New custom PC source

EJ, and others,

I am considering replacing my Dell 730X with a new desktop. I have read a number of suggestions here about what and where to buy. I would like fresh opinions as to the following vendors and others that may be superior. I am more interested in quality than cheap price.


Puget Systems
I Buy Power
CyberPowerPC

Thanks.

I am only familiar with Puget and highly recommend them. They build a first class product and back it well.

I would also check out Falcon Northwest. We have a customized Talon  model and it's been excellent for us.

Mark

Micro Center stores across the country will build a custom desktop based upon the components you buy for it in the store. They back it up with tech service. You can come prepared with a list of what you want in the desktop or rely upon the advice of the salesperson in the store, or both. I am on my third one and have had no problems with any of them.

Joe

http://www.digitalstorm.com/
or
you could always design and build your own which is actually pretty easy if one does the necessary research is a little mechanically inclined and has a working knowledge of their respective OS.  I recently built my dream machine which will out perform any off the shelf machine. Another reason is if you ever encounter hardware problems down the road you will pretty much know what the issue is and how to rectify them. 

Mark Boranyak wrote:I would also check out Falcon Northwest. We have a customized Talon  model and it's been excellent for us.

Mark

 I second this.

avadirect.com Used them for two builds so far. No issues.

While Puget makes a great system and awesome support, they are pretty darn expensive in their build prices.

I ended up building my own system via Micro Center. You pick all the parts and then have them do the assembly. In the end the same system at Puget Systems was $700 more than what I got the same exact parts at Micro Center including the assembly.

I priced out what I thought were comparable systems on Puget and Falcon, and Puget was $500 more. But do your own analysis; I've been wrong before.

Falcon is more fancy gamer cases, Puget is more minimalist adult.  Puget turns on all their rigs and tests them, something not everybody does, especially folks like HP or Lenovo where things are far cheaper, but far less reliable.

Steve Cirone wrote:Falcon is more fancy gamer cases, Puget is more minimalist adult.  Puget turns on all their rigs and tests them, something not everybody does, especially folks like HP or Lenovo where things are far cheaper, but far less trick.

That may be your perception of their products, I own one and mine is different.  I do however like the articles Puget publishes on the most effective system for Photoshop and Lightroom.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/artic ... mance-625/

On testing issue, here's a quote from the Falcon website:

Testing, like no one else - We do an exhaustive 3-day "burn-in" of every system and try to make the system fail here at the factory so it will not fail on you. We simulate months of the most tortuous use you could imagine.  From common game and graphic tests to stress programs not available to the public, every system gets put through the wringer. If every part can't pass our tests flawlessly - it doesn't ship.  But that's just the final individual system testing. Falcon Northwest has already spent hundreds of hours in testing our system designs themselves as well.  From simple smoke testing like you'd see in a wind tunnel for airflow to advanced thermal imaging that allows us to "see" heat travel in our systems, we haven't just tested your parts - we've tested our system designs as the entire ecosystem they are.

Oh, I didn't mean to knock Falcon.  They are obviously in the same top of the line league with Puget.  I'd love to have either, but both are currently over my budget.  My post was essentially incomplete.  Here is more what I meant:
Falcon offers paint jobs that are really wild.  They tout this on their site.  Even their logo is rather intense.  My gamer grandkids would love a case like this.  Not that this means the internals are anything less than Puget's.  Puget simply doesn't offer anything wild in case design.
This is Puget's case.  My grandkids would hate its minimalist style regardless of how trick the inside components. 

So, long story short, if wild cases are your thing, Falcon looks pretty cool, but not Puget.

 

 

Got it!  Yep those painted cases are pretty pricey.  They want $1,200 for the paint job on the flame case.

Cool Customs:
Steampunk


Orange Juice cooling

An added note about avadirect. A month ago my house took a lightning strike on my TV antenna. It took out all three of my TV's, all three directv boxes, and my custom built computer that I bought in Feb. of this year. I shipped it back to them and did not pack it good enough to survive the trip. My fault, the huge cpu cooler was damaged and the case was damaged beyond repair.
They tested it out and the video card was what was fried. I had to replace the case, and we went with a smaller cooler. The case and cooler are $175.00 at Newegg, they charged me $160. They had to reassemble the system, replace a $340 video card, test and do their burn in tests, shipped it back to me overnight, all for the original $160. I had the no cost, bottom of the barrel warranty. That is good service in my book.