:-/ What are good companies that sell upgradeable computers?

[erik_tilton]

I know of Falcon-Northwest-- are there any others? Anything that comes anywhere close to the inexpensiveness of building the machine myself?

I'm nervous about building computers. I want everything consolidated and ready to use right after buying it. Then, I can build up my confidence about building computers by upgrading the parts that get too old.

I have a bad temper when it comes to things not working so I would like it to work and not ever blame myself or have any guilt for purchasing all that stuff.

I don't want a Dell because I want to have the option to upgrade (any of) the parts.

Please MTV, pimp my ride?

 

[rwaritsdario]

First of all, the upgreability of ANY computer is in the motherboard and PSU (and maybe a minimun for the case) but the first one is far more important. Digg up on wich motherboard youre getting to know what you can upgrade it to.

But still, if you want your computer to be unique and feel really pride when its up and running you should build it yourself. Do alot of research on each part and follow an accurate guide to put it together and you should be fine.
You will still be getting ripped off by some $250 even with the cheapest company by the way.

 

[erik_tilton]

rwaritsdario

That $250 extra will be worth it if it will calm my parents down (my father had a bad experience building his own computer and tells me I will NEVER build a computer while I am under their house).

I'm going to move out soon

 

[Guest]

You can try this company, good prices.

CyberPowerPC

 

[enforcerfx]

You can try this company, good prices.

CyberPowerPC

Or here:

www.ibuypower.com

Same thing as cyberpowerpc. Helped a friend pick out parts from cyberpower, very good service and customer support.

 

[shadowduck]

rwaritsdario

That $250 extra will be worth it if it will calm my parents down (my father had a bad experience building his own computer and tells me I will NEVER build a computer while I am under their house).

I'm going to move out soon

Well.. lets do a typical gaming system:

Building: (Newegg)
Same Specs as below: $1,346.92


Buying: (ABS(owned by Newegg))
ABS Stealth Black ATX Mid-tower Case (Black Color) (Item#ABS11215003)
Black Polo Shirt with "Intel" Logo-L (Item#ABS00995022)
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2 1
Antec TruePower 2.0 TP2-550 EPS12V ATX12V 550W Power Supply
Asus P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe, NVIDIA nForce™4 SLI™ X16
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 1066MHz FSB 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775
Thermaltake Silent 775 CPU Cooler
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit
eVGA 256-P2-N554-AX GeForce 7600GT 256MB
Seagate Barracuda 320GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
NEC Black 16X DVD±R Dual Layer DVD Burner (Item#ABS27152058)
Microsoft Works Suite 2006 Bundle (Item#ABS37110032)
Blue 8" x 9" x 6" ABS Mouse Pad (Item#ABS17114110)
ABS Computer System Binder for Organizing Drivers and Manuals
FREE ABS Black Tee-Shirt - Size: XLarge with "ABS" Logo in the Front.


Price with Option(s): $1509

So around $150 for a system assembled with OEM support and 1 year warranty. I say go with the ABS.

 

[shadowduck]

You can try this company, good prices.

CyberPowerPC

Or here:

www.ibuypower.com

Same thing as cyberpowerpc. Helped a friend pick out parts from cyberpower, very good service and customer support.

IBuyPower is HORRIBLE. Worse than Tiger Direct horrible. CyberPower is ok.. ABS is amazing.

 

[WR2]

Another option would be http://www.abs.com/

Beyond that if you have a decent local computer shop you should be able to work with them to get the quality parts and the upgradeable system you want and only have to pay a small premium/labor fee to have the system installed and tested. Maybe half the $250 mentioned above.

 

[erik_tilton]

TY TY TY TY I'll look into ABS since I do a lot of my research on Newegg

But please keep them coming, I would like to know about more companies.

 

[niz]

AVOID DELL. They purposely swap pins around on thier PSU's to make them non -standard so you can't go anywhere else for parts.

 

[Guest]

They also put clips and stuf everwhere so you cant do anything else, they want you to RE-BUY machines from them.

