4000$ gaming rig in 2012

Solution
Wow, a long time ago.

Most likely something like this:

I7-3930K
32GB RAM
X79 mobo
3 GTX 680s in SLI
850W PSU
A SSD an a few HDDs

That's the best I can think of.


Yeah. This last gpu pack from NVIDIA/AMD is particularly good in make the 680 feels obsolete.