Quality, Highly Customizable Bare Bones Computers With Warranty?
After my spectacular computer meltdowns (my new mobo still can’t recognize any hard drives for more than a couple minutes), I’m wary of self-assembly. I want something with a warranty.
However, I don’t like most of the parts the mainstream desktop sellers use: crappy cases; low-end video cards; cheap RAM; loud fans. The sellers that do use good parts tend to have extremely high markups. I also don’t need the things they want to sell me: hard drive; monitor; keyboard; video card; operating system.
I used to go to Monarch Computer for this sort of thing. They let you buy a box with just what you wanted inside– no parts forced, not even the CPU. They’re gone. Newegg doesn’t have systems. Dell’s site breaks frequently under Firefox, and I doubt their systems would be suitable, if I could get them to work. Is there a site that has what I’m looking for? Or should I just try my luck with another mobo+CPU combo, and hope it doesn’t all end in tears once again? The problem’s gotta be there, right? … Right?
September 24th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
I have been on the build it yourself wagon for the last couple years. Mainly because places that built good rigs I liked went out of business (Monarch) or got bought up (Alienware) by companies I no longer like (Dell). That, and I enjoy the process of plugging everything in and routing cables and getting it to boot that first time. Gordon’s box is the 5th build I’ve been involved with in the last 2 years, and thus far the biggest failure has been a power supply that died (and in my opinion he went too cheap on that part).
That said, it seems that someone should have filled the void left by the custom gaming rig makers, even if they are somewhat smaller. I just haven’t done the research lately. But if you do go with building your own and want someplace with a workbench, anti-static stuff and plenty of tools you are welcome to come over for the build. That way I can steal some of ur hertz!
September 26th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
I got a rig put together by a company in VA called Velocity Micro. I’ve been happy both with the system and with their customer service. FWIW.
September 26th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Thanks for the tip– they look pretty good. Even their cheaper rigs are already fitted out with good heat sinks and thermal paste. (Gordon had mentioned that a few bucks on cooling and overclocking will go a lot further than a few bucks on processor speed.)
Puget Systems also looks good. They’ve even got some really sweet water cooled systems.