this:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4070/dell-u3011-review-dells-new-30-inch-flagship

Well, can i just say that hes a total dumbass and is blowing his money...

It's easy when it's not his money. If he had to spend $5,000 on a new computer himself, you wouldn't be seeing this.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/ar/rZQ
with a huge monitor (1k+ left over for it)

 

[Kenmitch]

If you gotta help him spend 5k one of the links or maybe it was another had dual xeon gaming machines available. Maybe hunt one of those down. The more cores the better I'd think. Single video card doesnt leave much to choose from so guess either gtx 580 or the 590 is the only option. Still seems like too much to spend but not our money

 

[RaistlinZ]

Go U3011 or go home, IMO.

At $5K maybe he should look into a dual Xeon rig.

 

[Syran]

So... I can say personally to scrap ibuypower.com. 2 friends bought computers from them, nightmares on the warranties.

If you want to burn money, get the 30" Dell, it's $1500 w/ 5 year advanced replacement. Use coupon code 85RMTHTH0LJ5FP prior to 7/28/11.

Avadirect:
DESKTOP PC Core™ i5 / i7 Performance Custom Computer System $3069.62 UPDATE $3069.62

CORSAIR Obsidian 800D Black Full Tower Computer Case w/ Window, EATX, 7 slots, No PSU, Aluminum/Steel
CORSAIR HX1050 Power Supply w/ Modular Cables, 1050W, 80 PLUS® Silver, 24-pin ATX12V 2.2 EPS12V 2.91, 6x 8/6-pin PCIe, Retail
ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z, LGA1155, Intel® Z68, DDR3-2200 (O.C.) 32GB /4, PCIe x16 SLI CF /3, SATA 3Gb/s RAID 5 /4, 6Gb/s /4, USB 3.0 /8, HDA, BT, GbLAN /2, FW /2, ATX, Retail
INTEL Core™ i7-2600 Quad-Core 3.4GHz, HD Graphics 2000, LGA1155, 8MB L3 Cache, 32nm, 95W, EM64T EIST HT TB VT-d VT-x XD, Retail
NOCTUA NH-D14 CPU Cooling Fan, Socket 1155/1156/1366/775/FM1/AM3/AM2, Copper/Aluminum, Retail
ARCTIC SILVER Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound, Polysynthetic Silver
KINGSTON 4GB (2 x 2GB) ValueRAM PC3-8500 DDR3 1066MHz CL7 (7-7-7) 1.5V SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC
MSI N580GTX Lightning Xtreme Edition, GeForce® GTX 580 832MHz, 3GB GDDR5 4200MHz, PCIe x16 SLI, 2x DVI + HDMI + DP, Retail
CRUCIAL 64GB M4 SSD w/ Data Transfer Kit, MLC Marvell 88SS9174, 415/95 MB/s, 2.5-Inch, SATA 6 Gb/s, Retail
WESTERN DIGITAL 2TB WD Caviar® Black™ (WD2002FAEX), SATA 6 Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 64MB Cache
RAID No RAID, Independent HDD Drives
PIONEER BDR-206DBKS Black 12x/16x/40x BD/DVD/CD Blu-ray Disc™ DVD Burner, SATA, w/ Software, OEM
LOGITECH G19 Keyboard for Gaming, Black, w/ LCD, USB, Retail
MICROSOFT Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition w/ SP1, OEM
WARRANTY Platinum Warranty Package (5 Year Limited Parts & Lifetime Labor Warranty, Express/Priority Service)

Yeah. I would go Z68 w/ SSD caching, and a Geforce 590 (they didn't have one), because for the most part, those extra cores aren't going to bring you anything compared to more hard drive speed for 99% of games in the now or near future.

 

[Throckmorton]

With that kind of budget, he should spend as much as possible on parts that last the longest-- monitor and speakers.

30" IPS monitor, no less.