Perhaps I was misunderstood. I was not suggesting a custom gaming rig. I was suggesting an off the shelf gaming computer. All manufacturers have them and classify them that way. There are a few that have a video editing classification.

If you have a friend that builds computer, then that may be a solution.

Often there are economies of volume buying. Manufacturers can put together a good rig cheaper than you can. There would be no concern about compatibility of components. Shopping around will help as will a warranty..

See my signature for 2 of the computer I have. .
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BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.

Oh yeah... I forgot there were off-the-shelf machines that the companies market as gaming computers, I thought Alienware laptops were all highly customizable. I could be wrong, though.

If you don't have a friend who can help, do that.

Perhaps we can get Mauroso to change the title of this thread to "Great Forum Help' .
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BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.

Ha Ha ! Maybe I should! you all have been very helpful.

I can ask a couple of people I know but I am not too confident they are all that smart about computers - they're engineers after all, big egos...lol

So if I do decide to go the off-the-shelf option, in the below USD 1500 range, what would you suggest? If you are not happy posting anything on the forum, please send me a private message.

I was looking on the internet, ran into 2 models at BestBuy:

HP Gamind PC - Intel i7 - 670- 2TB 16B RAM Nvidia Gforce TX 960

or

Dell Inspiron Gaming PC - i7 - 6700 2TB 16GB RAM

If you look deeper into their specification is all greek to me, it all means nothing to me as I dont know what all those codes mean.

Maybe you fellas can help me out.

Which one (or neither one?) would you go for? Any other model you think it is better?

BTW, I guess Movie editing and Flight Simulators (Xplane) are my only taxing software I use. I don't do any gaming (too old for that) but never say never. I might do it one day. My last gaming was back in the Atari days.....

My movie softwares will always be upgraded, so I do expect bigger demands in the near future. My movie projects are 2 to 3.5 hours long, which takes me sometimes over a year to do, specially if the computer keeps crashing. If I had a fast machine, this could be cut down substantially.

Any thoughts?

Again, if you prefer, you can send private msg.

cheers and once again THANK YOU

Depending on what that i7 is, that HP one with the 960 could be pretty good.

P.S. Flight sims are games too

Hi MAURO50 -

"i7-670" was probably a typo. There's an i5-670, but that's a very different kettle of fish.

The HP is possibly *this one* - looks like a good thing on the face of it.

From what I can find, the Dell Inspiron ships with AMD Radeon R9 360, which wouldn't give you as much editing benefit as the NVIDIA GTX 960. Happy to be corrected on that - maybe I looked in the wrong places.

I'm no techie either. I'm only going on what I've read & heard, but (of those two options) the HP looks like a better thing.

Cheers - Tony
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Ok, Here is another option. It is from a builder and not a major manufacturer. It has a I7 4790, a GTX 950, 16G memory, and 2T memeory (that is a lot).

http://www.cpusolutions.com/store/pc/Pre-Configured-Gamer-PC-Core-I7-4790-3-6ghz-Quad-Core-with-Windows-10-16GB-RAM-2TB-HDD-GTX950-w-2GB-Video-Card-183p4178.htm

It is in your price range and has a few customization options. The 960 causes a $50 price increase.

Mine is a little more than that and have not had an issue with it. My friend recommended it after she bought one about the same time.

To save anyone some time here are the preconfigured spec. As I said there are some reasonable upgrades.:

CPU Type: 4th Gen Core i7
Customization Available:: Basic Customization
Video Chipset: GTX 950
MPN: CEG-4217C
Chipset: Intel B85 Express
# of Memory Slots: 4
Case Size: Mid Tower
Interfaces/Ports: HDMI, DVI, & Display
PortMemory Size: 16GB
Memory Speed: 1600
Storage Capacity: 2TB
Wattage: 600
List Price: $1,349.99Price: $1,099.99You Save: $250.00 (19%)

As I said, the one above is an example. There are many others in your price range. Some even prettier !

http://www.cpusolutions.com/store/pc/showsearchresults.asp?priceFrom=1000&priceUntil=1500 .
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BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.

Yeah, if it IS a 6700, that one would be the way to go, but without confirmation about what kind of graphics card the Dell has, I can't really say for sure. I wouldn't be surprised if it just relied on the 4k "capable" integrated graphics on the 6700.

It's also worth noting that the HP has two empty memory slots, so if you decide you want more RAM, you can just slap it in.


Edit: stevek's suggestion could be better.