I have a friend that does some limited PC gaming, and his PC is getting a little long in the tooth. I offered to do some PC research, and rather than hiding that in a discord where upwards of three people will see it, I'm gonna post some thoughts here.

First, some requirements. He has a 2560x1440@165Hz certified GSYNC screen, so there isn't much reason to upgrade that. It does set a performance target, and preference for video card chipset. For budget, we're going to try to stay under $2000, but build something that should run acceptably for 5-8 years. Finally, my friend would strongly prefer not to build the PC himself.

Next, some controversy. I don't trust iBuyPower or CyberPowerPC. They seem popular, and have stuck around for long enough that I don't think they're scams or bad companies, but once in a while, when I hear people talking about their experience with one of them, it sounds like their customer support is poor. Sometimes you roll the dice on whether your CPU gets thermal paste, I guess.

My other controversial opinion is that your CPU manufacturer doesn't matter much. AMD has made big strides with their CPUs in recent years, and so have their prices. Both AMD and Intel have had CPU vulnerabilities which will knock some speed off your system, too. Games are still largely single-thread bound, so individual core speeds and performance are king, and I can't get worked up about a 5-10 FPS difference when the price point is similar.

So, what PC builders are out there? Hard to say! PCGamer has a writeup from 2015 and no one (in what I would consider the mainstream gaming press) has written anything since, according to Google. Of the other lists I found, no one seems to have any criticism of any builder beyond the prices. In the end, I found six ways that seemed ok to build a PC: Dell's Alienware, Corsair's OriginPC, NZXT's BLD, Xidax, NewEgg, and MicroCenter. Unfortunately, MicroCenter's PC building service requires in-store pick up, and there are no MicroCenters in my friend's state. I'll look at NewEgg another time, as at that point, you're practically building the PC yourself.

Builder	Price	CPU	Mobo	RAM	GPU	Storage	Notes
Alienware Aurora R15	$2050	i7 13700F	N/A	No brand 1x16GB@4800MHz, DDR5	No brand 4070, 12GB	No Brand 1TB M.2	750W PSU, Air cooled
OriginPC NEURON	$2012	i5 13600K	MSI PRO Z790-A WIFI	Corsair 2x16GB@5600MHz, DDR5	No brand 4060 Ti, 16GB	Samsung 1TB M.2	850W PSU, 240mm Liquid CPU cooler
BLD H5 Flow	$1956	i5 13600KF	MSI Pro Z790-A WIFI	T-FORCE 2x16GB@3200MHz, DDR4	ASUS 4070, 12G	Samsung 1TB M.2	850W PSU, 240mm Liquid CPU cooler
Xidax X-6	$1984	i5 13600K	MSI Pro Z790-P WIFI	G.SKILL 2x16GB@6000MHz, DDR5	No brand 4060 Ti, 16GB	Xidax 1TB M.2	850W PSU, 240mm Liquid CPU cooler

Alienware has some nice options, but they only offer one case and motherboard. I had to cut back on some options I could get with other builders to hit the GPU and price I was targeting.

OriginPC gave me everything I wanted, except for GPU, for a good price. They have a sale at the moment, though, so this one would require cuts in the future. Apparently OriginPC was founded by ex-Alienware guys, so they seem to have some pedigree.

BLD were also pretty good, but unlike the others, they seem to think the same motherboard cannot do DDR5, so it uses DDR4.

Xidax was cheap, but I did have to drop the GPU below what I wanted, and many of their parts are Xidax branded, which I don't trust. They say they have a lifetime warranty, which seems like a plus, and I heard they've been growing by advertising with streamers, which seems like a minus.

So, from these, I think I like the OriginPC the best, but I'd probably spend another $100 to upgrade to a 4070.