You want a laptop or desktop system? Big difference in cost and options there. I've been buying Acer laptops for some time now. They have really good value and they've been good reliable machines for me. The down side with them is they have suck customer service, but you can't expect too much with a lower cost brand. The laptop I most recently bought cost me just under $1100 delivered and it has almost all the features of the Predator Helios 300 gaming laptop. It's an Acer Aspire 7 (A717-72G). The only difference really is the model name and few small features, like the Helios has a better chassis with better cooling. But it doesn't matter because this thing is really cold blooded, fans hardly ever run. They can run pretty intensely on higher spec games, but the only time they've ever gone full speed is on 3D benchmark tests like TimeSpy.
Joe C, thanks for the link. Some of the parts are not available, but I will wait to get them. Krager: I was initially looking to get a laptop, but after reading the comments at PC-gamer about how most of these are a ripoff price wise, I decided to look into purchasing something that has enough raw power, durability and versatility to last me for a long time.
look for a used sli / crossfire capable mobo buy a big used case get a decent used cpu but not anything latest, but like an i5 3570k / i7 2600k, 2700k, 3770k don't get an old phenom and ignore the quad core FX seriess of amd cpu's. get a mid range gpu like gtx 1050 ti - 1060 6gb or radeon 470, 480, 570, 580. 8-16gb ram minimum don't get a gaming laptop, they aren't worth it, only get a barebones one like sage/clevo if you have the cash and add the components, or just stick to desktop. i have just finished upgrading / rebuilding two of my 3 pc's with used parts and banged up throw away cases, tea stains and all.
That's true, they are expensive for what you get. In my case I have to use a laptop as my primary machine due my living situation. If that were not the case, I'd be using a desktop primarily with a laptop only when needed for travel. I'd still buy the same laptop though, don't like to be limited on a laptop when I need one.
i purchased 3 motherboards recently of ebay, first two were gigabyte and were faulty and 3rd an asus worked fine. would i still buy used, yes. the two faulty ones were not listed as duff, it was just dodgy sellers who though had good fb obviously lied. (got my money back though)
Ebay has gotten much better about getting refunds from those that think they can pass their faulty crap
getting better but not quite to level of great. requesting a refund / return is still a pain in the butt and slow.
Yeah you can build a desktop system pretty cheap with parts off eBay, you just have to be prepared to deal with bad parts. Though when I "had" desktop computers I didn't have much problem with people selling faulty parts. Might have happened one or two times. You can tell individuals selling parts over reclaimers doing it as a business, always have the best luck with individuals selling their replaced parts. When I sold replaced parts on eBay myself I would only list parts in good condition, usually bought new and sold with the original box.
i ended up buying 3 identical used sli asus z68 boards, each from a different seller and they all work. it's odd that the two gigabytes from two different sellers turned out duff with the same fault, kept powering off and on over and over, though one had some missing pins on the cpu socket which you couldn't see from the photo... this is the first time my computing life i've had some sli boards, was getting by previously with just single card boards, mainly got them just to add some future proofing. nothing crap about 3rd gen or even 2nd gen hardware, still does the job nicely. one machine has gtx 1050 ti, i5 3570k (garden shed / summer house, which i converted to office / workshop) another has gtx 1060 6gb, i7 2700k (living room, also hooked up to tv via longggg hdmi) 3rd has gtx 1060 6gb, i7 3770k (bedroom) then of course my non sli laptop, p150em but upgraded with p150sm-a board, gtx 1060 6gb and i7 4930mx, i wanted something not too big and not too small, using it as a 2nd machine that i can network to any of the other 3 for 2 player mp games etc. was originally purchased as scrap, replaced screen and add 1x hdd, 1x ssd, msata x2 (added msata board from 17 inch model) everything purchased used, except gtx 1060 6gb mxm and 4930mx which were new, sold some spare hardware to buy those (china for the cheap prices)