Questions on Pre-built gaming PC companies.

[Rulke]

Greetings,

I'll try to keep this short. I've built the last 3 computers I've had and my current one is 7 years old this month. Next year for my 15 year wedding anniversary I get to buy a new one (just in time for ME:A).

Anyway, this is to say that I am at the stage in life that I don't have to scrimp for money and hunt/choose the best price and individual seller for computer parts. I also don't have the time to set everything out and build it myself anymore. I just want to click a bunch of options on a website, ship the thing to my door and spend an afternoon downloading updates, uploading software or transferring files.

I know of a few companies: iBuyPower, Digital Storm, Cyberpower PC that can fill my order, however the degree of competency seems to vary depending on what reviews I read. So, who here has any first hand experience, or "my buddy got one from..." sort of information for me so I can start looking at a place that by most standards won't send me a brick.

Thank you all immensely in advance for your input.

[Melena]

I bought a computer a few years ago from Ibuypower. PC was great the first 2-3 years, then the fans started crapping out, and I started getting the occasional BSoD message that depending on what links you clicked on google was either the cpu or the psu crapping out. I also had a friend just buy one less then a year ago and it's not been good. Video card kept overheating, and she paid for the extra warranty for overnight to ship parts back and they somehow fucked it all up to where she had to pay to ship her card out and never got reimbursed, so i'd probably avoid them.

[Zetanio]

Honestly? I don't recommend any of them. My friends have tried IBP and Cyberpower. They have all run into bad build quality, shitty RMA service and some mediocre performance numbers (considering the hardware in the box). Most of them ended up having to rebuild, reset, and reinstall a lot of their components within 6 months.

Finding the extra hour or so it takes to put stuff together yourself is worth it in my opinion. Head to partpicker, make a list, go to Amazon, Prime that shit to your door and spend an evening building.

If money REALLY isn't a big deal, go buy a ridiculous Alienware desktop, they have some liquid-cooled 6700K GTX 1080 systems.

[Madeline]

pay a friend and have it shipped to you, still be cheaper (probably) and more reliable >.>

i just, can never in good faith let someone purchase a prebuilt..i've heard horror stories about probably all of them at this point and am even currently dealing with alienware's bullshit with a friend lol

proprietary cases/housings...bleed. BLEED.

[synistar]

https://www.originpc.com/

They got some crazy rigs they overclock and supposedly good customer support

[orinthia]

Sometimes you could take a leap of faith and try something, especially when the deal is superior on price: https://slickdeals.net/f/9338759-gam...win-10-1131-90 This deal is expired, but you can't part together this system for the price at all. Some of those prebuilt places, like ibuypower and cyberpowerpc, use off the shelf components, where the only odd thing might be the case (have to have those gaudy as fuck lights everywhere). PSU, cpu cooler (in most cases), hdd(s), ram, bluray drive, gfx, mobo, windows license, all off the shelf stock with off the shelf probability of failing on you (nothing is completely safe from gremlins). Hardly any prebuilt comes without shitware, especially the ones with deep discounts, so a thorough shit-clearing or flatten/reinstall can be in order out of the box sometimes. Prebuilts from bigger folks like hp, dell, etc, will have proprietary shit in them, so proceed with caution.


If you're willing to pay a premium though, there are prebuilts with better guarantees of performance and reliability. Places like falcon pc charge a fair bit more but there's essentially no bloat, everything is perfectly tidy inside the case (cables all sized and positioned well with little to no slack), and they pre-test, benchmark, etc, each system with the benchmark programs and reports left on the desktop. My brother bought a falcon sometime back, when they offered a falcon tiki with an nvidia 980 in it (before the Ti came out). Costed way too damn much (probably enough for 2 more reasonable parted together systems of the time...), but he just wanted it to be a very small pc and to just plug and play. It's been perfect ever since.

[Yabby]

https://www.originpc.com/

They got some crazy rigs they overclock and supposedly good customer support

I'll second this. If you don't care about price, these guys will get you what you want. I have a few friends that bought from them, and they build the same stuff i build myself, it just costs more.

Edit: I get the wife's Laptops from here, haven't had an issue with it for 4+ years now.

[Azull]

I got one from Ibuypower a few years ago and its been fine for me. The only issue I have with them is the inability to get a pc without a big window and lights EVERYWHERE

[Bardicrune]

Here's another builder to look at: MainGear
Recent example video to show build quality:

[avelle]

I just rebuilt my system last weekend (also getting to the age/point where I am feeling too lazy to do this) but I too have heard good things about Origin. Just checked out their site and they have a lot of great options for components. It looks a little expensive but they have to make a profit somehow I guess.

[Rulke]

Thanks again everyone for your insights. A few of these other companies are definitely worth looking into. Looks like the best bet is to take a big lead time on any order to allow myself time to recoup any mishaps.

[Gredival]

I am currently on a 7 year iBuyPower desktop that I have had no problems with. I upgraded the video card of my own volition and cloned my HDD when I switched from a Raptor to an SSD.

Because I'm local to their office I don't have to pay for shipping when it arrives or if I need service, and I like their standard 3 year warranty. There is a markup over building it yourself of course, but it was only like 200 on top of the base parts in my case.

But I also had a bad experience with a laptop from them (before I got the desktop) where there was a loose connection from the MB to the screen so the backlight would flicker or turn off, and their RMA department kept failing to understand the problem. They would just run burn in tests to see if the screen and card was working.