Good site to buy a PC?

[kooch66]

Can anyone recommend a good place online to buy a gaming PC, with a good balance between value and quality. Right now DigitalStormOnline.com looks pretty good but there's a lot to choose from! Anyone have any good/bad experiances?

 

[amdfangirl]

Just DIY it.

That's the best way to make a good rig.

Start at Newegg.

 

[kooch66]

Yeah I'm sure it would be cheaper to build it...And it might even be fun. And while I think I could probably get the thing up and running the real issue would be trouble shooting. I would much prefer paying more for something that will work from day 1 and has a few years of warranty.

 

[amdfangirl]

Might be best for you to buy locally at local computer stores... no shipping fee.

 

[Flakes]

kooch, mainly here, you will be told to build it yourself....

i dont know of any US sites to buy Computers except mabye dell and im not one for recommending them.

www.dell.com <-- bad bad bad.....unless you like laptops.
http://www.alienware.com/ <---- overpriced

er thats all the US websites i know of that sell computers.

 

[mildiner86]

if ur in the UK u can try http://www.computerplanet.co.uk/ customer service is ok and has really good price and choice just be warned delivery time is really bad but as long as u r aware its fine

 

[pr2thej]

Take a look at this forum Kooch, its dedicated to prebuilt systems.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/forum-28.html

Lots of happy customers eh! And all those questions are most likely being posted here after being fobbed off by the respective tech service departments.

Building a PC is like putting together a big jigsaw with about 10 pieces to it. Its really easy, we can help you with what parts are compatible and troubleshoot any issues.

To give you an idea of the price difference....i saw on the Dell webby today a PC for $1749 odd...had a 7800GT and a dual core at 3Gz with 2MB Memory. I still think ive read it wrong, after checking the price like 5 times.
Anyone on here will tell you that particular setup will cost (off the top of my head) about $400....and the Power Supply wont fail after 3 months

For DigitalStorm, they are adding a few hundred dollars to the price, and you still need an understanding of where your bottlenecks are to get the best for your money.
For example, its all well and good going for the new Intel i7 processor, the fastest available. However if your Graphics, or RAM arent able to keep up with it then you will not utilise it fully, therefore why not get a cheaper CPU.

Computerplanet, looking at the +VAT price is really bad. I could build this for £250-300 less.

 

[gamerk316]

Sadly enough, the cheapest i7 build I found online was from ibuypower of all the places; I built a 280 GTX, 6GB DDR3 i7 920 system for just over $1700 a few weeks ago for a friend, and no one else was even close...

My advice is to shop around for a while. figure out exactly what you want, find out via newegg around the price range it would be if you did it yourself, and find which vendor comes closest to that price.

I recommend the usualls, CyberPower, Ibuypower, Alienware, Digitalstorm, Velocity Micro, etc. Every once in a while, you can make a steal...

 

[crusoe74]

I bought my PC from DinoPC a year ago

http://www.dinopc.com/

Graphics cards are quite pricy from them so I specified one without and got it elsewhere. Worked out it would cost an extra £40 than to buy all the bits seperately and build myself, which for a PC bulding noob like me was a no-brainer.

 

[Devastator_uk]

To give you an idea of the price difference....i saw on the Dell webby today a PC for $1749 odd...had a 7800GT and a dual core at 3Gz with 2MB Memory. I still think ive read it wrong, after checking the price like 5 times.
Anyone on here will tell you that particular setup will cost (off the top of my head) about $400....and the Power Supply wont fail after 3 months

Well that does look like quite an old system so price is probably 2-3 years old.

 

[terr281]

Years ago, I bought a good pre-built from:

http://www.abs.com/

They had excellent tech support, and quickly replaced a burned out GeForce 2 Ti with an equivalent video card (a Geforce 4 MX) under the terms of the warranty.

I, however, did the video card installation myself since I knew enough to do that at the time.

So, if you prefer the security of a tech support line and warranty, I would recommend them. (But, as I said, my experience was from over 7 years ago. Things may have changed.)

I will say one thing though...DO NOT buy a computer from HP or Compaq right now, even if it appears to have gaming equipment in it. (My last prebuilt purchase was a P4 Prescott system built under the Compaq name...one of the last gaming computers built by Compaq...and it was never entirely stable.) Further, tech support was useless. (Does it bootup? Does it work most of the time? Sorry, we can't isolate the component that is the problem. You can ship it back to us for X amount...both ways...and we'll look at it.)

I decided to build my own computer after that experience, and I haven't looked back.

 

[gamerk316]

Well, Digital Storm got me my a stable 790i platform pre-OC'd, what does that tell you? And when my Creative card went bonkers, customer support let me return it for full price and exchange it with a Barracuda for the $39 diffrence in price.

Still, they seem to have not noticed GFX card and DDR3 price cuts latley, and seem overpriced now...

 

[runmymouth]

lets see, none of these are recomendations, just what is out there. 2 more I can think of. Personally I would build.
cyberpowerpc
doghousesystems

 

[jerseygamer]

Ibuypower is a great site to build a rig. Good prices and you dont get any of that cut down hardware just about every single other company shoves down your throat. Its all full bore and the real deal. Great support and great RMA. Other then the Ibuypower site I highly recomend building your own and avoiding all of these online sites.