I built mine about 2 years ago. My cost, about $2,000. Obviously, I didn't build mine to get it cheaper, although, I probably could have, but that was not my goal. I wanted as reliable and fast a computer that $2,000 would buy at the time. After 2 years, I'm still satisfied with my decision. It's fast and reliable. Also, having just experienced having a $2,000 laptop's motherboard go out on me right after the warranty expired was another reason. I wanted something that would be relatively easy to fix.
