August High-end Gaming PC Buyer's Guide

Introduction

In each month's edition of our High End Gaming PC Buyer's Guide, we are given $2500 cash to spend, and go to the limit in search of the ultimate high-end gaming machine. However, we do not spend this money frivolously, and our tech savvy and eye for a bargain play a large role in the choices we make. All of the picks we make in this guide are after carefully weighing the price to performance ratio of each component, then seeing if they meet our budget limit of $2500. This guide is your median between our Value Buyer's Guide with only a $1000 limit, and our Extreme Buyer's Guide with a massive $4000 budget.

The purpose behind this guide is to give you a general idea of what kind of gaming PC is possible within a budget of $2500. While the individual components we choose are with quality and performance in mind. We take a look at the larger picture, and decide which components meld together the best to form the best performing, feature-rich gaming PC possible. The recommended configurations are for both the Intel and AMD sides of the spectrum, and we're not here to promote one platform over the other.

This month's guide looks much like last month's, as prices have somewhat stagnated and new hardware is hard to come by. It seems that Intel, AMD, and ATI are waiting until the end of September to release new products, and until then, prices are not likely to fall by much. Regardless, $2500 can still buy a heck of a High-End Gaming System, especially for those who will be heading back to school, so let's see how this month's machine stacks up.

Case: Lian Li PC-65 w/ Antec TruePower 430W PSU

Current Cost: $191
Months on list: 8
Price Change: -$16

Choosing the right case is one of the most important decisions to make in building a computer. The case will outlast nearly all the components housed inside, and it's important to make sure you choose a case that you can live with for a very long time. Make sure you pay careful attention to size, weight and aesthetics before making your purchase.

We really like Lian Li, Cooler Master, and Antec cases, as you can't go wrong with almost anything they make. However, we continue to recommend the excellent Lian Li PC-65 aluminum case because we love working with it, and admire its super appearance and light weight. The PC-65 case without a power supply can currently be found for about $115, and it's worth every penny.

As our PC-65 case does not come with a power supply, we opted for something that would be able to handle each and every component we could throw at it. The Antec 430X TruePower 430 watt power supply easily fits the bill for both the AMD and Intel systems. It's important to choose a power supply from a reputable brand, as bargain units often have ridiculously high claims but often can't match up across the spectrum of outputs.