Bloodwinter Clan

so if you had a bonus to blow on a new computer with the only catch being that you had to pretend the computer was "for work" where would you buy it from? im looking for something really high end to do my gaming on the next couple years

newegg, and build it myself.

or dell.

If it wasn't my money, and I was looking to spend as much as possible, probably AlienWare.

I'd never buy from that place and pay for it myself, since they overcharge by a tonne, but based on your criteria, it would fit nicely

Edit: I just messed around on their site, and got one up to $13000

Edit2: I just realized that its a "Bonus", and the person you were telling it was for work is probably your wife/parent/significant other.

In that case, stay far far away from Alienware

I'd look at Alienware & DELL for potential machine configurations and jot down the specs. Then look then at tomshardware.com for some reviews on hardware.

By then you should have a list of 1) Desired video card(s) 2) CPU 3) Motherboard 4) Drives 5)Monitor.

At that point you can pretty much build to order from any reputable local computer place.

From what I hear these days:

Core Duo 2 Extreme > AMD in performance
GeForce 8800 GTX (768mb) is the hot card (you can do 2 of these cards if your motherboard supports 590 SLI)
SATA 10K RPM drive

The rest is personel preference I suppose.

ya definitely go intel core 2 duo (conroe) no question on that, and since you are building now make sure you get a DX10 card.