Building the GEARBOX: Take on Borderlands 2 With the Ultimate $2500 Gaming PC

We initially toyed with the idea of forgoing a Blu-Ray drive in favor of the DVD variety. After all, the kind of gamer who would slap together this kind of gaming rig will likely spend more time downloading titles through services like Steam than spinning discs.

Ultimately, we decided the Blu-Ray drive was worth it. This is a PC gaming rig squarely aimed at playing the next generation of games. Today we know that means PC download, but what if tomorrow's games are simply too big to download without chewing through your data cap in record time? What if EA gives you a choice of Blu-Ray or using Origin (we can only dream...)?

Think of ASUS' BC-12B1ST as an insurance policy for future games. For a slight premium today, you can rest peacefully knowing your machine is prepared for next-gen games, regardless of the format they take. At $55, it's not a bank-breaker upgrade, and you'll get to enjoy DVD reading and writing as well as BD-ROM playback for as long as your GEARBOX is running.