Hi everyone,

I'm traditionally a console gamer, but I'm looking into getting a gaming PC. I don't really have the know-how or the time to build my own, so I was hoping you guys would have some suggestions on the best place to buy a pre-built, customizable gaming PC. I checked out ibuypower, but I keep hearing a lot of mixed feelings about them.

Any suggestions would help.

Thanks everyone!

I would highly suggest that you build your own PC. Those pre-built tend not to be made very well and with that kind of money you are spending, you can easily have a great PC if you built it yourself.

Learn Padawan in the ways of PC. They will never misguide you.

Just build your own PC, only way to do it. I would go the AMD route for GPU\Processor you can get a pretty powerful system for alot cheaper than Intel\Nvidia.

This..fx8350 is a beast.

When you invest in a prebuilt you're the one that's loosing overall.

educate yourself m8.

Like everyone's response here, and probably many more to come, I also highly recommend building your PC. It's cheaper, fits you needs, and a fun experience. Building one is super easy (check youtube videos on it), and it should only take you a little more than an hour at most.

Build it and they will come???

If it helps many sites offer do it yourself bundles. Just see whats in them and you can get an idea of what is compatible, then swap out for what your budget has room for.

Building a PC is not hard but if you really want a pre-built one and are willing to pay a premium for it I'd go for a desktop that has the hardware you want in it but isn't branded as a "gaming PC" because that will cost even more. Generally the only difference will be that the case will look like a regular office PC instead of having some stylish form factor. Just make sure it doesn't use any proprietary hardware or case so you can still upgrade it. If you just have money to burn you can go for a high end "gaming PC" from someplace like Origin PC, Falcon Northwest, or Dog House Systems. I've heard good things about all three of those boutique PC sellers while stuff like Alienware and iBuyPower have a more iffy build quality.

I bought a prebuilt PC from pccasegear.com. It's an Australian company so it's probably no good for you depending on where you are geographically but I've been really happy with it and it was actually about $50 cheaper than it would have been to buy the parts myself.

If you really can't build one yourself, Origin is a great build company with amazing customer service, albeit a little pricey. But if you're gonna buy boutique, I guess money isn't a primary concern. Personally, and this isn't backed up by any firm data, but I just don't trust company's that charge very little more than the parts that make up the machine. That just means they're skimping in other areas to make their money.

That automatically translated in my head as "school yo-self foo'!"

No disrespect to the OP and I'm not saying that's how you meant it :)