People with computer knowledge, please read.

[GSXRJJordan]

Originally Posted by Anomas23

he's right, most of the PC parts now are bought out by major compainies and use for retail. just go Dell or HP.

Problem with that is upgradability, and video card choices. They usually skimp on video cards until you get "up there" in the power.

And you always have problems if you try to upgrade, because they use proprietary mobos, cases, sometimes even power supplies.

Not saying you shouldn't look into it, just that I've always found I could do it cheaper/better/cleaner.

[Matej]

Originally Posted by GSXRJJordan

Problem with that is upgradability, and video card choices. They usually skimp on video cards until you get "up there" in the power.

And you always have problems if you try to upgrade, because they use proprietary mobos, cases, sometimes even power supplies.

Not saying you shouldn't look into it, just that I've always found I could do it cheaper/better/cleaner.

You have to look into what you're getting of course.

It sounds like you might be talking about Dell, I know they like to do that with their computers, or at least used to. I've never experienced that with HP or Alienware.

What was really cool is that Best Buy let me open up the case in store, so I could check out the power supply, gpu, motherboard, ram, and everything.

The HP I got came with a pretty sweet GeForce when I bought it around this time last year. It wasn't the absolute top of the line, but it was still pretty high up there, and to this day I can run any new game without problems, plus what's awesome is that I can watch tv on my pc, even record shows and movies, now I'm always watching cable in the corner of the screen while browsing the web, an option that the Radeon I was planning to buy didn't have. Plus I was able to get a 22" monitor instead of the 20" I was going to settle for with my budget.

The case is also better with more room for expansion and a nicer cooling setup. The power supply was one of my main concerns since nowadays most gpu's require a lot of power, some even a secondary power supply, and decent power supplies aren't cheap. To my surprise the HP actually has a more powerful supply than what I was going to go with. The case and the power supply are actually where I probably saved the most money. So basically I got more than I wanted/needed, and it cost me less.

That's why, from the best performance for you money standpoint, I don't really see the point of building your own pc, unless you already have some of the major components laying around, or want to be build something really crazy.

[neverrain]

Originally Posted by Matej

You have to look into what you're getting of course.

It sounds like you might be talking about Dell, I know they like to do that with their computers, or at least used to. I've never experienced that with HP or Alienware.

What was really cool is that Best Buy let me open up the case in store, so I could check out the power supply, gpu, motherboard, ram, and everything.

The HP I got came with a pretty sweet GeForce when I bought it around this time last year. It wasn't the absolute top of the line, but it was still pretty high up there, and to this day I can run any new game without problems, plus what's awesome is that I can watch tv on my pc, even record shows and movies, now I'm always watching cable in the corner of the screen while browsing the web, an option that the Radeon I was planning to buy didn't have. Plus I was able to get a 22" monitor instead of the 20" I was going to settle for with my budget.

The case is also better with more room for expansion and a nicer cooling setup. The power supply was one of my main concerns since nowadays most gpu's require a lot of power, some even a secondary power supply, and decent power supplies aren't cheap. To my surprise the HP actually has a more powerful supply than what I was going to go with. The case and the power supply are actually where I probably saved the most money. So basically I got more than I wanted/needed, and it cost me less.

That's why, from the best performance for you money standpoint, I don't really see the point of building your own pc, unless you already have some of the major components laying around, or want to be build something really crazy.

Yea, but what do you use this computer for? If it is only for cruising the net and watching tv in the corner of your screen you don't need a powerful computer to do this. I can go buy a TV tuner for my computer for what, $100, and watch TV in the corner WHILE I play my games at 1920x1200 resolution if I wanted (but i wouldn't i sit right next to a high def TV in my room when im playing). The OP wanted a computer that will run Crysis. There are very few premade computers that can run this game correctly, unless of course you buy an extremely overpriced Alienware, which I would call anyone stupid for doing nowadays.

Also, commenting on your expandability comment earlier, you mentioned that the cases aren't sealed with cement. I had an old Compaq (old) that was literally impossible to get the case open on. I went over that damn thing every way possible and could not get the case open for my life, and eventually ended up breaking the case open because the computer fried itself and I wanted the hard drive out of it to retrieve files. If I needed to get in there for some other reason and the computer was out of warranty I would be stuck with a broken case, or rebuilding the computer in a new one.