 

[makotech222]

hmm on my dell 9100, i replaced the video card, added more ram, and changed the PSU and got no problems....

 

[rwaritsdario]

Its not just the increased price but the horrible choice of parts. They limit everything from HSF to cases to video cards.
But as long as you have no choice ABS.com could be one the best retailers ive seen since if youll overpay for something at least youll get great service.

 

[shadowduck]

AVOID DELL. They purposely swap pins around on thier PSU's to make them non -standard so you can't go anywhere else for parts.

That practice was stopped as of September 2004. Dell bashing is fine, but at least get the facts right when doing it.

 

[shadowduck]

TY TY TY TY I'll look into ABS since I do a lot of my research on Newegg

But please keep them coming, I would like to know about more companies.

Look at my orginial post. It has a priced system from ABS which would serve you nicely.

 

[Robovski]

If you want to get your feet wet but not go all the way into building, some places offer 'kits' you can assemble (talk about comming full circle) or you could consider a barebone system you can then plug your components into.

As for Dell, I'm typing on a Dell 5150 I upgraded to 3GB ram (from 1GB), 7900GT vid card (from X600), Hiper Type-R 580W power supply (from 305W), wireless lan (from not), illuminated keyboard (from standard), laser mouse (from optical) and a second HDD. Sure, I only did it as a stop-gap towards building my new system and it's not fantastic, but certainly do-able. I'm putting all of the original Dell components back when I'm ready to build and giving this machine to The Wife(tm) and it will still be under warrentee.

 

[Flopmouth_Fish]

You can try this company, good prices.

CyberPowerPC

Or here:

www.ibuypower.com

Same thing as cyberpowerpc. Helped a friend pick out parts from cyberpower, very good service and customer support.

Yuck; forget iBuyPower. I'd go with either CyberPower or Monrach Computer. CyberPower is especially good because it's owned by Newegg.

 

[haywood]

Another option would be http://www.abs.com/

Beyond that if you have a decent local computer shop you should be able to work with them to get the quality parts and the upgradeable system you want and only have to pay a small premium/labor fee to have the system installed and tested. Maybe half the $250 mentioned above.

Second that motion. I had an ABS, just died after 8 years of service. no issues. I was looking at getting another but I will build my own this time. When I took the PC apart it was all top notch components, for the time it was built.

LOL, P3 450, 256 ram, 30 Gb HD.

Luckily I have 3 laptops to fall back on.

 

[Raeven_Zero]

I set my friend up with a laptop from CyberPower PC and he had 3 main problems with them. (Also, we are in Iraq which makes it hard to do the whole customer support thing)

1. Ordered XP Pro x64 but came with Home Edition because they did not have drivers for his Audigy 2

2. Paid extra to get the gaming keyboard that was offered with the system. Keyboard came and looked good but it was a PS/2 keyboard on a system that only had USB.

3. When he ordered the computer it said that it would be sent out ASAP but it wasn't shipped out for 2 months due to them not having that color in stock.

 

[shadowduck]

You can try this company, good prices.

CyberPowerPC

Or here:

www.ibuypower.com

Same thing as cyberpowerpc. Helped a friend pick out parts from cyberpower, very good service and customer support.

Yuck; forget iBuyPower. I'd go with either CyberPower or Monrach Computer. CyberPower is especially good because it's owned by Newegg.

CyberPower is not owned by Newegg. ABS is.

 

[sactownbwoy]

Isn't it the other way around. I remember reading an article that said that ABS started Newegg. Either way they are both one in the same

 

[rwaritsdario]

You can try this company, good prices.

CyberPowerPC

Or here:

www.ibuypower.com

Same thing as cyberpowerpc. Helped a friend pick out parts from cyberpower, very good service and customer support.

Yuck; forget iBuyPower. I'd go with either CyberPower or Monrach Computer. CyberPower is especially good because it's owned by Newegg.

iBuyPower and CyberPower are the same thing, theres a third one that i cant recall at the time too. Theyve got bad customer backup reputation and dont even use custom cases -__-
On the other side, ABS has great service and I assume a better part selection for the Intel side than the AMD one.