when does a budget pc become a high end pc?
 

I was just contemplating this thought, and am stuck on thinking whether its the cost, performance output or components themselves? anyone else have an imput?

I'd say it's components and the costs tied to them but depending on its intended use a PC can have high end and budget parts mixed up.

hi, hmm very interresting
I wouldnt say its the cost as you could get a really good deal on powerful parts, I would say that its the strength of the components and the weather the strength of the parts equals high output performance in real life, also its the combo of all the parts as a system will only be as strong as the weakest component, my 2cent lol

how close it is to the maximum possible performance of an ideal system intended for a specific use.

ideal system = built with an infinite budget, without redundant components like two of GPUs etc :)

great terminology! the problem with including price is that some people can get components for free or very cheap, some 'high end' parts aren't as good as others and the market is ever evolving.....some systems (software included) may be budget but perform similar to high end (including OCing)!

I think it depends on the use to wether or not you can call your PC high end.

A high end gaming PC definitely revolves around the GPU setup and not so much the CPU and motherboard. For example if someone said to me that they have a i7 3970x and a GTX670 I definitly wouldn't call that a high end gaming rig, but if he said he had a i7 3770k with SLI GTX680's or GTX690 then I definitly would call that a high end gaming rig.

Same if its for a workstation. For a high end workstation PC I would base it more around the CPU(s) and its ability to crunch numbers or do video / image processing.

On top of that I believe any high end PC should have basic things like SSD's and maybe some form of overclocking.

These are the thing's I base a high end PC on.

My system is a nice hybrid server/workstation that can game decently.I built this for only 800USD. I plan on adding another 16GB RAM and another SSD for the VMs and then later the new GTX 700s when those come out.

Why do you spend time thinking about that? You have some money, and you buy the best you can (the term "best" is not a static btw) for that money.

My PC Parts Addiction
 

Like any addiction, the dreadful compulsion to constantly upgrade PC components can be deemed a problem when it starts cutting into your budget, social life, relationships, etc. So for those in denial, it started shortly after you realized that you could improve performance by one simple little upgrade, and it took off from there.
For me, it's now at the point where I haven't even finished tweaking the current upgrade before I'm researching the next one. Hard to define exactly when my system became "high end", maybe the day I installed the H100 and overclocked it to 4.5 GHz.
Some would say my system still isn't high end, since I only have an i5-3570k and 8 GB of 2400 MHz RAM, but it does what I need it to do in a timely fashion, especially when compared to my old system.
I did manage to build this system on a very tight budget, starting from a Pentium 4 3.2GHz, socket 775 board, and DDR3 1333MHz, and upgrading 1 or 2 parts at a time until ended up with my current system.

Id say you split all components performance wise into the lowest porformers of that's range etc. Take for example, gtx 610 to gtx 690. You can put the first four into low end, the 50, 60, 60ti in mid range, and the 70, 80 and 90 into high end, same with processors, ram speeds, etc, at least that's how I view it

High end PC is not the same as "put all you can possibly buy" inside your monster case...
It's more about "can that PC tackle with ease all of your needs".
For example, I consider that for me playing demanding games on a single screen, my i7 930 at 4Ghz and my single 7970 oc'ed are largely into the "high end" department still.
If I had 3 screens, that'd be mid-range cause of gpu lacking.
If I was into CAD design, i'd be in the mid-to-low side cause I could use a 12 thread CPU and more than my miserable 6GB RAM, which however is high-end for gaming as its running 1600 7-7-7-21-1T

I also think that any high-end pc should have at least a decent sata3 SSD that will be able to store all frequenty used applications.

Basically i'm saying what has alrdy been said in previous posts ^^

so there is a slight conclusion that it is a meet needs basis. how about what the manufacturers say is high end and whats not? also I think we're forgetting age of components

I'd say once it can play the most recent AAA games on high settings.

To me, any PC that is worth $1500 and above is high end. Don't bother the naysayers.

So by that logic you can buy a pc and fill it with 1500 1 dollar bills and that that is a high end pc. Just because you spend alot of money on a turd does not make it a high end turd.

