[SoldierOfDarkness]

Originally Posted by kyp275

While I agree with the general sentiment of your statement, IMO your number is a bit off, unless what you consider "high end" is very different from mine.

First, your 3 monitors will have to be budget TN panel screens, not what I'd consider high end or even consistent, and even then it'll still eat up at least 1/4 to 1/3 of your budget, probably more.

This leave you with little room for SSDs or the higher end GPUs, not to mention a good CPU/Mobo/PSU. Not to say you can't build a decent performer from the roughly 7-800 or so you have left, but it'll be a decidedly mid-range rig at most. My old Bloomfield (920) rig is still trucking after almost 4 years, but only because I've updated the GPU, and even with it OC'd to 4.0Ghz on water, I have no illusions about it being able to remain serviceable for another 6 years for gaming purposes.

My definition of high end is best bang for buck.

The fact is is that this was for someone else and not me. I do not need 3 monitors but it doesn't change the fact that it's not that expensive when you look around. It's no more different than say going to Walmart or Bestbuy to find a good priced TV.

As others have pointed out, technology becomes obselete very quickly as newer ones are always coming out so there's very little reason to spend over $150 for a new GPU card. There are always deals lying around that you can take advantage of.

I mean do you really need to spend $5000 on a GPU card? No you don't because as VCV pointed out most games will never reach that level. Plus do you need to keep everything on Ultra? No you don't as most wouldn't even notice the difference.

Not really relevant as consoles are gaming oriented, PC isn't. I buy consoles because there are games on there I want to play, my PC is never part of the equation.

Exactly but as you see they are trying to make them to do everything including the kitchen sink.

A GTX TITAN alone costs 999$, and it will be obsolete long before a decade.
Overpriced? Then spend 700$ in a proper SLI setup, multi-display setups demands high performance afterall. A decent CPU? There goes more 300$. Now, you could half-convince me if you somehow get the rest of the components for 200$

I think you're understimating how fast technology advances

Like I said you don't need to spend that much on a GPU unless you have tons of money to spend and very picky. I'm not as I'm content with most settings on normal.

For me, as long as the game runs decent that's good enough for me.

I had a back projector TV for almost 10 years and I only upgraded to an LCD HD 50 mainly because the projector TV broke. That's my point, why do you need to keep upgrading? As long as you find that middle point the games will still run fine. Likewise I'll keep using this computer which played Tomb Raider and Far Cry 3 with zero issues until it finally breaks down and it's still going strong for over 5+ years.

For example, the iPhone 4, do you really need to upgrade to an iPhone 5 right now?

Part of the reason it isn't that expensive to buy a gaming PC these days, is that very few games out there actually take full advantage of PC's capabilities. Far too many recent games are ported from console, which means most of them can be run on 5 year old PCs, though not on the highest resolution.

Extreme high end PCs for games exist. But you can count games that need such hardware with one hand.

In the end the computer pays itself off because you're not going to just be using it for gaming. You'll be using it for work, watching shows, chatting, etc.

Plus the fact that you have to pay a subscription fee to use the Xbox online really gets on my nerves. *Note* I dont' have an Xbox.