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Looking for a good price, good quality, good service, customizable online pc retailer (1 Viewer)

Kevin Reckelhoff

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Aug 16, 2001
Messages
205
Is this the impossible dream? Here's the story...

First pc was a 486DX2/50 purchased from a local custom shop. Computer worked until I ditched it, although it did have modem problems out of the box, and eventually needed a new hard drive. Paid a very high premium price though.

Second pc was a p200, bought from an online vendor that heavily advertised in every pc mag. Lasted a year before the chip fried itself (it had been overclocked without my knowledge). Company had subsequently gone under, cost me half the original price to replace the MB and chip at a local shop.

Also dealt with a PackardBell, and Acer, and more recently a Compaq which were purchased by family members through B&M chain stores. All worked ok, but had at least one signficant hardware failure.

Current pc is a Dell p3550, going on 3 yrs old. Reasonable price, but had a power supply and video card failure in the past year.

Company tech support was marginally better than useless in all these cases.

So, now I'm upgrading pc's again, and I'm searching for an online company that will deliver a customized computer to me that is reasonably assured of working for a few years.

Dell is ok, but they are not quite configurable enough for me, and the price/service ratio isn't that great.

Voodoo pc is the only company that actually appears to have consistently good reviews, but the price, wow.

Alienware and Falcon NW are next in terms of mag reviews, but user reviews range from adequate to horrible.

Micron, Gateway, and the like are basically Dell all over again.

Anyone out there actually have a company that they've dealt with and had a consistently good experience? One note--I am well aware I would be better off building a system, but I just don't have the time for it now.

thanks!
 

Steve J

Agent
Joined
Apr 1, 1999
Messages
47
I had a pretty cool, high-even VAIO digital studio PC built by Sony just a few weeks ago. I'm happy with what I got, and I've been happy with the Sony service to date.
 

Brett DiMichele

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Sep 30, 2001
Messages
3,181
Real Name
Brett
Please don't lump Micron in with Gateway or Dell.

Unlike either of those prebuilt manufacturers Micron does

cater to the Gamer and Graphics Professional with a whole

plethora of options to choose from.

I can't speak for thier tech support because frankly I would

never use any company's tech support to begin with.

I like what I see from AlienWare but I don't like thier

overly high prices. If I "had" to have an AlienWare (I love

the way thier systems look) I would just buy my own Antec

SoHo case and have it painted localy or by myself and I

would just build it myself.

I wish I could refer you to Midwest Micro (the manufacturer

of my last PC) they always treated me well but they went out

of biz...
 

Kevin Reckelhoff

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Aug 16, 2001
Messages
205
thanks for the responses...I'll check out gamepc.com and Sony.
Micron looks ok, but some of the options that they don't offer are important to me (case/power supply, motherboard, ddr/rdram, sound card, etc.) No insult to Micron intended by lumping them with Dell and Gateway:)
 

Eric Samonte

Screenwriter
Joined
Mar 31, 1999
Messages
1,318
Brett....my last 2 PCs were also from Midwest Micro. The reason I went ahead and built one myself was because MWM was "bought" by Global Computers which actually sucks. I remember MWM's fast RMAs, even shipping out replacements before getting the old ones, most of the time in 24hrs.

Micron seems to be a good place to get a nice set-up. It might cause an extra few Ben Franklins but I guess ur paying for the after sales service.

Kevin, if u need those options u mentioned, u gotta pay the price...like a Voodoopc, Alienware, etc. Best option I would think is having someone build it for u. I got the stuff I wanted from a local PC store here at online prices. Since its my first time to build one, the guy who owns the place agreed to help me if something goes wrong. So far so good....its up and running.
 

Brett DiMichele

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Sep 30, 2001
Messages
3,181
Real Name
Brett
Eric,
I remember those days with MWM also. It's a shame that such
a good company went "under". They were FAR better than any
of the prebuilt companies out there today if you ask me.
I almost went with a Micron over my MWM at the time but I
chose MWM and never had a complaint.
This time around the obvious choice to me was Micron. When
I looked at Dell everything was so over priced and Gateway
was never even a consideration Moo... :)
Kevin,
I agree about the choice of cases.. All other products you
can have custom installed by Micron if I am not mistaken.
You could email them to check. They build the machines as
they recieve the orders so I don't see why they couldn't
install say an Audigy Gamer instead of a Live! 5.1 etc.
But as far as prebuilt's go you will most likely find most
of them using OEM Intel boards rather than some of the other
companies probably just to keep ya from OC'ng the beast.
I can understand thier side of the story.. They don't want
you frying the PC then getting a MoBo replaced under warranty
for something you broke. :)
You may want to check out Directron.com they custom build
machines and you can pick any of thier 200+ cases if I am
not mistaken.
 

Andre F

Screenwriter
Joined
Dec 9, 2000
Messages
1,486
Just for the record I have had good experiences with both Dell and Gateway. Maybe I'm just lucky.

-Andre F
 

Kelley_B

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2001
Messages
2,324
We used to use Micron PCs at work. Their corporate customer support was great, we called said this part is broken, no questions asked they overnighted us a new one. Now we use IBM and its a struggle to get them to even replace a bum power supply.....and they make you run all these diagnostic test using their diagnostic tools and thats how they decide to replace or not to replace. I would not recommend anyone buy from IBM. My past job we used Dell and they were great, they were like Micron overnighted the parts, etc, except the parts usually came with a tech to install them, therefor giving me more time for UT and Quake 3.

Now I would much rather see you build your own, its the best way to get a new PC now.
 

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