Fall Extreme Gamer System Shootout Part 6: Totally Awesome Computers Ridiculously Insane

Warranty

TAC offers lifetime service and a three-year parts warranty on any of their computers over $999. And if you're looking here, you easily qualify - four-fold. One note from the TAC site: "Whether you need software updates, a complete reload, upgrades, virus and spyware removal or just a tune up, you will never again pay for service. As the founder, Mr. Schanze put it this way: 'We are your slaves ... for LIFE!'" This may be a bit hasty, but an important notion of safety to feel if you are about to drop $5,000 on a new gaming rig that would be your pride and joy for a good long while.

In addition to a floppy drive, the system comes with a memory card reader with another USB port.

TAC technical support is available 24/7. We gave a call to TAC on a Tuesday night at 10:00pm EST (7:00pm PST) and one ring later was connected to a tech. No hold. No PBX switch menus to roam through - a real live human being. When asking about warranty service to those outside of Utah, our telephone representative did not know for sure and asked us to wait while he checked. After returning to the line, we were told that TAC would only pay to ship the system back to us after all repairs were made; thus, we would have to pay to ship the system to AAC for repair. This practice is fairly common in the industry.

TAC offers onsite service, however only in the greater Salt Lake City area, and not as part of their warranty. If that need should arise and you live in Salt Lake City, you would need to shell out a cool $120 per hour.

Price

The list price for this system we received with all of the accessories, monitor, speakers, keyboard and mouse is about $5,000. This price reflects a 2% cash/check discount. In all reality, you will likely put a purchase of this magnitude on a credit card or two and would be paying slightly more.

Like many custom system builders today, TAC has promotional offers for their customers. We saw a free introductory flight lesson when you purchased one of their systems. Seems like a pretty cool catch if you live in Utah.