Where to buy a Really good gaming comp?, what is yours?

I've always been fond of custom builds. I just like having a PC that I put together myself. If someone wants to buy an Alienware desktop for gaming, that's fine. Can't post specs yet, nothing to write home about.

Custom > Pre-Built. My build is on my steam profile. All from Newegg, NCIX, MemoryExpress (MemoryExpress only Canadian i believe. Great store since they offer price match +25% of difference)

Yeah, if you can take the time to build your own, you can have a great rig that also costs way less than if you bought it from a store. Also you end up feeling pretty good when you finally get your pc up and running for the first time.

Custom!
Pre-built stuff is shitty and exepnsive.

i got 2 choices my friend is selling for me 4core 2.48Ghz processor 4gb ram 1tb gtx 260 and 750W power supply for 300 pounds
and the one i build it its
CPU: NEW! AMD FX 4100 Black Edition
Operating System: Windows 7
Motherboard: NEW! Asus M5A78L-M LX V2
Memory: 4GB DDR3 1333mhz (1x 4GB)
Hard Drives: NEW! 1TB S-ATAIII 6.0Gb/s
Optical Drive: 22x DVD±RW DL S-ATA
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1GB
Sound card: Onboard 7.1 Audio
Case: Zalman Z9 Plus
PSU: 500W Xigmatek

Building yourself is the best way.

ecollegepc is also rather good

Personally, I like custom builds but that's because I enjoy working with the computer.

Some pre-built systems (Places like Origin, AVADirect, etc.) make great starting platforms and they give you a configuration that is generally stable and even further they give you a warranty and generally have greater customer service than any manufacture does on individual parts (3-5 years on parts but you have to deal with individual company's on that ). As far as cost for the system the premium on the pre-built can be minimal over the bare part cost (10 - 15%).

So well, I think the question really boils down to do you think you can handle your own tech support for your system?

I did a custom build:
Intel 2600k clocked to 4.5ghz,
16gb 1600mhz ram,
EVGA GTX 460 1gb,
ASUS 192khz sound card,
128gb SSD,
blu-ray burner,
~4.5tb in hard drives (need to upgrade these soon)

Cyperpower is good. I've had some issues but they fix it.

Very soon to be rig

I5 2500k prob ~ 4.5ghz

Asrock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3

G.Skill Sniper 8gb ddr3 1600, CL9 1.5v

HD 7870 or GTX 660ti(haven't decided, waiting on nvidia to drop and wait for the inevitable price drop)

Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB

HAF 922 case

Cooler Master Hyper 212 evo

Corsair 750w V2

As to where you could get your pre built rig, my brother's rig from IBuyPower hasn't had any problems. But results may vary ofcourse, I'm sure there'll be someone chiming in about a horror story about IBP.

I've got an i5 2500K, 2 560 ti's, 8gb ddr3 ram, asrock extreme3 gen3 and 4 TB's HD space. I'm thinking that I need to solve a few cooling problems though, since one of my 560 ti's is going far too high for my liking.

Self built ofc.

You should always buy parts from different website or local shops, wherever it is cheaper.
Mine comes from 5 different website, cause local shops price here sucks.

I only paid 5% of taxes instead of 15% by buying online.

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V DELUXE
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600
Solid State Drive: Intel 520 Series Cherryville 240GB 2.5"
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Video Card (2-Way SLI)
Case: Corsair 600T Black Graphite ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair AX 1200W

would you say the 550ti is a good card to get to run current games at max settings? Also when is this inevitable price drop/660ti coming about?

Newegg, Build your own. Its more customizable this way and its cheaper.

Also how does the concept of over clocking work does it make noticeable improvement? and this there pros and cons to this? i don't mean to question but I intend to build a new rig soon for the first time :D

my laptop
not really a comp, but i can't take a heavy ass comp to school can i?

I have an M6600, a laptop running an I72720qm (quad), 8 gigs ram 1600mhz, m8900 firepro (essentially ati 6970) and currently has a 500Gb disk drive (soon to be ssd), second drive empty (soon to be the primary 500Gb), external 500Gb (all steam and other apps/games), external 500Gb (music/media/pictures). It's massive but can handle the pressure!

Alienware X51... in b4 shouldve built your own etc. If i got the money to spend and dont want to hassle with anything else then why not.

Check out http://www.memoryexpress.com/ they have a really decent configuration tool and some solid options.

I usually buy it on newegg but the computer I wanted to buy was out of stock.
So YESTERDAY, i bought this computer from AMAZON, pre-built & affordable gaming computer since I have no computer expierence.
http://www.amazon.com/iBuyPower-Gamer-Power-AM522D3-Desktop/dp/B006O5ZJJ2/ref=sr_1_8?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1336087989&sr=1-8#productPromotions.
So excited!

Built my own 4 years ago on a limited budget. Still able to play today's games at medium/high @ 1440x900 without AA. On top of this, nothing has failed yet because I chose quality parts.

Use sites like newegg, ncix, tigerdirect and amazon to get your parts and build your own. It's cheaper and you get more power. If you buy a prebuilt, you'll either have quality issues or a much emptier wallet. Don't worry about getting started - google and youtube will cover everything you need to know to do it yourself for the first time.

As lots have said already, I always build my own for desktops, but I buy laptops pre-made as I don't want to deal with that. These are the specs of my current pc:

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 920 (bought it about a month after they were released)
Memory: 6GB DDR3 1600mhz
Hard Drive 1: 500 GB
Hard Drive 2: 1 TB
Hard Drive 3: 2 TB
Hard Drive 4: 2 TB
Video Card: EVGA GTX 680
Keyboard: Garbage Gateway keyboard from like 10 years ago
Mouse: Microsoft Sidewinder x8
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Motherboard: EVGA X58 3x SLI
Sound Card: 7.1 surround sound including spdif output
Speakers: Onkyo 7.1 surround sound
headphones: Turtlebeach Ear Force HPA2
Monitors:
46" 1080p (mainly for movies/tv and single player games via 360 controller on couch)
22" 1080p
20" 1280x1024 (needs upgrade badly)

These two links may be of use to you:

r/buildapc

PC Part Picker