ASUS G74. ;)

www.asus.com/Notebooks/Gaming_Powerhouse/G74SX

Wow, I'd love to upgrade my G71G to this one. :(

That's Compaq, cheap sons of bitches that they were. In normal Dell and even HP/Compaq tower cases, they don't pull stunts like that anymore. But watch out for small form-factor and slimline cases, and avoid all-in-ones entirely.

What you may find out, though, is you don't get enough power supply to upgrade the graphics card significantly, and you end up needing both a graphics card and a power supply.

You can get a Dell Studio XPS 435 (big hulking full-tower thing) off of Dell Outlet for cheap, like $600. These usually come with a Core i7 920 and 8GB or so of RAM. The power supply is 360W and well made; it is known to work with up to an ATI 6850 (but not a 6870).

As others have mentioned, if you want a gaming laptop and can afford it, these are among your sexiest options:

http://www.asus.com/Notebooks/Gaming_Powerhouse/G73SW/
http://www.asus.com/Notebooks/Gaming_Powerhouse/G74SX/
http://www.asus.com/Notebooks/Special_Edition/ASUSAutomobili_Lamborghini_VX7/

ASUS doesn't sell direct, so you'll have to buy from a retailer or online merchant.

Best Buy sometimes gets a lesser but still sexy version of the current ASUS gaming model. If Best Buy gets a version of the G74, it might be on sale during its first week in stores. I bought my G71 on sale at Best Buy for several hundred less than suggested retail during its first week sale. Be patient and watch the sale ads for a good deal.

Another thing to watch for on the 'buy and upgrade', it's not uncommon for inexpensive computers to have proprietary motherboards, that are only built to house what the computer needs. I once had a Dell, opened it up to put in a new hard drive, and I had to do a PCI card, because while there was a -spot- for an AGP slot, there was no AGP slot (this was in the days before PCI-E)

Blue, what happened leading to computer building failure. if you ping me, I can help you wit the basics of building your own rig.

My god. That's pretty sexy. THREE GIG of DDR5?!?!?

Indeed. The problem is I can't find the G74 for sale in Australia, only the G73, and that's not as good...??? Can someone tell me if it is possible to get it? (And price/linkage please)

EDIT - ah finally found one!

http://shop.bestdeal4u.com.au/service/i/870/n/Asus+G74SX-A1BD+-+i7-2630+12GB+1+5TB-72+GTX560-3GB+17+3FHD.html

What do you think? Reasonable enough huh? I will ask them to upgrade to DDR3 1600mhz RAM and I'm not sure if I should get the 120hz 3D screen upgrade too? Opinons? Will the gimmicky 3d degrade the screen later on or what?

Not overclocking is fine though. I never overclock my rigs, don't feel the need to.

And in general, when building a PC, or buying with intent to upgrade, I find it best to not even really plan on upgrading the CPU. CPU/Mobo is the most expensive single (yes, I know it's 2 parts technically, but they're two you have to be specific about and get ones that work together ;p) part of a computer, and so I personally prefer to spend more there on something that will last me a while.
Upgrading RAM, will cost you under $100 usually. Upgrading video will usually be $100-200 depending on how good you want to go. A new hard drive? Those get cheap and cheaper and cheaper. But upgrading your processor will cost you at least $300 usually.

Yeah there's no problems with Dells like this. Low form factor cases are fine, you can get a nice (not cutting edge) nVidia card to fit them. FWIW the business line comps on the Dell Outlet are outstanding deals and never have anything wrong with them. As long as they haven't had a coupon in the last week or two there's always plenty to choose from.

I hadn't though of the PSU issue, but if you're not fitting in the top of the line chipset cards you should have enough juice.

Now if the OP really wants cutting edge and doesn't want to spend 2-3 grand, they really need to build their own.

I builded my own piece of junk with love and with time. But computer is thing that is always needing something more. PC-games are optimized so poorly nowadays because, that new components would sell better.
I would upgrade a bit myself but with this economy.. not now. =) And this is still a good gaming machine.
there are always those enthtusiasts (or something) that like to brag about 3dmark scores. But 400 € for a prosessor.. not a chance. And I use mostly amd.
Well.. I had previously geforce, now atis card.
And if I change processor, propably I have to chance my motherboard.

I cannot stress enough NOT to buy Best Buy ASUS laptops. They tend to have the same model number but are significantly different and are sometimes the same price as the fully loaded models. I'd rather shop newegg and get exactly what I want then get something of lesser value for near the same price

Second ibuypower.com. Under no circumstances should you buy a Dell. Also, if you want to 'seriously' game, don't buy a laptop unless you have money to burn and don't care about potential overheating.

