The other day I posted some specs for my dream computer and got some valuable input from several members like Squilliam.  So armed with their suggestions, I went back online to seek out by dream computer  v2.0.

I found this Gateway FX6800-09  which seemed to fill the bill. I've owned Gateways in the past and been satisfied and I like the quality and style of the FX line. The combination of a Core i7 CPU and GTX 280 GPU puts you pretty much on the top of the food chain. I am less happy that 6GB is the maximum RAM supported but  since Vista does allow you to plug in high speed memory by USB in a pinch, it's not a deal breaker.

The $1650 price tag seemed reasonable for what you get, but is it? A little comparison shopping seemed to be in order. I located or customized other computers to exactly the same specifications or when that was not possible I adjusted the price accordingly for a fair comparison.

Since everyone is using the same components for the most part, you would think prices would be pretty similar. Well think again. Of course there are less tangible differences like quality of tech support and build quality and testing which I'll have to leave to each individual to evaluate.

My conclusion is that for me, the Gateway is the best choice. The amount I could save by custom order or building it myself aren't worth as much as having someone else get all the drivers working together and deal with other compatibility issues. But I'd like to hear from all our tech savvy members with their thoughts.

That is a good value, but nobody in my family has bought a Gateway they've been happy with. Plus, building your own PC is fun and gives you the opportunity to say "look! I did this!"

Building is tempting but I've built so many I'm just burned out or lazy. Besides, back when I did most of my building, heat was just not the problem that it is now.

I havesome reservatins about Gateway but i'm under the impression that they are like Dell; their low end is crap but their high end is pretty good. I've had a lot of experience with Dell because our state contract pretty much gives us no choice. Personally I would never own anything except their XPS line which I have found much more reliable.

Another option is going to a local brick + mortar store and select the parts and have them assembled. That way you know that the components used are all of high quality.

You could buy 2x (3x2GB) ram kits and replace them on the Gigabyte as another option.

Personally I would have chosen the Newegg build-yourself because I'm cheap, afterall $278 is a lot of money, and also the gaming case you chose from Newegg is a lot cooler looking.

But I understand the lazyness part, for each year I'm becoming tired of building myself.

Anyway, congrats for choosing a great GPU. ^^
(considering you're an Nvidia guy)

i build my own pc a few months ago for the first time.. and its the only way.. for me to be satisfied.. you can see to it that you get only the components you need.. and that they are all working harmonic together as for most pre built theres always some part of it that may be nice but that you dont really need

i know it takes some effort to look up all the right parts.. and assembling the damn thing.. as for the heat.. thats not that much of a big deal.. just dont let the cpu or main fan do all the work ... if you get a power unit with a 12cm fan it will not only be very silent but also do a lot of cooling for the entire system.. also dont use the standard fan that comes with the hull.. then built in a second one the side and youre good to go...

for a hull i recommend a cooler master.. they look good and have additional fans built in already.. and thanks to s ide and pci express the assembly isnt as hard as it used to be

Another thing about the Alienware is you can customise it to come with 12GB of ram as you wanted and you can add things such as accoustic dampening to make your work station quieter. Furthermore you can also have it come with Vista Ultimate if you need the professional tools as well.

Alienware is considered very luxury and expensive here in Sweden. I bet even more so in New Zeeland lol.

^ Ya! Personally I would go with a custom built system using an ultra-quiet Antec that looks like a professional beast!

Considering how few genres are covered by PCs now sufficiently, and the drive for "must have" being fewer, if you average the cost of game + system, you will likely be looking $200+ per game. Not sure it is worth doing it. What game is worth spending $200+ to play?