So far as I can tell, there are lots and lots of pre-fab gaming computer websites, letting you customize bits and pieces. Too many of them. I don’t know which make actually good computers, and which make crap you can’t rely on. Or which make good computers, but install a ton of junk that you can’t uninstall without serious issues. Or which make good computers, but cost far, far beyond what they ought to even considering the service of putting them together. Any suggestions? What they have in stock isn’t an issue yet – just trying to see my options right now.
I heard Falcon-NW is pretty good, they run well at least and have good customer service. I don’t have first hand experience though. I’ll also mention my friend is dollar sign blind so I’d wait for someone else to chime in an overpriced or not verdict.
Edit: I heard Alienware makes great computers, but if ANYTHING goes wrong their customer service is absolutely terrible. They also seemed a bit pricey, but I haven’t looked in a good while so it may be faulty memory.
We’ve got two Falcon-NWs in the house, and we couldn’t be happier. Yes, they’re pricey. But get this: when you call them, a human answers the phone, and 95% of the time, they’ve talked me through whatever problem I’ve had, even when it’s been out of warranty. No sitting on hold. No “Press 2 for technical support.”
I luuurve me my Falcon.
When looking for something, price varies greatly between them. Make sure they use reputable parts (brand name), make sure you will get the discs for the software including the OS. Everything else imo is inconsequential.
Some advice:
Avoid Alienware like the plague, they switched to using generic garbage in their machines a few years back, and are largely bloatware. They have the most inefficient manufacturing process, ever. They try making everything flashy, but you just end up paying more for an inferior machine, and it can take longer.
I used Velocity Micro last time to get a good base machine, love their higher end cases. I had no issues with them at all, good warranty coverage, prices were competitive, good customer service, etc.
Falcon Northwest is pretty much the most expensive manufacturer ever. Seriously. Take whatever you’d pay elsewhere, and double it. It isn’t worth it.
There are lots of bargain assemblers out there like iBUYPOWER and etc. Prices are usually quite low for a good machine, probably the best outside of building it yourself. I don’t know if the service would be up to pay with the rest of them, but then, i’ve never really cared about customer service except for the ability to return things.
You could just build it yourself (newegg is your friend). Still the best option if you’re even remotely mechanically or computer inclined. It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon!
That wasn’t my experience at all. The Falcons I put together were a few hundred more than comparable systems from other places - a bit more $$ but not by any means double.
Customer service is why I bought from Falcon-NW. Although these are gaming systems, they’re primarily work computers. So if something screws up, I want really good tech support so I can get them back working asap.
WidowPC are endorsed by the guys who write Penny Arcade – they demo hundreds of games a year and also use PCs to make their livelihood. The customer service is supposed to be fanatical, and they offer price-matching (for equivalent quality parts, of course - so you’ll probably be up against Alienware’s ALX line). The sales staff don’t work on commission, and your system is built by a single technician from start to finish to minimize the chance of slip-ups.
Yeah-Alienware outsourced their tech support to India several years ago. The “techs” are friendly, but often ignorant and it’s obvious they are reading from premade scripts. I wish I had bought mine (2003) back in the days when they had real hardcore geeks as techs. I had two problems with my machine when I bought it-a faulty video card, and a flawed Windows XP install which would tend to hang right before entering the desktop when booting up. I eventually got both problems fixed, but that’s the kind of stuff that really should have been caught at the factory. But the machine is 5 years old now and still runs the stuff I play reasonably well with virtually no issues, but I won’t get a new machine through them again. And yes I’ll echo the bloatware comment.
Alienware is a division of Dell.
VoodooPC is a division of HP. Voodoo is known for its origami-like wiring. They are even more expensive than Falcon NW, last I checked.
I’m fairly sure that Falcon NW is still independent.
Budget will play a part in which manufacturer you choose. Dell and HP also sell gaming computers, along with a slew of second-tier manufacturers.
