I'm compiling a quick survey of every "rate my build" and "this is my build" thread for the past year or two. I also wanted to put up a direct poll. This will be up for only a few weeks.

If you were building a midrange system, about how much would you spend? This is not a spending "cap".

This price does not include monitor, or OS. Just parts cost.

My short answer is 1200-1500, but a more detailed non-numerical answer is below.

I take the existence of this poll as a sign that a lot of loyal THG readers were as confused as I was about a mid-range system that uses a $540 cpu!

I'm still thinking that I must be confused about the aim of this build guide. It must be substantially different from past build guides that were done to advise the non-billionaire computer enthusiast as to what certain price points will get you. Low cost systems were always good for office work and some minor gaming needs, mid-range systems would satisfy all gaming needs, and high-price systems were only for those who didn't mind spending huge amounts to be on the bleeding edge.

But with an old AMD X2 4200 being able to run TF2 and BF2 very well indeed, why would anyone pay $540 for a mid-range cpu? I'm all for advocating Intel dual-cores, but this is a bit crazy. Perhaps the 'mid-range' moniker doesn't refer to cost/performance sweet spots, but rather to performance-only.

Regardless, this situation has me questioning for the first time what is going on with these guides. THG has always been a great place for reviews, so don't get me wrong there. I'm just trying to figure out how to view these new guide-standards vis-a-vis past ones and all the other ones out there in the tech community.

I say 1000-1200.

Ya I would consider cheap to be 500 to 700, midrange to be 700 to 900, really good to be 900 to 1100, and 1100 to 1500 being out right gaming goodness, and 1500+ in the watercooled and extreme GFX range. So I consider the top end of midrage to be $900 which so I vote $950 since it's the closest to "my opinion" of midrange

Well to do that, I'd have to define the range....so

Case - $200
PSU - $300
MoBo - $300
CPU - $1000
4 GB DDR3 1600 - $900
Twin Vid Cards - $900
Twin 1 TB HD's - $500
Cooling - $150
Floppy / Card Reader - $40
Twin Optical Drives - $70

So round that out to say $4500.....for dream machines.

So given that, I'd put the hi end at about $2,800 - $3,200

That would put the mid range at about $$1,500 - $1850

And budget at about $900 - $1200

I wouldn't bother building below $900.

Based on performance, $1250. Depending on where you spend it, there's quite a bit of flexibility there. Someone also interested in aesthetics, e.g. a really nice case, may need to go $1400.

I say 1850$
For a Futureproof decent one with 4g DDR2 1066+Asus Formula Rampage Mobo+E8500 Proc+Cooling+3870X2+850W PSU

I think the meaning of midrange system is a best buy system. Not too weak, not too expensive but best buy.
For example : I think the mid range CPU are E8400, and Xeon E3110, etc.
If youpay more, it is than only natural if you get more.
Get it?

over kill. esp. since Nehalm will be out end of yer/mid next year.

To : Shadow703793
Agreed! and $1850 seems already a high cost system to me.

Look at the broader market. You guys are all "cheap", probably because you build it yourself rather than paying someone else to build it.

Mid-priced systems are around $1k-$2k. High-end systems are $2k and above. Add up the parts and see for yourself, a Q6600, 2GB of good RAM, a high-quality (not super-high end) motherboard such as the Gigabyte EP35-DS4, a 750GB drive, $80 case, $70 power supply, $200 graphics card, etc.

If you spend time to look in the right places, and are patient enough to wait for a good deal to pop up, you can save a lot of money in building a midrange PC. For me, the PC I'm building will cost around $950 or so, and it should last me a number of years before I will need to look into any upgrades.

Agreed

Agreed. Also factoring in OCing also saves money, esp. on the CPU.