I could too, now anyway. Back in June when I bought it, it was a different story. Remember to include a 2560X1440 27"ish monitor too, that makes a huge difference being that they were (and still are) $900+. Of course, that’s not necessary to build a machine that will outperform mine, I understand that.
The biggest factor in me buying the iMac was the screen, for what it’s worth. I wanted more real estate for editing my photo’s and it’s glorious for just that 
my lil benchie contribution… Just built a “budget” machine for my mom for Christmas:
i5 2300
ASUS P8H61-M
EVGA GTS 450
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB
Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB
cheap case, PSU, CD/DVD Drive and a PCI WIFI card. $600 shipped to the door.
3dmark 06 dead stock made 15,655 points! I spent an hr overclocking the GPU christmas morning and hit 16,890 and ran out of time. GPU didnt even hit 75C, CPU maxed at 59C, on a case with only a single 120 rear exhaust fan!
To get those points and performance it would have taken $1500 20 months ago to build one that good out of the box.
KK is impressed with the i5/i7 and new fermi cards from Nvidia!
one of you nerds needs to build me a kickass computer for 3D/Solidworks/FEA
My laptop won’t cut it anymore for the assemblies i’m building.
My new rig should in theory have no problem with Solidworks (I’ll find out when I get back to school). Not sure if they still have this combo deal on newegg (looks like the the processor is out of stock), but if they do, it all cost like $550 shipped. It runs most newer games on high or ultra settings on the 720p tv I’m using as a monitor, with a bias towards higher framerates (>60fps at all times) over better graphics. Its a gaming rig, but I’m using design software and a lack of an xbox360 or PS3 as my rationalization for it.
Basic specs, I’m not at home to check exact model numbers:
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black edition (3.2GHz, I could easily overclock it but its fast enough for now)
4 2GB sticks of Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR3 1600 ram (combo deal included 4gb, added a matching 4)
Sapphire 100315L Radeon HD 6850 1GB GDDR5 (960 stream processors)
500gb seagate barracuda
Cougar A560 560W power supply
Some ASUS AM3 motherboard that was included in the bundle
Rosewill Blackbone ATX case
DVD burner from my old computer along with the 500gb drive that was in there as well, but those were free to me.
When I get home (currently in Salt Lake City), I’ll run some benchmarks. $500-600 buys you crazy computing power these days.
Whats your budget?
I just finished building my new gaming PC.
Specs:
AMD FX-8150 Bulldozer 8 Core CPU
MSI 990FX-GD80 AM3+ MoBo
(2) MSI GTX560 Ti’s in SLI
4x4GB Corsair Vengenece DDR3 RAM
OCZ 850 Gold PSU
(2) WD Caviar Black HDD 500GB in Raid 0
Corsair 600T Graphite Case
NZXT Fan Controller
Overall I’m happy with the build as it plays the shit out of everything I throw at it. I was debating going Intel’s Sandy Bridge route but I’ve always been fond of AMD’s FX series and I work for them so…
Meh not to impressed with Bulldozer, basically its an over exaggerated hyperthreading plus the fact that you can spend 30 bucks more and get a processor that will whoop its ass even if the 8150 is overclocked.
Though I’m sure working for AMD you got a discount, and your loyal so power to ya, but until AMD steps up their game I will not be returning to them.
Exactly right. In fact some programs see the 8150 as an 8130P because it’s an 8130 just with a factory overclock. It benches similar to the i5 but the top end intel chips destroy it but at up to 3 times the price. AMD’s Piledriver 10 core processor will be out in the first quarter 2012 but until Windows 8 arrives the hyperthreading between cores really can’t be fully appreciated. Overall AMD has dropped the ball.
The 8150 can bareley compete with the i5 when its (the 8150) overclocked :rofl Factor in even the smallest overclock in the i5 and nothing AMD throws out will even touch it. Spend 30 bucks more and you have a 2600k, overclock it and its untouchable
There are certain areas where an AMD chip excels, but its usually not in anything consumer oriented.
Don’t mind me, im just a disgruntled 1100T owner who needs to run at 4.2ghz 24/7 to get what I want out of it.
LOL. I hear you. I put some serious faith in the FX platform only to be kinda dissapointed, however for my application (gaming only) it performs very well.
What $ amount hits the sweet spit of bang for buck? How upgrade-able could it be?
cannot wait until i can afford a real goddamn computer.
my laptop now is a total BOSS at lagging while playing flash games and music.
I run AMD Machines on Desktops and Intel in Mobile.
My new laptop
8530w Chassis
Undervolted X9100 (overclocked to 3.75ghz)
8GB DDR2 800
Undervolted FX770m and Overclocked
WUXGA
150W power Supply
60GB SSD
Server has my own personal “Cloud” via a VPN setup, so none of my systems ever need a large HDD except my Homebrew server. Desktop Rig runs an overclocked Phenom II 965 BE @ 4.0Ghz; 16GB DDR3, 4870HD. HTPC runs a D3 Hudson chipet with dual APU from AMD.
Never really bothered to benchmark.
Anybody want a Lenovo T60 with 3gb/160gb/1680x1050/T7700/9 cell for $200?
Spend all that money and no SSD?
I love AMD to death but even I must admit the Bulldozer wasn’t what I was expecting (hopefully when software utilizes 8 cores and the AMD updates will help). The financial problems and issues with Global Foundries as of late have made me look at Intel for my next Desktop Rig. If AMD would have released the stupid chip last year before Sandy Bridge, it would have been a hit, but Bulldozer now feels like 2 year old tech, especially with Ivy Bridge on its way.
Still a good rig and will be useful for a good number of years, any modern day computer within the last 3 years if tweaked right can still be a good system.