gaming pc companies

[Bonfleck]

Curious as to everyone's/anyone's opinion regarding buying a gaming pc from an online company. eg: cyberpower pc, puget systems, alienware, etc etc. Not sure who to trust:hmm: and can only find reviews from the companies "online testimonials". Thanks in advance. B

[kylania]

Alienware has always been too expensive for me, but I hear good things.

Only custom PC place I've bought from was Falcon Northwest. The style of the PC was great, price was pretty decent at the time, quality was outstanding. The phone salesmen were patient and helped answer all the questions I had. I still use that PC years later.

The only problem with it was some "hidden features". One of the options was to get two harddrives and extra RAM. At the time I couldn't really afford it, so I said no thanks. But I'd checked out the type of motherboard they used and I could upgrade later.

Apparently I didn't read the small print well enough or whatever, but after a year or so when I went to add more RAM and another hard drive I found the RAM slot glued over! I managed to remove the glue and expand my RAM but had no such luck with the hard drive. Not only had my PC shipped with a single hardrive, but Falcon had physically REMOVED the secondary harddrive slot on the motherboard! That disappointed me and I've since gone back to hand building my PCs afterwards.

For ease of owning a computer you can do well with one of these types of companies, don't need to mess with anything, it all just works and if something goes wrong they usually have a service plan. You'll pay extra for it of course and might be limited in upgrade choices, but it's easy. :)

[CWorth]

I have personally found that it is far cheaper to build the PC yourself than to go to some online place and have them build it.

Take Alienware..overbloated prices is what they have.

I am able to build an equivalent computer to theirs for far less,almost half the cost at times,and get the same thing in performance.

Remember with any name brand you are paying far more than what you could personally build a computer of equal performance for.Most of the cost is simply paying for the name not what is in the system.

For example I watched a show on TV the other night that took you on a tour of boot making factory.At one point they showed some motorcycle boots being made.Now they were ALL identical..except 1/2 of them had the Harley Davidson logo on the side and sold for over $85.00+..the other 1/2 had no logos and sold for around $45.00.You paid that much more simply because it had a name brand on it.

Simply put if you have the know how it is far cheaper to build a computer yourself than to have a company build it for you.However if you know little about computers in terms of hardware etc..then you may want to buy one from someone.

[kiwi_2005]

As for Alienware when building your own, you can buy Alienware look alike cases - $90 - $120nz with alien designs and artwork. My son built himself a lookalike Alienware PC - im talking looks not hardware wise. The hardware he brought separetly from NZ online store. But the PC looks like a 5-6 grand PC yet only cost him $1495. (minus monitor).

[micky1up]

i got my from cyberpowersytem.co.uk and the sytems and delivery of it was top notch highly recomended

[fredbass]

My recommendation is to have someone build a custom made computer for you if you're not experienced at doing it yourself. There are many places that do that and maybe you have some friends that can tell you some good local places. The advantage is that you can have exactly what you want, including the case. Sometimes they'll throw in free software like anti-virus, anti-spyware and games etc..

And b4 you have one built, look around on the internet at your options. Read reviews and recommendations. Newegg.com is just one good place to do that. If the shop doesn't have what you want, they'll just order it for you, put it together and test it so everything will be fine b4 you pick it up.

[SubSerpent]

I bought one recently from Ibuypower.com (I recommend them for US only)

Their reviews are only so-so and some people really hate them, but the system I recieved was in excellent condition and runs VERY well! I bought it for a quarter of what Alienware was charging for the same exact system minus the Alienware case.

Who gives a flying F**k about a case that looks like an alien head? Is it really worth it to spend thousands of extra dollars for it? Hell NO! There are plenty of knock off cases out there that look nearly identical or even better IMHO than the alienware model and sell for a hell of a lot cheaper. It should be a crime for them to be able to sell systems at their prices and I'm sick of seeing "Plays best on Alienware" logos everywhere. That's BS! If you look at benchmarks of some games you will see companies like ABS PC, Monarch Pc, and Dell PC spanking Alienware systems.

Bottom line....

It's not about who builds your PC, it's about the hardware that's inside of it. If you can find that hardware for cheaper prices than what alienware charges then why the hell would you waste your money on alienware? It's just common sense IMHO!