My other tip probably doesn't apply to most people because I don't really need super polished fifty AA, buffered, triple authentic shadows and such and I only play on a 24" monitor. I used to play 99% of the games I wanted to play on an Nvidia 9600 GT. But, again, if you want to play at cutting edge resolutions and don't want to play on anything less than 'ULTRA' settings you're going to want to shell out at least $300 for a graphics card. I've never seen the need for it since technology is constantly in flux I just buy a mid-tier system every three or so years and replace it -- usually only runs me around $700.

When I get a new computer I build my own...why? Because you can save hundreds and hundreds of dollars...I do my research, find a motherboard that will last and I will be able to upgrade years from now, yet that can still take cheaper parts now. It's really not that difficult to build your own computer, you just have to take a little time and effort to make sure you are getting the right parts. If you want to save a lot of money, and understand how to easily upgrade your computer in the future, building is the way to go. If of course you are loaded with money, then by all means unload your wallet, save about 12 hours work or whatever if that works for you. My last home-built computer lasted me 7+ years and I spent probably a total of 1,300 dollars on it (counting upgrades), and for those 7 years it was able to run all the new games coming out. Really building it yourself is a rewarding way to go, just have patience, do research, and you should be fine. Sorry I can't reccommend a retail place for you since I don't do retail ;)
Oh, and I'm not the most technically sharp person either, so building your own computer can really be done, really.
"You must believe boy. You must believe." -Indiana Jones (last crusade)

Yeah, on the BB laptops, you have to do a search on that specific part/model number to find out the complete hardware build inside. Don't assume, since it's a G73, that the Best Buy G73 is the same thing as shown on the ASUS site. For one thing, BB is likely to have a 1600x900 screen instead of a 1920x1080 that the ASUS site says it comes with. That's quite a surprise once you fire it up.

Not saying you shouldn't consider one from BB, but definitely double-check to make sure you're getting exactly what it is you think you're getting.

Anyone know what a typical integrator markup might look like? For instance, if Digital Storm is selling a rig for $1,200, how much might it be as a DIY project? I've never tried side-by-side pricing like that.

I have a computer with the i7-2600K CPU, a gaming-oriented case from Silverstone that allowed me to overclock amazingly with just air cooling (I HIGHLY recommend it, it's the Raven 3), an EVGA Superclocked GTX 580, a Blu-Ray Burner, an S-IPS Monitor and room to upgrade with a 850W PSU. I have 8GB DDR3 SRAM, at a high clock speed (I forget what speed exactly, though). If I hadn't been building a workstation I could have gotten a cheaper monitor and had enough to install a pair of Velociraptor hard drives. I can run Unigine Heaven with all max settings and never drop below 20 FPS (with Tesselation: Extreme enabled that's nothing to scoff at.)

You can't even buy a pre-built with a 580, IIRC. S-IPS monitors you certainly won't get from a major manufacturer, and a pre-built computer with a i7-2600K puts you dangerously close to 2500 USD even if you have everything else fairly low, IIRC.

Building a computer isn't hard. It's a lot like legos, in fact. And the price savings are immense: that rig I enumerated up there cost me probably 2100 USD when you count the fact that the first PSU I got was slightly underpowered and I had to buy another. That means if you're careful you can build a beast of a machine for about 1600 USD (by e.g. cutting back on the monitor and the mega video card).

I cannot, in good conscience, recommend buying a prebuilt or buying from an online integrator. I have to recommend building your own. The only thing to worry about there with mucking things up is A: wanting every cable plugged in and B: applying thermal paste messily. Nothing but following the build directions will save you from the first one (the sacred law of building computers well is RTFM), but if you're worried about your shaky hands I'll suggest Arctic Alumina or Diamond IC (?) thermal pastes, since they're nonconductive and unlikely to brick your machine before it's turned on.

Almost nothing else will be your fault if it breaks, short of accidental damage to any exposed boards. So you have nearly nothing to worry about as long as you treat the stuff with the respect a 500+ dollar piece of delicate electronics deserves, RTFM and make sure you don't use conductive thermal paste on your processor (the conductive stuff doesn't do much better anyway).

Why? "Mom and Pop are very expensive, and generally don't the expertise to solve any problems after the sale is completed. However, boutique shops are very expensive, but you get what you pay for. I agree with you on some points, building a computer isn't as difficult as it used to be. Building a new computer from scratch from the links above is a good choice, but you really dont save that much money, you also have to hope that the parts you'll recieve aren't Doa when you get them.

Avoid "Big-box" Stores like the plauge, their selection generally isn't very good and most employees dont really know much about the hardware they're selling.