[H] PC Club Enpower Fuzion 4 Evaluation

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Chris_Morley

Former [H] Consumer Managing Ed.
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We took a look at an ultra budget machine from PC Club, please have a gander here and leave us your thoughts.

I'd also like to introduce Brian Boyko, the author of the article, as our latest addition to our Austin team.
 
Not bad...I really like how the company didn't use the stock fan that came with the cpu and use an aftermarket one...good review.

If you don't mind me asking, when can we see a laptop review?

Good job
 
Sz1hart said:
Not bad...I really like how the company didn't use the stock fan that came with the cpu and use an aftermarket one...good review.

If you don't mind me asking, when can we see a laptop review?

Good job
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Next week.
 
I sell these systems quite often (I work at PC Club.) Glad to see our efforts are appreciated.
 
hey a fellow PC Club employee, yeah I sell about 2-3 of these systems a week, good lowend stable system... and yeah we know about the restore disc mislabled as such, though I dident know it only had SP1 on the disc, I will warn our techs and salesmen when I go in to work next.
 
Judd Sandage said:
hey a fellow PC Club employee, yeah I sell about 2-3 of these systems a week, good lowend stable system... and yeah we know about the restore disc mislabled as such, though I dident know it only had SP1 on the disc, I will warn our techs and salesmen when I go in to work next.
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They normally don't...
I did a wipe+reload today by borrowing a disc from an FZ4 and it installed SP2. Interesting.
 
I'm pretty impressed with that system myself. I have worked on way too many cheap Dells or the like that ship with 128MB of RAM! They are disgusting slow from the word go and having Norton Internet Security or the like preloaded does nothing to help them.

As far as not having AV pre-loaded goes, that does seem a bit risky. I would hate to see Norton on there, but it seems like they could pull off a 90-day deal with another company probably.
 
Great review process.

Although I am not in the market for a PC of this nature I have to say the review had everything that I would look for in a review.
Mainly, tech support, bloatware and upgrade (with the prices)

I liked thier price on the floppy ($8), and the extra RAM wasn't bad either, not great, but at $66 for and extra 512 its not a punch in the face.
My extended family has nominated me Geek of the family, as many of yours have I am sure.
I ordered a low end Dell for my uncle because I coulnd't beat the price and include Windows, and promise it would work in a year. I had to install a floppy afterwards because they were asking too much (around $29) and worst of all it didn't come with the mounting bracket for the floppy. Does this PC come with the holder for the floppy if one is not chosen? That is not something of concern for many out there, because we expect it to be there, but its a real pain in the ass to find out when you get the system. You may want to add that in later reviews, or I missed it.

The fact that it wasn't full of bloatware was a major plus in my book. That is another problem with OEM PCs, especially low end OEMs that don't have the processing power to handle it and work efficiently.
Good to know thier tech support advised you not to flash the Motherboard. But I wonder if they would walk you through it if you had said you had a problem with it.
And the turn around time was good and didn't seem like a huge PITA, but I think Dell has set the precedent with RMAs with them shipping the replacement and then having you ship back the broken part in thier box (all free of charge as far as I know).

Great review!
 
They are an "ok" machine that will work for a lot of people I think. Its hard to find a budget PC at the price from anyone but Dell. However, dells deal at the same price is a little more lucrative..it includes a monitor, kb, speakers, mouse..and for a while it had a printer!

I dont really get excited about the grey junkboxes that Dell sells..

Found it funny in the review that he mentions OEM fan...the oem fan from AMD only comes with retail box CPU's...its either oem, or its retail...and in this case, they are using an OEM socket 754 amd...but, the coolermaster hsf on there is actually a pretty solid unit, you just get less of a warranty on the cpu itself because its oem.

Funny to note that ClubIT and PC Club are the same people...why would one be a [H]ard sponsor..and the other not? :)
 
Bedlam said:
They are an "ok" machine that will work for a lot of people I think. Its hard to find a budget PC at the price from anyone but Dell. However, dells deal at the same price is a little more lucrative..it includes a monitor, kb, speakers, mouse..and for a while it had a printer!
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And they load up every one of their machines with enough adware and spyware to choke a horse, nevermind the fact that their parts are all flavor of the day across identical models.
 
