[mcguyver]

Just FYI, they aren't $1700. You need to buy custom batteries, Systema mags, cylinder kits if your friends don't like getting 495 fps in the head, you get the picture.

I bought a moderately accessorized M4 MAX and the gun and Systema accessories was $3200, CASV and RDS add another $400.

Phenom, you have never held/used a PTW, so your opinion is so totally uninformed to be useless. If you have actually seen one, you would own one already. You need to do NOTHING to a PTW but use it and accessorize it. There are no performance upgrades. There are no compatibility problems. There is no "trial and error" shit, countless hours and dollars trying parts and never having the "perfect" mix. There is no "my gun always goes down" crap that always follows upgrades.

THe PTW is a mechanical device like any other and all mechanical devices will fail, that is a mathematical certainty. But would you rather not have the best out-of-the-box and be able to use a reliable gun than have to fart around building a $1500 potential-lemon from a Marui, and then have to keep putting money/parts into it to keep it running or alter it for use at varying facilities?

I've owned dozens of guns from every manufacturer and worked on every brand out there. The Systema is in such a different league that you can't compare them to anything else. BTW, my M16A3 in the classifieds is a good deal. I can find ICS or Marui guns that sell for the same money and are simply garbage in comparison.