Yeah, I had an Alienware back in the day when they were really good, but it was right before the whole PCIe stuff, so after several years it got retired. Pity about them. My current one is made from parts by myself, so it runs really awful with lots of crashing, some mobo functions just plain not working, and to me it’s not worth the hassle of trying to put everything together again with compatible parts after trying to find out what exactly is wrong. At least I spent very little, so I don’t feel bad abandoning most of the parts - I figure any I get made by another company, it’ll actually function properly, or if not I can send it back to someone else, hence it’s worth extra money to me that way.
I guess my budget varies a bit? I reckon I’d have to go with some form of Vista, but then maybe my monitor (LG Flatron L1720P) might not work with Vista, so I’d have to take a few hundred off to get a compatible monitor. Otherwise, anything in the $2000-$2500 range probably is my goal, as I assume being on the newish edge of graphics cards, DX10, OS, etc. I could keep it going for several years, and just hand-upgrading bits if necessary/possible.
Have you considered building it yourself? With a modicum investment in time you can:
1 - save some (a lot if you don’t need peripherals like a monitor and printer) money
2 - learn more about your hobby and PC’s in general.
3 - You can say Hi Opal!
Not too shabby IMHO. And you can get all the help and resources you could ever hope for right here at the SDMB. A lot of us build our own gaming rigs.
Also I’ve never heard of a monitor incompatible with vista. I don’t think such a thing is possible since all monitors really have to do is be compatible with the appropriate ports.
So no need to worry there… However, since this is a gaming machine you might want to invest on a 20 or 22 inch widescreen monitor to get the best gaming experience out of your rig. I’ve seen decent gaming 22" wide screen monitors for under $400 and with your budget you can still build a powerhouse of rig.
Yeah, as I posted earlier, my current craphole computer is a hand-built, so I’m not doing that again. Many features of the mobo haven’t worked from the get-go, it seems to have heat issues or something causing frequent program crashes, freezes, and reboots (never with helpful Microsoft error reports with fixable things), and having an ethernet port randomly stop working on a reboot is rather disturbing. I’ll be much happier spending extra money and getting solid tech support, and a box that likely will run very, very smoothly for several years.
I really like Falcon Northwest’s and Velocity Micro’s options; WidowPC has a bit too high of a cost for lower-standard parts comparatively. Lower graphics cards and processors… They all have great customer service options. I just have to figure out the relative ranking of all the parts nowadays, and see whether any have frequent issues I might have to deal with like PCIe slots being too close together.
Thanks a bunch for these good computer sites, I had no idea any of them even existed! I am sure I will find something to make me very happy by the time I’m ready to buy (unless my computer gives up the ghost really soon, ha).
Althoug I homebrew now, I’ve bought several PCs from CyberpowerPC.com (similar outfit to IBUYPower), and I’ve been happy with them overall.
They put together PCs from quality parts, and have a configurator that will blow your mind. Seriously, they have probably 20+ different case options, 15 different PSU options, 10 or so motherboard options, 20+ video card options, AMD, Intel, whatever you want they can put together. They’ll also set up RAID 1, 0, or 1+0 arrays for you, and they don’t bloat their install with a bunch of crap.
They also have some preconfigured bundled models that you can customize, if you don’t want to spec a system from the ground up.
And you’ll barely pay more than you would on a homebuild.
Honestly after my last upgrade experience (went from socket 939 single core to AM2 dual core, with a full reformat, but I am unable to get USB headers on mobo to work) I may just go with them next time.
My current comp was a barebones from http://www.ecollegepc.com/
I found a couple nice guides for PC building, and some good XP Tweak sites, bought all the parts (not much was reusable from the last PC) and built it. I am generally pretty satisfied with it. You can get nice barebones from ecollege for a little over $300, order some mems from Pricewatch, throw your old graphics card and drives in for now, and you’re set! If you’re savvy enough to shop around for parts and put it together yourself, you’ll save a little money.
I’m not sure what their tech support is like, I’ve fixed the few problems I’ve had myself since I sort of know what I’m doing. And when I don’t know what I’m doing, well, that’s what you guys are for 
I’m about to buy an ASUS G50V-A1, which seems pretty darned shiny for a gaming laptop. It’s less than $2,000 and it can play Crysis with all the settings turned to “high/very high”, which is good enough for me. 