lol yeah i completely agree 2500 is sufficient and i would not pay past that for a top notch desktop. laptop maybe 3k. you could go cheaper than 1600 depending on your methods though. there is a really good subredit you can buy sell parts on that alot of people goto very reputable problem with buy there is you dont get a waranty just like ebay. those people though are normal everyday people just looking to upgrade to the next best thing and get rid of the old stuff you gotta be fast though because that stuff gets bought up real freaken quick.
Yeah you're right you can do a solid machine for less than $1600.00. If I'm doing a brand new build, including case and power supply, I spend a little extra dough on the case. The one I have is around 350 - 400, but it's really solid and will last multiple builds for decades until the form factor changes. Now if I took case and power out of a new build and was just replacing the guts of my box including storage, I could easily do it for 1-1200 bucks.
That 5 digit build that was posted earlier is for rich kids or people with more credit than sense, their warranty isn't worth it either. I've RMAed maybe 2 parts in over 20 years of building PCs. 2I mean I'm glad there are people who pay premium for parts, they drive the cost down for me, but don't fool your self into thinking that fancy build is a smart buy. As mentioned earlier, give it a few years and it'll be worth 1/10 the price. I made the mistake of buying parts on the higher end of the price curve once, way back when and to this day I won't make that mistake again. :)
If you're new to building a PC, I would say this, set a budget, if you already have a monitor, keyboard and mouse, then $1500.00 bucks is a reasonable start for a system that will easily last you 4 years before you NEED to upgrade. If the person helping you can't do it for that price then ask somebody else for help. If you need the extra stuff, then budget $2000.00 minimum.