Usually if you buy a house brand PC at that price is has a PCChips motherboard. Gigabyte makes some of the most stable motherboards I've ever used. Kudos to them for making a budget computer around a solid foundation.
 
I'd like to take a moment to say how much I appreicate review like this. As the "computer guy" in my family and friends circle (as I'm sure all of you are too), it's nice to have other options on the table besides Dell.

Clean install of Windows. Stable box. Acceptable performance with minor upgrades. Possible local retail presence.

Nice. I'll be adding PC Club to my list of places to send people when I get the inevitable questions regarding computers this holiday season.

// EvilJohn
 
but, my very small computer company uses two companies to buy parts from.
PC Club happens to be one of them.
Not only are their wholesale prices good (don't forget to take shipping into account), but the techs (especially Joel, at the Fresno, Ca. store) have actually helped me in my business. If someone comes in to my business with a part I can't test, I take it to PC Club and they'll test it for me free.
They answer questions for me freely, and without hesititation.

PC Club...
Two thumbs up from www.baker-tech.com (yes, the website needs updating)

(I am in no way affiliated with PC Club, except I use them as a supplier)
 
Bedlam said:
Funny to note that ClubIT and PC Club are the same people...why would one be a [H]ard sponsor..and the other not? :)
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Actually that is news to me. We have an ad guy that handles most of our new clients now, so while I am not out of the loop on signing Insertion Orders, I do not deal with the clients directly.

As for whether or not to evaluate machines from PC Club, we looked at their business structure and then me and Morley made a call as to whether or not they were a player in the market. Last thing we need to do is cover boxes from a guy that can only ship 5 a month and will not be in business next week. PC Club is a huge company that turns a ton of inventory.
 
ClubIT is not associated with PC Club. Our associations are PC Club(stores/website), Enpower(Systems) and Realsync(Monitors).

Great review. I appreciate the unbiased view and the constructive criticism, common on HardOCP, not so common elsewhere!

I have been a PC Club store employee for years(Tigard,Oregon), and I know my personal commitment to quality and service is considered very high by many; I simply believe that I should provide service on a level I would expect for myself. and it is good to see in writing that that commitment is company wide! I had no doubt. I would have not worked so hard and long as I have to help see us succeed if I had. ;)

The one thing that was not mentioned was our forum, found on our website. While not an official support channel, it is frequented by many store and HQ staff, myself and the aforementioned Jakup included. Lots of knowledge and help found there!

Thank you HardOCP!

James Powers
Asst Mgr.
PC Club 31
Tigard, Oregon
 
The Bryophyte said:
I'm pretty impressed with that system myself. I have worked on way too many cheap Dells or the like that ship with 128MB of RAM! They are disgusting slow from the word go and having Norton Internet Security or the like preloaded does nothing to help them.

As far as not having AV pre-loaded goes, that does seem a bit risky. I would hate to see Norton on there, but it seems like they could pull off a 90-day deal with another company probably.
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Actually it's not risky per say whn a system is first set up or restored (imo) , what is needed more than the A/V installed at o/s restore is SP2. I read these reviews with interest because i had my own shop selling my own units for four years and i think i did better than most. What PC Club could do IMO is not have the A/V actually installed, because in a year or more that would be more of an annoyance itself as the engine may be updated later and the old one not wanted, plus the uninstallation hassle with remnants left from Norton and such can be a headache for more the just noobs. What i did with my units in the last two years was have the restore disk just place the A/V .exe's on the desktop itself at bootup in a folder called (restore necessities please read) with a PDF read-me about what an anti-virus does and how to use and update (in basic terms)., that way they can just delete it from the desktop itself if they already have their own A/V solution. Overall it looks like PC Club built a a nice basic machine here though. I also like the coolermaster HSF and addition of quiet fans. Nice overall job for PC Club and good review too.
 
