Looking at spending 1500-2000 on a new computer and I was looking at MSI GT780DX http://www.msi.com/product/nb/GT780DX-GT780DXR-.html it would obviously be great for lans etc but I'm still thinking a tower would better suit me since I have no need for a laptop and would prefer to have something more powerful for a main computer. (don't have really any experience with laptops)

So could I build something significantly better than the laptop for that price or not and I want to use it mainly for cod4 (don't play many other games) and streaming live games like cod4.

You can always make a tower which is easy to take to lans and still quite powerful.. Theyre miny cases etc

Look at a laptop i guess if you need if for more then just gaming, aka taking it onto job sites etc etc or for education purposes. whatever floats ur boat

tbh I've always hated laptops, I have a laptop that I use for that kind of shit but now looking at all the new ones I'm just wondering if it's worth getting it instead of a tower but idc really care about it being portable, all I meant was it would be handy but if I can get a custom pc that is quite alot better than the laptop at around 1500-2000 then I would go with that.

Well you can, don't get a laptop if you don't need it.

The idea of a laptop is appealing - so easy to drag to a mates etc. but then you lose out on bang for buck and upgradability .

You'll get a Custom PC that will wipe the floor with an equiv priced laptop for $1500-2000.

i got the down version of that lappy, got the 560 version....... it works quite well, but tbh it's definitely no comparison to a desktop, i only use it due to me having to fly to places and it's the easiest solution for me, as it's convenient and small.

Desktop for the same price of about 2k, would run atleast twice the fps that the lappy would be able to achieve, plus you can always upgrade a desktop

is that good or can I get the same specs for cheaper or w/e (don't have alot of clue)

oh how we love precious overkill

at least you gave it a shot

2700k not worth it look at a i5 2500k since you are only playing cod4, if you want Hyperthreading (useless if you ask me) get the i7 2600k

ASUS GTX 570 over the gainward greater cooling solution, better support and brand, worth the extra $20

Get a z67 motherboard since you purchasing a PC now preferably ASUS or Gigabyte, they support PCI-E 3.0 (new AMD GPU's and NVIDIA Kepler when they are released support this) plus they support ivy bridge 22mm CPU's that come out around march/april this year, just a flash to your motherboard BIOS to get them to work. This gives you flexibility to upgrade in future, p67 boards you won't be able to do this.

16GB is a overkill, 8GB is plenty and cheap

The hx-850w is 80 plus silver and not 100% modular. Silverstone 850w gold and corsair ax-850 both are 80 plus gold (more efficient) and 100% modular, corsair is $50 more expensive but the cables are fully black which looks nicer

$199 for the WD black, because of the floods last year in thailand prices of hard drives have skyrocketed, get a Seagate barracuda 1tb for $109 best value for money right now

Standard corsair force series 3 120gb will do the job

Bluray optical drive are affordable right now, but if don't really need bluray, get a samsung optical for $22

If your going to spend that money on a case I would get a coolermaster cosmos 2 over 800d for the same price, it's bigger, nicer looking and supports xl-atx mobo's, still kinda of a overkill though. You can get lots of great case's for under that price range but it's up to personal preference in what you choose

You should get aftermarket cooling since your spending $1500-2000 and using a k chip, if want the best 'noob' water cooling corsair h100 is the best but it's not that good for $165. Most air cooler's for under $100 will do the job

If you need a OS, oem win 7 64-bit for around $100

Edited once, 14/1/12 - 1:43pm.

thanks for the info sen, will defiantly have a look.

PCI-3.0 currently makes very little different in performance, stick to a mid level Z68 motherboard. Save yourself some money on the case and put it towards something else. Do you really need a $300 case? Get a HAF922 or a 650D

It was the same when PCI-E 2.0 was released, cards like the 8800gt showed no difference in performance between PCI-E and 2.0, z68 are slightly more expensive on average but the newer technology and ivy bridge support is worth it

Edited once, 14/1/12 - 6:06pm.

It's pretty great isn't it?

Maybe drop one of the gtx 570's for an asus xonar essence sound card.