I am looking for a good website where I can get a custom built pc.
I have been looking at IBuyPower.com and I have found pretty much exactly what I want and they offer financing which makes my credit card happy. The problem is that I have been reading tons of very bad reviews. From what I have gathered is that you have about a 70% chance of getting a PC that runs perfectly out of the box. If you have a problem though your screwed. Customer service is worthless and their 24/7 support that they offer is BS. I mean they don't have 24/7 support like their website says. I have read several reviews on how their customer support is more knowledgable about PCs then their tech support. I know that people who are happy usually don't say anything while the unhappy ones scream and moan wherever they can and I have taken this into consideration, but the number of unhappy reviews is too much to ignore.
I have also checked out CyberPower and they don't have exactly what I want nor do they offer financing but their reviews aren't nearly as bad as IBuyPower.
Anyone have any other websites that I can check out? I am looking for websites where I can get custom builds or can configure prebuilds to what I want. I need to find a quality website and I am having trouble finding one. I am getting to the point of just ordering what I need and putting it together myself but I really don't want to go that route.
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Good website for custom buildsFollow
Depending on where you live I would be willing to build you one as I do computer work for a living unless you are trying to avoid that type of situation.
If I was you, I would ask around with your friends or friends of your family as you will always find a computer geek with a lot of time on their hands (like me ; ;). The reason I say this is because here where I live there has been multiple shops like this which do "custom" builds and instead of giving you a legit windows key among other things they steal then keys from a local university which have all there computers for public use.
I would seriously do your homework on the place you go with prior to laying down your hard earned money on something which may be half illegal or being blind sided with hardware which they do not get exactly (ie: you wanted a certain series CPU like venice or manchester (AMD world) but they give you something else).
If you decide to do it thru the website I highlu advice you to download a program called CPU-Z which tells you just about everything you need to know to make sure you got what you paid for.
If I was you, I would ask around with your friends or friends of your family as you will always find a computer geek with a lot of time on their hands (like me ; ;). The reason I say this is because here where I live there has been multiple shops like this which do "custom" builds and instead of giving you a legit windows key among other things they steal then keys from a local university which have all there computers for public use.
I would seriously do your homework on the place you go with prior to laying down your hard earned money on something which may be half illegal or being blind sided with hardware which they do not get exactly (ie: you wanted a certain series CPU like venice or manchester (AMD world) but they give you something else).
If you decide to do it thru the website I highlu advice you to download a program called CPU-Z which tells you just about everything you need to know to make sure you got what you paid for.
Thanks for the offer but I can build my own if it really comes down to it. The reason I am looking to purchase a custom build from a company instead of doing it myself is that at times mixing different types of hardware can cause some major issues. Especially when it comes to ATI, I love their cards but they can be a royal pain to work with. My current build goes through DIMMS like water for no apparent reason and I can't upgrade much more then what I have already done. Basically I want a decent warranty for when the hardware starts fighting with itself.
I think I am just going to head over to CompUSA, buy what I need and see if they will offer a warranty if I have them build it. Assuming they aren't going to try charging me an arm and a leg.
I know a lot of the "WE WILL BUILD YOUR PC" websites will ***** you over, which is why I am asking if anyone knows of a well established company that does it for a reasonable price.
And no way in hell am I going anywhere near Alienware. I refuse to pay $11K for something I can build myself for just over $1K.
I think I am just going to head over to CompUSA, buy what I need and see if they will offer a warranty if I have them build it. Assuming they aren't going to try charging me an arm and a leg.
I know a lot of the "WE WILL BUILD YOUR PC" websites will ***** you over, which is why I am asking if anyone knows of a well established company that does it for a reasonable price.
And no way in hell am I going anywhere near Alienware. I refuse to pay $11K for something I can build myself for just over $1K.
Your better off doing it yourself to be honest because most places are installing OEM vista from what I have seen which in my opinion is meh, as Vista has a lot of issues which most service techs are no up to speed on.
I have never really had Hardware compatibly issues like you noted, however I tend to stick more on the NVidia side as ATI cards never really impressed me much.
After reading your post, you may have a power supply issue which is overloading your memory because I had one which worked fine however would create memory dump errors that when you try to test for errors with like mem64 it would test ok.
Hopefully CompUSA has something for you, I find myself wanting to build it so I know it was done the right way and not just slapped together by a service tech who for better terms is clueless on stuff.
Edited, Feb 2nd 2007 7:35am by xXBijiontXx
I have never really had Hardware compatibly issues like you noted, however I tend to stick more on the NVidia side as ATI cards never really impressed me much.
After reading your post, you may have a power supply issue which is overloading your memory because I had one which worked fine however would create memory dump errors that when you try to test for errors with like mem64 it would test ok.
Hopefully CompUSA has something for you, I find myself wanting to build it so I know it was done the right way and not just slapped together by a service tech who for better terms is clueless on stuff.
Edited, Feb 2nd 2007 7:35am by xXBijiontXx
Yea, I think I am just going to do it myself. Only thing I was trying to avoid was installing the CPU onto the board and setting it up since it has been so long since I have done it. I talked to a friend of mine and it seems setting up the board and CPU is a lot easier nowadays then it used to be. I am going to be setting up a duel core system which I have no hands on experience with yet and thats what kind of worried me. From what I have been told though is that it isn't much different then setting up a single CPU so it shouldn't be a problem. Thanks for the help though.