I would say when a PC can do everything you need "at the time" easily and that PC has an very good build quality is a high end PC, but this is subjective and depends on your opinion.

Never. There's always going to be CAD computers with $2000+ price tags that make "budget" computers pathetic. High end software keeps getting high-end driving the hardware to improve. Even if physics don't allow faster hardware to be made in large steps, they can still always make high-end hardware with gold circuits to get that little bit of extra performance for an obscene price.

So what is a $1499 PC then? It's all in the components. Would you say that a 7990 ARES II + Pentium + random mobo, RAM, etc. is a high end PC? It's above $1500.

Performance. Simple as that.

The opposite, a 3960X-based PC with an HD5450 would be considered high-end, so your point is moot. :p

IMHO its a well balanced and high performing computer .....cost dosnt really matter

I don't know but for me is more like:

Budget = cost > performance or something like how low cost can you get and still be close to top end performance, maybe efficiency pays a bigger picture here

High end = performance justifies the cost, this is were most high end parts are used, some time even if they are not justified, BUT not over the top cost. Here you'll find for example an i7 or a 3930x + 680/7970 maybe even sli/cross + ROG maximum + 840pro SSD maybe even raid + h100 or maybe even an enthusiast water cooling system usually a mix of theme. The idea here is that you get the best parts but have an eye out at the price tag, for example the best is 3960x at 1000$ but the 3930x is 500$ and it can produce the almost the same whit some OC.

Enthusiast = here you must have the top of the line/best parts no mater the cost or even if it is more than what you need. This is were i find the ARES/GTX 690 + 3960x + Maximus Extreme + PCie SSD also it may have a enthusiast water cooling system (including big rad/more rads and water cooled GPU) + a very expensive case whit/without modding to it. Mostly over the top or overkill parts no mater the cost.

Now a high end pc can get to the enthusiast part over time by adding more stuff to the bill, second GPU maybe even third, custom water cool system, custom/modded case more ssd for raid and so on. Mostly budget pc's are build whit cost in mind and/or around a not so big budget, a high end pc its build whit stock parts that are not over the top wen it comes to cost and enthusiast are only whit the best/over the top parts that it can be bought. It's very hard to distinguish between high end and enthusiast only by the cost, but if you add time and passion you will see enthusiast part immediately. For example here you can find someone whit a custom mod case and/or custom water loop and the parts may be for a media center. That system is not high end but you can clearly see the enthusiast part of it. It may not be all the time one or another usually is a mix. For example you can start whit a budget system lets say a i3/4300/6300 + decent motherboard + 660TI/7870 + 1*840 ssd 128 GB + a 2/3 TB HDD. Now by upgrading/adding parts over time so now we get a i7/8350 + second GPU + another ssd / maybe even a new one/two 840pro maybe even bigger add some H100i or even custom loop and we get to a high end pc. Want to go even bigger get a 3930x + a new motherboard + get 2*670/680/7970 we are still in the high end part but getting very close to enthusiast, and so one.

Okey i'm going to stop now as i see the length of my post :eek: but i'm sure you get the general idea. Sry for the mistakes and hope you can understand the point.

Cost DOES matter..it's in the "name"....


BUDGET PC...

I think cost defines a budget pc but highend pcs arent adequately defined by cost so for me its performance mostly .
My main rigs a budget pc I assure.
But its high end .at least to me

but cost of product not cost we pay, because that could range from to zero to billions lol! also its definitely noted it has somewhat to do with performance output, and I guess the boundary between budget - high end is in the eye of the person....

Like I said, don't bother the naysayers. I thought you all know what I really meant.

Put $1000 bill in a PC.. Really? That's how you comprehend my point?
ARES II with Pentium.. Seriously?

When I say a PC woth $1500, that means it is balance all round. For the price you can get a build complete with an SSD (or two).

Maybe because I've used low end machine since my inception, my view on high end PC is different than yours. I'm sorry if my opinion bothers you that much. :)