Yes, it's pricey, but this is a nice high-end system and Origin is in the business to make money. Sure, most of us have the knowledge of building our own systems, but for those who aren't, or are just too scared to do so, this a great alternative for them if they can afford it. Personally, if I didn't know how to build my own, I'd pay someone that I knew to do it for me, unless he wants to do it for free.
I went to PCPARTPICKER and put the following system together. NOTE: I had to substitute for the case and cooler, as they're not available on PCPARTPICKER. Also, excluding the t-shirt, USB recovery drive and lighting, I think most of the so-called accessories are basically left overs that come from the motherboard and PSU.
PCPartPicker part list:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Tc7tRB
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Tc7tRB/by_merchant/
CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($319.73 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H110i GT 113.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($149.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII RANGER ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($296.37 @ Amazon)
Memory: Kingston 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($201.13 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($419.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($92.63 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 4GB ACX 2.0 Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($526.30 @ Directron)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 4GB ACX 2.0 Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($526.30 @ Directron)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Luxe ATX Full Tower Case ($159.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 1000G2 1000W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($149.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: LG WH16NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($56.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($87.75 @ OutletPC)
Total: $2987.06
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-20 14:29 EST-0500
NOTE: If you do your homework, you can possibly find much better prices around the web. These are what PCPARTPICKER automatically selected as the lowest prices for me at the time of this posting.
Not sure what's so special about Origins choice of memory. You can find much better and less expensive memory than that!
I simply chose the cooler as it was about the most expensive cooler to choose from. Just trying to get the price near what Origin is asking for their build.
I suppose I could have chosen a much more expensive case and got the cost of this build near the price of what Origin is asking for theirs, but selected this case for it's included lighting. Just wanted to select a case with similar features.
Yes, you can save if you build it yourself. You also get to decide on each component that goes into your system along with the satisfaction of having built it yourself. Still, high-end system builds are going to put a hurting on our precious wallets.