These guys rock!
I may be biased…
We, ahem, they 
have done a variety of specialty systems for things like
Autocad/Solidworks
Heavy audio and video interfacing
Gaming systems of a variety of calibers
SSD/HDD combo arrangements
No system we can’t build, No budget we can’t break! 
Different video cards have different specialties, or you may have a driver issue, or even a bad piece of hardware. Not to mention there is sometimes some pretty obvious performance variations between different brands of the same “spec” video card.
Not all GeForce 8800GTX’s are identical, they use the same root chipset, but there are alot of other variables in building that card.
I know you said you didn’t want a Dell, but we’ve had very good experience with their commercial grade product line. We run a fleet of 150 Optiplex 700 and 900 series machines, and replace a third each year. Their Gold-level support has been excellent. I have heard horror stories about their consumer-grade products and support, but their commercial-grade stuff has been great for us.
I don’t think this is worth much of a hijack, but the machines are put together very differently, too: the Mac has better memory and shorter busses, among other things, monitor resolutions aren’t the same, there are newer drives in one machine than the other. Remember that most multiprocessor Xeon PC’s are built as servers, the Mac Pros are specced more general purpose.
I’m not claiming superiority of the Mac box (fun game: look at my “Location” field and guess who I work for) over an identically piece-built Xeon server, but you get it out-of-the-box without having to play around with specs. Just tossing it out there as a suggestion, since often folks looking for Windows boxes don’t consider the Macs as possibilities, given the often-incorrect meme that they’re more expensive.
I missed the edit window, so:
ETA: We run on a three-year cycle for historical reasons – we used to use Gateway machines, and people were ready to throw the things out the window long before they reached three years old. There is still plenty of life in our three-year-old Dell machines, and we could probably extend our cycle for an additional year, but our whole purchasing setup is fairly well set at this point.
I buy mine from the trunk of a car owned by a guy named Rico. His prices are excellent since they are preowned They come preloaded with sundry software, which oddly enough, often includes porn. Now that’s customer service.
'Round here, there’s no Fry’s, no CompUSA, no Micro Center, and very few fly-by-night indie beige box stores. It’s just the Apple Store, big box department and office supply stores, Best Buy, Sam’s Club, and the bookstores of area colleges and universities. If you need accessories or want to upgrade your memory, hard drive or motherboard, you’re either going to drive to Toronto or Rochester, or head online to Newegg, Tiger Direct, Mwave and the rest.
Falcon NW seems like a good choice. Alienware sells their computers with no crapware, from what I understand. There’s no knowing whether the OS at a beige box store is legit or not.
Look for the key sticker, if it isn’t there…Call MS, wrath of bill descends on shop.
We could arrange that to
This is a bit of a digression, but what in the blue hell is wrong with your website? With NoScript on and running, I have black text on a dark gray background, and no working links. I allow your domain, I get a blank page (same gray background). I also allow this wix domain, I get a light gray box on the dark gray background. It’s pretty much unusable for me, and I can’t imagine my setup is that unique (Linux user in Firefox, NoScript + ABP, Gnash instead of Flash because of major unpatched security problems in the latter).
Flash site
Given that you’ve pretty much decided on a Falcon NW, is there any reason not to just order directly from their website?
Recently? We’ve been having huge problems with Dell since they offshored production. Bad support, long lag times between order and delivery, lots of DOA product. Its bad enough that they’ve gone from our preferred vendor to number three in about six months.
Do you fill international orders?
And he’s already been told he needs to fix that, so let’s not hijack the thread about that.
Dell.Com. I love the Dell I designed. It came in two days and is great. They even threw in free Bose speakers which rock! If you want to design it to what you want and need you can do it online and not end up with some generic system from Best Buy.
There are some nice suggestions in this thread. You should consider Origin PC. We (I am one of the product managers for the desktops) were founded by three former executives of Alienware (they left after the Dell buyout). Origin PC builds nothing but the best of the best and does not cut corners (which is why they brought me on - I am one of the top computer modders in the country with two CPU Magazine covers). We recently one a CNET Editor’s Choice Award, Maximum PC Best of E3 Award, Maximum PC Kick Ass Desktop Award, etc. We will build with just about ANY hardware you want in just about ANY case you want. We offer lifetime phone and labor so you will be in good shape for support.
At least you’re upfront about the conflict of interest.
Thirding these guys. They may cater to gamers, but gamers need high end machines too. I bought my current computer from them 15 months ago and I’ve been exceptionally satisfied with it. The only difficulty I had was the rear case fan died pretty quickly, but that’s a simple replacement and I like picking out my own case fans anyway.