Alienware is a COMPLETE rip-off! They double, triple, and quadruple charge for their systems compared to just about any other company. I have even read about horror stories from some of their customers as well about their systems not performing as advertised and arriving to the customer in an unstable or broken condition etc etc.

If you are someone with more money than you have sense then by all means go waste it on an Alienware!

[Jusa_Finn]

SubSerpent wrote:
"Who gives a flying F**k about a case that looks like an alien head? Is it really worth it to spend thousands of extra dollars for it? Hell NO! There are plenty of knock off cases out there that look nearly identical or even better IMHO than the alienware model and sell for a hell of a lot cheaper. It should be a crime for them to be able to sell systems at their prices and I'm sick of seeing "Plays best on Alienware" logos everywhere. That's BS! If you look at benchmarks of some games you will see companies like ABS PC, Monarch Pc, and Dell PC spanking Alienware systems."

My case is behind the desk so I prefer functionality first.

Building the first system is hardest. But you get what you want.

[FIREWALL]

SubSerpent wrote:
"Who gives a flying F**k about a case that looks like an alien head? Is it really worth it to spend thousands of extra dollars for it? Hell NO! There are plenty of knock off cases out there that look nearly identical or even better IMHO than the alienware model and sell for a hell of a lot cheaper. It should be a crime for them to be able to sell systems at their prices and I'm sick of seeing "Plays best on Alienware" logos everywhere. That's BS! If you look at benchmarks of some games you will see companies like ABS PC, Monarch Pc, and Dell PC spanking Alienware systems."

My case is behind the desk so I prefer functionality first.

Building the first system is hardest. But you get what you want. I agree whole heartedly. With alot of help from my best friend "computer administrater for Matrix Direct" he opened my world to computers 3 yrs ago. This year i built my own highend from the case up shopping hard localy and put it together myself with advice but "no physhical help" and a ground strap. Igot a whole lot of satisfaction when it booted. If i can do it anyone can.:D p.s. That 8th grade typing class finally paid off. I'm 56 yo.:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

[GT182]

LOL... I agree Firewall and with you too CWorth. Building your own pc at 56yrs old makes you feel like you did something worthwhile, and it sure did for me last year.

You get what pay for..... buy prebuilt and you don't get much but the companies name. Plus they put in what they want. Build your own pc for less and get much more inside. And best of all, you get to upgrade whenever you want, saving even more money.

[FIREWALL]

:up: LOL... I agree Firewall and with you too CWorth. Building your own pc at 56yrs old makes you feel like you did something worthwhile, and it sure did for me last year.

You get what pay for..... buy prebuilt and you don't get much but the companies name. Plus they put in what they want. Build your own pc for less and get much more inside. And best of all, you get to upgrade whenever you want, saving even more money.:up: I coundn't put it better. It can be done.:)

[fredbass]

Bottom Line: Custom is the way to go, whether you can do it yourself or not.

If you're worried about something going wrong, then like I said b4, there's local places that will do it for you and then if something goes wrong or needs updated like your bios, just let them do it if you want.

Start with a good case with easy access, good ventilation, plenty of fans and room to expand, (go full size) and build from there.

Oh, and of course, make sure it's Windows Vista Capable or wait a while.

[bradclark1]

I have yet to see a custom come off cheaper then an off the shelf type with all the bells and whistles (for a desktop).
Thats why I always get a Compaq, and yes you can upgrade everything but the motherboard.
So where are you saving money?

[Konovalov]

I have yet to see a custom come off cheaper then an off the shelf type with all the bells and whistles (for a desktop).
Thats why I always get a Compaq, and yes you can upgrade everything but the motherboard.
So where are you saving money?

I would agree. :yep: Custom build PC's rarely actually are a saving to the buyer. The benefits of building your own custom pc are that it comes exactly with all the parts you want and none that you don't. You have the pleasure of building it yourself. The only software on it is what you install on it and so it is free of any bloatware courtesy of HP, Dell or other brand PC companies. If you are into overclocking and want extra performance for free then you can build your own pc with this in mind. Brand pc's are often not able to be overclokced or have very few overclocking options. In the end it is personal choice and up to the individual. So there are many benefits to building your own PC but saving money is quite often not one of them as Brad highlighted.