Well, these points were never made clear until now first of all. I'm not big into PC gaming, but as far as I know beatmatcher is right. There are very few games that actually support true 5.1 channel sound. Besides, you're not losing anything by using 4 bookshelves and a sub compared to any boxed 5.1 channel system and have only to gain in audio quality. I used to have a z5500 system, still do and you will never ever ever convince me that those things produce better sound than quality bookshelves. Not after what I've heard. To me 4 bookshelves will give you so much better sound than those crappy super directional speakers that come boxed up like that.
Don't get me wrong my z5500 served me well, especially for what it provided on a super limited college budget. Nowadays, when budget is a little more flexible, if I had my computer in a separate room from my regular HT system I would not be going back to such a thing. It would be 4 bookshelves and a sub. I'd also like to point out that from your picture (things may be different) you don't even have them set up in a position to give you good surround sound. None are mounted adjacent to you or behind you. they're all in like a wall or slightly curved position in front of you. This is not how you get good surround sound where you hear noises all around you.
I can't speak for how things in your gaming have occurred, I can only try and translate your gaming experiences to my HT experiences and from those experiences you're just not going to convince me those things were throwing sounds behind you, and if they were, not accurately. Not until I hear such a thing for myself from speakers like those.
Furthermore, none of my recommendations have been for a $2000 setup. They have all been within your budget, or close to it. I think you need to realize that you're not going to convince people, some of whom have spent many years in the audio industry, that what you're claiming is true. You claim that you can't get the sound you want from what we recommend when, that's just untrue. Not to mention you're basing your reactions to our recommendations on information that wasn't given to us.
I mean if you don't like what we have to say/don't agree, then provide factual evidence that what we're saying is wrong. If we've given you suggestions that are outside your price range quote the suggestion and say so. If you think we haven't seen things from your perspective provide some evidence. Obviously you haven't been on this website too long or looked around too hard. There are many people with budgets less than yours that members have worked with to get something worth their money. Odds are, if recommendations get made for something above budget theres a good reason. If you hold something back like what you've said above, then criticize members for suggestions that don't meet unknown criteria, well then I think that's kinda bull. If you want recommendations for something that sounds good, you're on the right website. If you only want confirmations or denials for things you've already set your mind on, then go to amazon and read reviews.
Some of us have tried to help, I know I have, and all my recommendations have been off of the information you've given. Which means I personally don't appreciate the implication that you've made.