I'll be honest, I look at gaming PCs and my eyes swim. Is this good enough, would spending $25 on this or that be better...do I need more power supply or is that redundant....etc.

I have cash, I just don't have time or the mental wherewithal to deal with deciding what to buy? Yet, I see these drop ship units from Maingear. There are only four choices Good, Better, Best, and Ultimate. I could afford Ultimate, but I honestly think I don't need that much machine. So I'm leaning towards Best. But, is Best 'good enough' to play a game coming out today on HIGH settings? http://www.maingear.com/boutique/pc/configurePrd.asp?idproduct=1434

CHASSIS MODIFICATION: Performance Chassis Cooling - Dual 140mm Fans

MOTHERBOARD: Motherboard Connectivity: USB 2.0: 4 (2x Fast Charge) USB 3.0: 4 Firewire: 1 PS/2: 1 eSATA: 1 Audio: 7.1 Analog, S/PDIF Networking: 10/100/1000 Etherne Expansion Slots: (2) PCI-E x16, (3) PCI-E x1, (2) PCI Multi-GPU: YES Intel® DZ77BH Featuring USB 3.0, SATA 6G, Lucid Virtu, CrossFire and SLI

PROCESSOR: Intel® Core™ i7 3770 3.4GHz/3.8GHz Turbo 8MB L3 Cache HD 4000

PROCESSOR COOLING: MAINGEAR EPIC 120 Supercooler

MEMORY: 8GB Corsair® XMS3™ DDR3-1600 1.5V (2x4GB)

GRAPHICS AND GP/GPU ACCELERATOR: NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 660 Ti 2GB GDDR5 w/PhysX

SSD CACHING FOR FASTER SYSTEM RESPONSE: 30GB Corsair® Accelerator™ SSD Caching Drive

HARD DRIVE BAY ONE: 1TB Seagate® Barracuda™ 7200rpm 64MB Cache SATA 6G

POWER SUPPLY: 800W Corsair® Gamer Series 80 Plus Certified PSU

OPTICAL DRIVE ONE: 24X Dual Layer DVD RW Drive w/ LightScribe Technology

AUDIO: 7.1 Channel High Definition Surround Sound Supporting S/DIF Optical Out

Yeah, yeah I know I could probably build this for a several hundred less....but I don't have the time. I really don't have the time to build or fix or fuddle with something untested. I'd like something I can plug-in, and and it will work. So what will this thing above do? Will it play something like Far Cry 3 on HIGH settings?

You're set with that. The 660ti will be able to max BF3 at ultra and 1920 x 1080 at well over 30FPS. It won't get you a steady 60, but turn down one or two settings and you can do that.

It's a good build and will definitely run Far Cry on High, maybe even Ultra at 1920 x 1080 if you're happy with 30FPS (I am usually but it's a personal preference to a lot of people as to whether or not they're OK with it. Most people tend to be though, even if you get a lot of PC elitists telling you otherwise).

EDIT: Just clicked the link and price seems a little steep but if you're not willing to build your own, it's probably fine. I only know the price of individual parts but I wouldn't change a thing about that machine. Just make sure you shop around for prices if you can find the exact same build elsewhere (those are pretty common parts so there should be loads online).

@Vitor said:

You're set with that. The 660ti will be able to max BF3 at ultra and 1920 x 1080 at well over 30FPS. It won't get you a steady 60, but turn down one or two settings and you can do that.

It's a good build and will definitely run Far Cry on High, maybe even Ultra at 1920 x 1080 if you're happy with 30FPS (I am usually but it's a personal preference to a lot of people as to whether or not they're OK with it. Most people tend to be though, even if you get a lot of PC elitists telling you otherwise).

EDIT: Just clicked the link and price seems a little steep but if you're not willing to build your own, it's probably fine. I only know the price of individual parts but I wouldn't change a thing about that machine. Just make sure you shop around for prices if you can find the exact same build elsewhere (those are pretty common parts so there should be loads online).

Or you can sacrifice some higher fidelity for better performance like playing FC 3 at 1600 x 900 (which is what I did with my own 660 ti) I just personally prefer 60 or as close to 60 as I can get over visual flair.

Just looked at the price and unless you really plan on upgrading that thing in the future I suggest you look elsewhere cuz that price is steep for what you getting even for prebuilt PC's. I suggest a high end Alienware X51 if you're not worried about having a limited upgrade path plus the tower is a lot smaller.

Bang for the buck? i don't think so.... You should get parts from newegg and build it yourself.

I'd upgrade to a 670 if ya can honestly. More intense games won't max out even with AA off on a 660, a 670 will get you much closer. At that point pretty much everything but Metro 2033 will run awesome.

Or if you're happy turning down a few settings, this'd be fine. With the money, I'd go for 670, if not a 680. I have a real fast 680 in my machine and god damn it is awesome. Everything but Metro runs at 60 solid, usually with AA, and 1920x1200.

1900 dollars for a computer with a 30 GB SSD and a 1TB HDD?

That is not anything like an acceptable price for a machine with those specs.

EDIT: To put this into perspective, Maximum PC's Baseline PC is as good or better (aside from the processor, which is more powerful than you really need on the Maingear machine), and they estimate it at $1,148.

@MonkeyKing1969: Better GPU for $500 less: http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Gamer_Paladin_D875

Pay another $180 for a 680 - arguably the best GPU you can get right now. Much better deal.

As others have said, you can probably get a better computer for less money. The 660 ti is fine but it won't run the latest high end games at max settings/resolution at 60 fps. You'll need a 680 for that. If you are willing to turn things down to medium settings then you'll get 60 fps easy on most games. Honestly, though, I think you can do better for that amount of money. Even Alienware will provide you with more for that price.

Farcry 3 benchmarks http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/far-cry-3-performance-benchmark,3379-6.html

I think you'll be fine with a 660ti, you are probably over paying by $400, but if that doesn't matter, so be it.

A 30gb SSD is a waste of money, really the main think that sticks out as @nintendoeats already pointed out.

I made a solid build for you at newegg for $1,354.87...

Here is what you'd be paying for parts for pretty much the exact same build in the OP http://pcpartpicker.com/p/svlB

I picked exclusively from NCIX because they offer an assembly service, they'll put it together for you for $50.

This is what you should buy

@Kidavenger said:

Here is what you'd be paying for parts for pretty much the exact same build in the OP http://pcpartpicker.com/p/svlB

I picked exclusively from NCIX because they offer an assembly service, they'll put it together for you for $50.

You did a nice job, but no sound card? Do I need a sound card is one built into something else on that parts list?

@MonkeyKing1969: high quality soundcards are built into pretty much all motherboards now.

I wouldn't necessarily go with that exact build, I just put it together real quick to illustrate how much a pc builder charges.

a 800watt power supply is overkill and offers no performance advantage, I'd scale that down to a 600 and bump up the SSD to atleast 120gb and the more the better as it will leave you with less need to move installs all the time.