Where to get a custom PC?
 

tax money is on its way and I'm ready for a new computer. I've been looking around at best buy and circuit city's sites, along with some computer company sites looking for a new PC. The problem is, I can't find one that has everything I'm looking for. I can come pretty close at some of the company sites but the price sometimes passes $2000, which is a bit much. I really don't have the time or patience to build my own PC, but I know what I want.
The question is, where should I get it from? Do any of you guys know where I can get a really good deal on a custom built PC? I know there are a lot of places out there that build PCs but I figured I could probably find the best deals easier by asking here first. Thanks for your help.

one of the best places imo is Voodoo, www.voodoopc.com

Cody,

Your in Florida, one of the best places this side of california for cheap components marked for export. Go for the gold and make your own machine. You get to maintain controll over every component and learn a skill we should all know.
An example of what i'm on right now:
Athlon 1.7
80gb maxtor
msi kt3 ultra aru motherboard
internal zip
sony dvd drive
ati 7600 agp
My total cost for self built (including shipping): 600.00.

My point is you pay half of your money for asssembly. I assembled this machine from tiger direct, pricewatch, and several reputable wholesalers around miami international airport and still had money for a new monitor and extra drive.

If you insist on someone else making the machine, give Systemax a call in miami, they'll even let you come in and pick the components off the palets. (Systemax is the holding company of tiger direct and the maker of really cheesy late night commercial for full disclosure).

Good luck, and if you want the names of local wholsalers from the Keys through Broward, PM me and i'll send you several names i've worked with in the past.
HTH

What parts are you wanting. Sometimes your just not going to get what you want for the price you want to pay. I build custom PCs. 1900 bucks is my average price for a good gaming box. But top of the line will always cost closer to 3 grand from anyone that builds a top notch PC. When I build I hide all the wires and cables. Very similar to voodoo. Im a copy cat. When somethings works, and its not stealing, copy it ;).

This is my box. Dont even have a grand in it.

http://www.ponyexpress.net/~vexter/Picture%20001.jpg

On a related note, what are the best places to buy good components(aka cheap)? i know someone mentioned tigerdirect up there, but any others?

Tigers support sucks. They never want to warrantee anything. Newegg is the only place I trust anymore.

No one better then newegg imo.

You are probably better off building a custom one yourself (if you have the knowledge) and then buy the Parts from the places separate based on best prices / name....

If you decide to go for the build-it-yourself approach, check your prospective vendors here...

ResellerRatings

These are a few with whom I've dealt that have good prices and so far good service...

MonarchComputer
AccuPc
Directron

Duh. You get low prices because you get no support.

Other places would be pricewatch for good prices. But again no warrranties!

Googlegear is better. :)
Great prices and free second day delivery on almost everything.

I am also looking to build my first PC. Hoping to stay well under a grand. What do you experts think about used components? I figure geting at least the case and monitor used would be safe, but I would appreciate any advice.

Build your own PC man. If you're not sure about anything you could always get someone else to help you, you have to know a few computer geeks, right? :)

Hey Sixate! Good call on Googlegear. I was a little dubious of your claim about great prices AND 2nd day delivery. I figured if they offer "free" 2nd day, they must gouge on the price. So I checked 'em out and was very surprised. I have spent the last 2 weeks searching for the best prices for components in preparation for building my own computer. Their prices for CPU, MoBo, and Ram are right even with or slightly better than the best I found. But their prices for hard drives are at least 10% less. Add to that the free 2nd day delivery. Fukkin' 'ell! I'm shopping here from now on. BTW, they also have a very good ResellerRatings score.

Ive ordered from them in the past, was not to happy with there service. Plus there selection isn't as large as newegg's.

That's odd. I've ordered quite a bit from them and I've never had a problem. I got 95% of my stuff from Googlegear and Newegg. Can't go wrong with either one.

Fedex guy came today and delivered my orders from Monarch and AccuPC. I've got an Asus P4P800 Deluxe mobo, a 3 GHz P4 800 FSB cpu, 1 gig of Corsair cp3500 ram, a Sapphire ATI 9800 Pro 128MB vid card, WD 120 Gig HD, and a Sony DVD RW/R/CD....but...but...
THE CASE AND POWER SUPPLY ARE STILL ON A TRUCK SOMEWHERE BETWEEN HERE AND LUBBOCK. AHHHHHHH!!!!

I knew I should have gotten 2nd day delivery. Dammit! The other stuff just came way earlier than I expected. Now I've got an entire weekend to sit staring at $1500 worth of parts. Wahh!

platypus, sweet rig. What kind of case did you get?

Made by Super Flower. Not sure, but I think they provide the same case to Kingwin, Lian-Li, and others. I liked the front port package better on this one - 4 usb + fire + audio.

When I get this assembled and tweaked (a few lights/leds, fan bus, temp monitor, maybe stealth the DVD), I'll post pix.

http://www.super-flower.com.tw/image...f-201t3-bk.jpg http://lib1.store.vip.sc5.yahoo.com/.../SF201-MB-tray

Nobody mentioned Directron.com . This place kicks ass. They have anything that you could need and alot of things that you never thought you would need. Everything comes well packaged and on time and is the cheapest ive seen for almost all of their products. This is one of the largest computer wholesale places around and they give discounts of multiple orders and what not. Ive been ordering from them for about 2 years and have had no problems at all.

Nice case! It looks like a modded Lian Li.
It resembles mine, it's just been modded more.
I still need to stealth my drives, and rewire my cathodes so they work properly.

http://www.boomspeed.com/sixate/DSCF00499.jpg