Hi,

I'm looking into getting a new computer, and have to decide between getting components and assembling it myself, and buying a complete system. I'm not sure which way to go.

The system is intended to dual-boot Windows + Linux, and be a gamer PC under Windows and a work PC under Linux. Since my work obviously involves lots of C++, this means I want 4 cores and massive amounts of RAM. (Compiling big projects is slow otherwise.) On the game side, I also need some graphics power. I'm not looking for a top system here, but I still want to be able to play new releases with decent settings two years from now.

I've looked at Lenovo's desktop offers, but they're useless in this area - Lenovo is clearly focused on business computers. I suspect that the same goes for similar big companies like Dell. Dell's Alienware offers high performance, but I'm not sure if the prices are reasonable.

On the other hand, if I go for components, I have to do all the research and selecting of components. The assembling itself is no problem, but the selection is a significant time investment, and I'm rather out of touch with the hardware market.

So, any recommendations for system vendors?