As fas as my memory issue, I am running an Asus board with the scanning software so a power issues I would have been warned about by the software. About 30% of the time the DIMM in slot 3 just won't work, like it's not even there, and I have to reboot. Once in awhile it will shut down while the machine is running but that is very rare. Every once in awhile the DIMM will just go bad and I have to replace it and it's always the one in slot 3. I have a feeling that it's the board itself which is another reason I am looking for a new machine and not trying to push this build any further.
As fas as my memory issue, I am running an Asus board with the scanning software so a power issues I would have been warned about by the software. About 30% of the time the DIMM in slot 3 just won't work, like it's not even there, and I have to reboot. Once in awhile it will shut down while the machine is running but that is very rare. Every once in awhile the DIMM will just go bad and I have to replace it and it's always the one in slot 3. I have a feeling that it's the board itself which is another reason I am looking for a new machine and not trying to push this build any further.
Good choice ^^
A bit of a warning if you run any Probe tools to keep an eye on your system (which everyone should do if your reading this!) the Dual core CPU's run hot even with Artic 5 thermal paste and a aftermarket cooler. Normal temps for a Dual Core running on the stock fan and heat sink (which usually have that crappy paste on it) run about 30c idle to 55c under full load. 55c normally seems really bad but for the dual core chips it's ok providing it's not hovering around the 65c range.
If you have any questions go ahead and PM me. I usually build AMD systems but also have Intel experience as well. I recommend if your going dual core the AMD chips, yea a little more money and slightly slower then Intel chips but man they can take a beating. I remember clocking my old 939 system 1Ghz over normal clock running stable.
Also for AMD socket AM2 is the way to go as all the Dual cores are there.
A bit of a warning if you run any Probe tools to keep an eye on your system (which everyone should do if your reading this!) the Dual core CPU's run hot even with Artic 5 thermal paste and a aftermarket cooler. Normal temps for a Dual Core running on the stock fan and heat sink (which usually have that crappy paste on it) run about 30c idle to 55c under full load. 55c normally seems really bad but for the dual core chips it's ok providing it's not hovering around the 65c range.
If you have any questions go ahead and PM me. I usually build AMD systems but also have Intel experience as well. I recommend if your going dual core the AMD chips, yea a little more money and slightly slower then Intel chips but man they can take a beating. I remember clocking my old 939 system 1Ghz over normal clock running stable.
Also for AMD socket AM2 is the way to go as all the Dual cores are there.
falcon northwest, widow PC, or alienware are all good choices
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Ok, here is what I am looking at.
CPU - AMD Athlonâ„¢ 64 5200+ X2 (Socket AM2)
Motherboard - ASUS CROSSHAIR
Graphics Card - EVGA GeForce 7600 GT / 256MB GDDR3 / SLI / PCI Express / Dual DVI / HDTV / Video Card (x2)
Memory - Corsair DHX XMS2 Dominator Dual Channel 2048MB PC6400 DDR2 800Mhz Memory
Too tired to provide links right now. I'll get them in the morning.
Good, Bad, Ugly?
CPU - AMD Athlonâ„¢ 64 5200+ X2 (Socket AM2)
Motherboard - ASUS CROSSHAIR
Graphics Card - EVGA GeForce 7600 GT / 256MB GDDR3 / SLI / PCI Express / Dual DVI / HDTV / Video Card (x2)
Memory - Corsair DHX XMS2 Dominator Dual Channel 2048MB PC6400 DDR2 800Mhz Memory
Too tired to provide links right now. I'll get them in the morning.
Good, Bad, Ugly?
Should be pretty solid machine, I would reccommend atleast a 600W PSU especially if you are running cards in SLI do to the extra power drain.
ASUS Crosshair is pretty overkill for some minor features which in the end will rarely if ever get used. I built my most recent gaming box with the ASUS M2N - SLI Deluxe motherboard and it handles everything well. The built in RAID controller works better then most from what I have set it up with (Dual Raptors running RAID 0) Yeah I know, RAID 0 is a no no and I should be running RAID 0+1 but I have a 750Gb drive with a ghost image of the system, it's just a gaming box nothing else.
I would suggest getting the 7950GT video cards if you are going to run them in SLI as in SLI mode they are just under the new 8800's performance wise from the benchs I have seen. I run dual 8800's with a 1000w PSU and water block cooling (and the damn things still feel like they are 150 degrees.)
ASUS Crosshair is pretty overkill for some minor features which in the end will rarely if ever get used. I built my most recent gaming box with the ASUS M2N - SLI Deluxe motherboard and it handles everything well. The built in RAID controller works better then most from what I have set it up with (Dual Raptors running RAID 0) Yeah I know, RAID 0 is a no no and I should be running RAID 0+1 but I have a 750Gb drive with a ghost image of the system, it's just a gaming box nothing else.
I would suggest getting the 7950GT video cards if you are going to run them in SLI as in SLI mode they are just under the new 8800's performance wise from the benchs I have seen. I run dual 8800's with a 1000w PSU and water block cooling (and the damn things still feel like they are 150 degrees.)
I am still looking around at motherboards but I am looking at the crosshair right now because it seems to be very stabile. The crosshair also seems to be right on par with the top end gaming boards right now. I want to go higher end on the CPU and motherboard so I don't have to upgrade for awhile. The video and memory I am just going to upgrade as needed. The 7600 GTs should be more then enough for what I need right now. I am iffy about the liquid cooling system. I can't get over the liquid + electronics = bad. I do plan on going with a full tower for the added ventilation though.
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