I used to work for the PC Club in Tigard, OR. I always admired PC club for never going crap on their mainboards. You wouldn't believe (ok maybe you would) the amount of customers coming from Frys and saying they should have bought from PC Club to begin with.

All in all, good prices, if you make friends deals happen a lot, such as using the system to give you 10-15% over cost if we like you! Even though the circumstances of me not working there are murky and unprofessional, I still recommend PC Club.

Hey James, whats up? Reminds me I should stop by and drop you off those NICs.
 
I am needing to find a machine for my mother in law and this may just be the one. She just does the basics so, thanks again. :)
 
This is exactly the type of review I was hoping to see from you guys: the sort of computer I can tell the non-tech savvy relatives and friends to buy and not feel guilty about sending them to Dell. Thanks for the great review!
 
Thanks for the positive reviews. :) I'm a bit surprised as well about the SP1 disc, it must have been old inventory. All of the discs I've see and used here for the past several months have been SP2. Odd. Anyways, the Fuzions are good budget machines and I love that we don't fill them with "bloat-ware".

Cheers!

Chris
Technician
Orem, Utah
 
As a former PC Club Emoployee I have to say that these guys are top notch. Nice review KB.
 
While the prices for a local store are right on the money, and this review puts them in a shining light, i have to say that our local store here hires some rather braindead employees. I don't know how many times i started laughing at the person behind the desk as they tried to describe why a client needs something. I'm certain that the 60 year old buying his first computer to email his grand daughter NEEDS the new 7800GTX graphics card. :rolleyes:

Further more, they did not have a part in stock that their site said and never called me when i reserved the piece. Not that it mattered, i went across the street to best buy and picked up the video card for $10 less.
 
Nice review.

Glad to see there are still good PC distributors besides Dell that have nice deals.

Did you ever get the rebate and how much was the rebate for?
 
Degenerate said:
ClubIT is not associated with PC Club.
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Hrmm...you sure about that?

Registration Service Provided By: eNom, Inc.
Contact: [email protected]
Visit:

Domain name: pcclub.com

Registrant Contact:
PC Club
Jackson Lan ([email protected])
+1.6268398080
Fax: +1.6268398088
18537 E. Gale Ave. #B
Industry, CA 91748
US

Registration Service Provided By: eNom, Inc.
Contact: [email protected]
Visit:

Domain name: clubit.com

Registrant Contact:
CLUB IT, INC.
Nancy Lan ([email protected])
+1.6269655858
Fax: +1.
18513 E. Gale Ave.
City of Industry, CA 91748
US
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It just makes me laugh that they didnt try to hide it better... :)
 
As someone who builds his own machine, I am glad to see something to offer friends/family other than Dell. Props [H] on a good review on what sounds like a good deal.

I also shop for parts when I need them now at PC Club. Their staff is usually pretty on top it as well. I have had to do an exchange of hardware with them, and it was no hassel.

 
Parastie said:
Further more, they did not have a part in stock that their site said and never called me when i reserved the piece. Not that it mattered, i went across the street to best buy and picked up the video card for $10 less.
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The website has a disclaimer stating that "in stock" means it is actually a standard stock item, not that it is at the store. It is probably available at our distribution center. It recommends calling to verify availability, where we are always happy to put it on hold for you.

As for the other, that is going to vary from store to store and salesperson to salesperson. And I've seen some 60 year old guys get pretty high end systems so they can game, video edit, etc. ;)
 
From PC Club's website:
About product availability:

IN STOCK - Not guaranteed, but most likely product is available in store.

For Direct Shipment, the product should be shipped within 24 - 48 hours.

LIMITED - If traveling far, please call the store in advance since there are limited quantities available.

For Direct Shipment, your order may experience some delay.

ORDERABLE - May not be in the store, but can be sent to the store when ordered. Estimated Time to Store will give you an approximate time the store should receive the product if you order it.

For Direct Shipment, the product is likely backordered and may take some time before your order will be fulfilled.
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Sweet, PC Club finally got around to getting a system reviewed on Hardocp. Now we just need Hardocp to call up one of the stores and build a custom rig for gamming. That would make for a good review! Anyway, just wanted to say hi to all the other PC Club employees on the Hard Fourms.

