and decided to build yourself a good gaming machine with $2000, what kind of PC would you build?

Easy answer: buy a pre-built that seem to be your target, gaming in this instance.

Medium answer: I would sign on a hardware forum and ask. State that you want it for gaming, exactly what parts you need (leaveo ut keyboard, mouse, monitor if you already got that covered) and budget. You won't be disappointed.

Hard answer: Follow the second answer but also do some research yourself in case you get multiple recommendations and don't know what to pick.

I've done it quite a few times.
PM me if you'd like to really 'talk shop' so to speak.

Also:
Do.
Not.
Buy.
Prefab.

They are frequently made with the cheapest components, have less room to upgrade, and are loaded down with useless crap software you don't need. Unless of course you go for a high end 'custom gaming computer', at which point you will pay probably 1.5-3x as much as building it yourself.

I agree with Zolgar. Building a PC yourself is easy as pie (and fun), and you'll get a lot more worth for your money if you buy the components yourself. Just remember to shop around on the net to make sure you're not paying way too much for any component. Also, to minimize shipping costs, try to get everything you need from two or three places at most.

Monitor too, if you're getting a new one of those.

True, although when I see a 2K build I always assume no monitor. >.>

Try to avoid getting your parts from Newegg though. I know it's apparently the common thing to do, but every time I've had a friend in the States buy components from there, they were poorly packaged, has likely been damaged, and Newegg denies any liability whatsoever.

I, and several others I know, have purchased a good volume of stuff from NewEgg (including most of 2 computers for me), not only has nothing been broken.. but I got fairly decent service when I got two faulty motherboards in a row (not their fault, they were sealed in the package when I got 'em.. and they burst in to flames when I fired the PC up).

That must have been something!

Luckly it wasn't quite what it sounds like..

Flames gushing out of the computer would have been kinda epic, but it also would have toasted my other hardware.. >.>

Ibuilt the PC.. fired it up, everything was fine. Next day, booted it, get a pop and nothing. I'm all "well fuck." pop it open to look inside, see nothing obviously wrong, look around, and decide to fire it up again to see if I can determine what went pop.
get smoke from the Mobo, and a chip on it bursts in to flames. Blew it out and pulled the plug.. returned the mobo, Newegg's policy is "same type exchange only" so I'm like "meh, it was a defective one.." get a new one.. install it, everything is groovy.. until a week later, boot it up *pop*..

Yeah, I didn't try to see if that one would go Fwoosh too. >.>

They waived their policy, issued a refund and paid return shipping on the 2nd one. I replaced it with a better one, and well, that was like more than 2 years ago. :)

1.5 to 3X really? I'd like to know where you're buying your parts. Building your own has alot of advantages, but the money you save is trivial, unless you're buying cheap parts.

AMD.

I haven't looked at 'custom gaming rigs' in a while. Those numbers though came from places like DellianWare or the like.

Prefabs are actually often cheaper than building your own. because the companies use cheap parts and buy in bulk. The 'custom' ones though (at least when labeled for gaming, as of last time I went poking) you tend to pay more for the parts than you would buying them direct (especially if you watch sales), and you also have to pay for the labor to build it.

$2000 will get you a heck of a lot of computer from a prefab- it'll last well enough, but it's generally disposable and will require some tweaking.

$2000 will get you a good gaming rig if you build it yourself, especially if you're patient and watch sales.

$2000 (last time I looked) will get you a decent gaming rig from a 'custom' vendor.

You're right, you could buy on hell of a prefab (I call them 'Whitebox computers') a decent midrange PC or an average PC from Alienware or Dell. When i built my latest rig I dumped over 3K on parts. Oh, I didn't mean for my comment to sound snobbish in any way.