Maximum PC's 2008 Dream Machine- 5 months later

I was taking a look at some of Maximum Pc's yearly Dream Machine builds, and got to thinking; if someone actually bought one of these, would they be happy half a year later? Would someone be able to build a computer that outperforms it for far cheaper in only 6 months?

I started looking up the prices for all of the 2008 Dream Machine components. How much of a premium will you pay if you bought all new technologies vs. waiting a few months and using mainstream parts?

The total build price for Dream Machine when it was conceived was $17,285, or $11,285 if you discount the silly things like nickel plating and an extravagant case. I just focused on the main components of the system. In order for someone to obtain the 2008 Dream Machine today, they would pay about $2,000 less than 5 months ago, about $8,918- 27% more expensive.

Here is the breakdown on the parts cost today vs 2008.




The most amazing price drops here are the hard drives. Storage is really becoming dirt cheap. Maximum PC paid over triple today's cost for their terabyte hard drives in August of 2008 than they cost today.

But is any of this even relevant? Would these parts be a smart buy today just because they are cheaper? The answer in short is a resounding NO. Purchasing the Dream Machine months, or even weeks after the article was written would leave you with expensive parts that could be bested by cheaper mainstream parts.

For example, at only $499, a single GTX 295 from Nvidia would give you better video performance than the 5 month old double 4870x2 Crossfire configuration that is $1,000 today.

In conclusion, Maximum PC's Dream Machine's is probably not your Dream Machine. My Dream Machine is not a gimmick computer like what Maximum PC puts together, where they try to waste as much money as possible just to eke out a few points on the benchmarks. If you are looking for a price:performance ratio that gives you a nice beefy rig at a decent price, then use the immense amount of money you will be saving by purchasing mainstream parts to upgrade a few months down the road.

A Computer of My Dreams!

As a little Christmas project we are doing I have been asked to look for the most expensive desktop PC I could find on the internet. This is of course all because our manger just happened to run across the "If I were a Rich Man" video on YouTube.

Dear God, you made many, many poor people. I realize there's no shame in being poor...but it's no great honor either. So what would have been so terrible if I had a small fortune? - Tevye

"If I were a Rich Man"... Err uh woman; I know the exact computer that I would buy! I’m all about graphics and photography and I enjoy dabbling in some web design from time to time, so my choice for the best graphics computer money could buy, with everything I would need or want would be an Alien ALX® X58.

My customizations would come with:

- The new Intel® Core™ i7-965 Extreme 3.2 GHz 8MB Cache processor. Nothing beats this power. Cost $700

- Acoustic Dampening: Alienware® Acoustic Dampening - Cost $99.

- Power Supply: Alienware® 1200 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply – Cost $250

- Graphics Processor: Dual 2GB GDDR5 ATI® Radeon® HD 4870 X2 with CrossFireX™ and Quad GPU Technology – Cost $550

- Video Optimizer: AlienAdrenaline v1.0: Video Performance Optimizer – Cost $35

- Memory: 12GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 6 x 2048MB – Cost $500

- Motherboard: Alienware® Approved Intel® X-58 Motherboard- Socket 1366 Core i7 Ready, Dual Triple Channel DDR3 Memory

- Operating System (Office software not included): Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate (64-bit Edition) with Service Pack 1 – Cost $100

- System Drive: Extreme Performance (RAID 0) - 256GB (2 x 128GB) Solid State Drive – Cost $830

- Because Picture Raw requires a lot of space and several copies of each image due to processing for print and web I would want an additional storage drive. I chose one with 2TB (2 x 1TB) SATA 3Gb/s 7,200RPM w/ 2 x 32MB Cache – Cost $388

- Optical Drives : Dual Drive Configuration - Drive 1: 20X Dual Layer Burner (DVD±RW) w/ LightScrib and in Drive 2: 4x Dual Layer Blu-ray Burner (BD-RE, DVD±RW, CD-RW) - Cost $450

- Enthusiast Essentials: Dual High Performance Gigabit Ethernet Ports – Cost $150

- Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ XtremeGamer High Definition 7.1 Audio – Cost -$99

- Having two monitors to work on is great for multi-tasking and also great in web design. It gives you the opportunity to see your pages displayed in different sizes during development. Monitor 1: is 24" 2408WFP 1920 x 1200p (6ms) – Cost $689

- Monitor 2 is a 30" 3008WFP 2560 x 1600p (8ms) great for movies and photo editing. Cost $1999

- Speakers: Logitech® Z-2300 2.1 200-Watt Speakers - Cost $249

- Keyboard: Wireless Keyboard - Logitech® diNovo Edge Keyboard – Cost $178

- Mouse: Standard Mouse - Logitech MX™ Revolution Mouse – Cost $82

- Command and Control:Belkin Nostromo SpeedPad n52te, SteelSeries Ikari Laser Mouse and SteelSeries 5H v2 Headset.- Cost $189

- Logitech® QuickCam® Pro 9000 - Cost $100

- Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007 - Cost $150

- Warranty: 3-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support with Onsite Service - Cost $300

- AlienRespawn: AlienRespawn v2.0 Recovery DVD – Windows Vista® Edition - Cost $0

- Digital Editing Software: Adobe® Photoshop® CS4 - Cost $718


All of this for a grand beautiful total for $13,950.00. This system will have the power and performance that is top of the line with the warranty to back it up. A graphic girl’s Dream! Check this out my friend mike built his dream laptop here.