Comments on: Looking for Website to Buy Custom Built Computer

Question: Looking for Website to Buy Custom Built Computer

Malachi Constant — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 13:12:17 -0800

I'm in the market for a new computer, and wanted suggestions on a good website to go through to buy a custom built one. I'm looking for a site that is cheap but has all the latest technology to choose from and will assemble the system for me (no Pricewatch). Google turns out lots of different sites, but I wanted to ask MeFites about their personal experiences.

By: Jairus

Jairus — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 13:14:25 -0800

Find a local no-frills PC shop. Most of them have said custom-building-dealies on their websites. And no shipping!

By: XQUZYPHYR

XQUZYPHYR — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 13:33:27 -0800

Malachi, half the sites on Pricewatch will custom-build and assemble a computer for you with parts you select. I bought my first computer in 2001 through a site on Pricewatch, and it was $1000 below retail costs, used exactly the parts I asked for, and was running the moment I unpacked it and plugged it in.

By: AllesKlar

AllesKlar — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 13:41:11 -0800

I work for a small company and stopped building my own pc's thanks to these guys. They do a good job and are fast and friendly.

By: JudoGno

JudoGno — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 13:47:38 -0800

One of my favorite places is Monarch Computers. They do a great job and have a great tool for putting together what you want.

By: driveler

driveler — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 14:03:07 -0800

Where I work we've gotten all our recent computers from mwave. We select the components we want and they put them together for us.

By: rtimmel

rtimmel — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 14:37:06 -0800

ABS always seems to get good reviews and has reasonable prices.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 14:39:56 -0800

Try asking MetaFilter. Much of that discussion is about building your own, but not all.

By: grouse

grouse — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 15:07:33 -0800

In the last lab I worked in the Monarch Computer we had did very well. Didn't purchase myself.

By: onalark

onalark — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 15:43:36 -0800

I'm gonna throw out my ResellerRatings link again. This is a great consumer resource for choosing a company to purchase through online, though biased towards businesses that actually request their customers fill out the reviews.

And the company I selected through them was Envision Computer Solutions which has been great for me through the purchase of a couple systems.

By: FreezBoy

FreezBoy — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 15:49:26 -0800

If you're in the Metro Boston area (although they ship as well), I'm a fan of PCs For Everyone. Maybe not the cheapest, but I've purchased two computers from them so far and the first one I had for 6 years without a single problem (it's still working, but I just upgraded to a new spiffier one).

By: WolfDaddy

WolfDaddy — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 17:10:15 -0800

My new screamer was custom-built to my specs from the folks at Velocity Micro, and I'm more than pleased with the job they did, I'm ecstatic.

By: efalk

efalk — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 22:17:48 -0800

I'm going to second rtimmel. I built my own computer last year, after doing weeks of online searching for pre-built custom systems. ABS had lowest cost, and great parts. Although I would put a vote in for making it yourself. You'll save a decent amount, wont have a lot of crappy 'lite-edition' software on your computer when you start, and it's kind of exasperatingly fun.

Whoever you choose, definitely check reseller ratings. There are a lot of poorly run, if not outright scam computer shops out there.