Japeth
Bellevue, WA
 
I did notice this mistake. The author says that the case does not have front panel connections although there is a non-functional door at the bottom of the case. Then there is that table that says for connectivity there is front USB and Firewire. There is in fact no front USB and no Firewire at all (front or back.) There is just 4 USB ports on the back.
 
I have to give props to the [H] crew for reviewing a low end rig. Its nice to see comps that most people with alittle disposal income can actually afford. I find more frequently than not friends gawking about my purchase of 300+ graphics cards while at the sametime praying that one day they can entire the LAN frey at house.

Very cool indeed!
 
Great review. I think you should keep your primary focus on machines that don't cost like $3000, since in reality, noone ever buys them.


One thing I'd like to note, the World Bench test graphs seem completely fubar'd.

For example, in the first graph, the machine without upgrades has about 950 in Nero Express. However, in the second graph, the machine without the upgrades has about 1800 in the same benchmark.

:confused:
 
Bedlam said:
Hrmm...you sure about that?



It just makes me laugh that they didnt try to hide it better... :)
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Ever been to the City of Industry? Particularly Gale Ave? If you have been there, you will understand that is a string of business parks, primarily Asian, primarily technology/computers.

PCC HQ addy is 18505, and is an entire city block; the City of Industry store is 18537, a storefront in a business park, which also happens to house MANY other technology companies.

Lan in Taiwan is like Smith here, and it makes me laugh that you would jump to such a conclusion.

You make assumptions.

I state facts.
 
My only problem with PCClub is the one closest to me in San Bernardino Ca never ever has the stock that they show on the stores website for that location. So after a dozen or so attempts I just quit looking to them for parts at all. Hope the fare better building computers.
 
Degenerate said:
Ever been to the City of Industry? Particularly Gale Ave? If you have been there, you will understand that is a string of business parks, primarily Asian, primarily technology/computers.

PCC HQ addy is 18505, and is an entire city block; the City of Industry store is 18537, a storefront in a business park, which also happens to house MANY other technology companies.

Lan in Taiwan is like Smith here, and it makes me laugh that you would jump to such a conclusion.

You make assumptions.

I state facts.
Click to expand...

Yes, I've been to PC Club HQ and LAID...I didnt post the whole dns lookup because I didnt want to spam the forums...if you look many of the same names are on both lists..what really funny to me that you are trying to cover it up when they should just let people know the truth.

Honga Wei is listed as a contact on both of them..lots of other names I'm sure you would recognize too if you would take the 5 minutes to look it up..anyway..its a PC Club review..cool..just should have been noted (in my opinion) that ClubIT and PC Club are the same..as such, mentioned that they are a sponsor of H|OCP. I didnt not see any bias in the article however..thats why I keep reading the OCP...Kyle likes to call 'em like he sees 'em. :)
 
Found the PC Club box interesting as dell budget competition. Adding $156 in upgrades to a $300 box (after rebate) didn't make much sense to me. With the $47 shipping charge (for my area), it puts the whole box over $500 and that is after rebate.

In that category, dells best deal right now is a P4 3.0, 256mb ddr2 with integrated everything dvd burner and 17" lcd for $523 after rebate. Makes the Pc club box quite a bit less attractive.

I think that better upgrades would have been made from newegg with a stick of 256mb ram ($25) and a fx5200 ($40ish) or fx6200 ($60ish). It would have made a more reasonable price point for a budget box.

This is no personal slam against pc club, I've never dealt with them.
 
Yeah I agree. Good review on a "the basics" kind of computer. Now when one of my computer illiterate friends ask me to build them a cheap (non gamin rig) computer I can save myself the time and recommend them to PC Club site.

Even though im an enthusiast and [H]ardOCP is an enthusiast site and usually reviews sweet hardware or the newest and best shyt this review was a nice change from what you guys usually do (even though what you usally do is great :) ). I like the system evaluation type of reviews you guys have been doin recently. Good work guys.
 
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