Comments on OEM Build

C

Croaker24

n00b
Joined
Oct 29, 2005
Messages
16
I might not have a lot of direct questions in the rambling discourse to follow, but I would appreciate any comments where I might be wrong, or suggestions.

I'm looking to build a 'mid-range' game machine via an OEM site that allows some degree of customizing. Accordingly, I've spent the past month or so researching every site that I can find, and reading a ton of threads here on HardOCP. In a nutshell, my base as far as hardware requirements is the AMD 3700+, it seems to be the sweet spot right now as far as bang for the buck. I'm no overclocking, tinkering-type -- the most I would do as for upgrading would be to add memory and possibly a 2nd graphics card to an SLI setup. So, motherboard-wise, I was leaning towards the Asus A8N Premium; however, in checking the Asus website, I find that the 3700+ is NOT a supported CPU for this motherboard -- but the Deluxe does support it. My understanding is that the Deluxe is identical feature-wise to the Premium, it's just that the cooling is quieter/more efficient with the Premium? Is that so? I've kind of narrowed it down to a non-Premium/3700+ or a Premium/3800 x2 -- although I'm not convinced the dual-core is the way to go for a gaming PC with an anticipated life of 3 years, or is it??? For the graphics card, it'll be a 7800 GT.

I then reviewed various OEM sites, looking for one that was between the high-end sites such as VoodooPC or Northwest, and the bottom-feeders such as CyberPower. Eventually I whittled it down to Puget Systems, All-American Computers, and Monarch. My thoughts (please comment if you can):

Pugetsystems.com -- solid components, well-organized website, active forums, excellent reviews on reselleratings, and apparently, excellent tech support, and my leader at present. Prices higher than either AAC or Monarch. They don't offer the Deluxe however, so I cannot quite get my original config, but I'm willing to compromise.

AACdirect.com -- I came across these guys by accident, in a review of a high-end PC they built for Tom's Hardware. They come very close to my initial baseline configuration at a good price, and they are in-state, only 100 miles away (which is probably why they are still on my list even with having to pay sales tax.) Problem is that they have no recent reviews on resellerratings, and I really cannot find any information as to their build quality or tech support. The website has minimal support facilities -- and the configurator is missing some things, such as CPU cooling or sound card options. Has anyone heard of these guys?

Monarch.com -- I originally planned to go with these guys. However, I see that as of late, from Resellerratings and from their forums, they seem to be slipping in their build quality, tech support, and build time. Furthermore, (correct me if I'm wrong) I'm highly skeptical of any site that has a huge list of components to choose from. I cannot see how a smaller firm can really build, burn-in, and support a large multitude of possible configurations, and I suspect that they really don't anticipate doing so - that it's up the client to validate the configuration. I'm far from being a hardware geekdroid, so I need to rely on the builder to validate the configuration with solid support if needed.
 
Well, I have to say that you are vastly more prepared and informed than most people that ask for help on here. You're absolutely right about Monarch and their part options. It's impossible to account for the stability of all of the different combinations of components.

While lacking some of the component options that Monarch does, I recommend that you take a look at ABS. Their prices are as good as anyone's and are rated quite well in customer support. If you call them and talk to them on the phone, they're very accomodating as far as components.
 
Thanks Doc. I had taken a brief glimpse at ABS early in the process, and for some reason, I seemed to have overlooked them. A 2nd look is warranted.
 
I'm having 2nd thoughts on getting the AMD dual-core, and may go for a powerful single-core. Perusing the AMD site, and some threads on HardOCP, I see that there seems to be some sporadic performance issues related to timing for the dual-core chips. From the gist of the conversations, it seems the issue is with the chip itself, and not with software. Anyone else know of this?
 
There are some weird compatability issues with the AMD dual cores and Microsoft. There are fixes for most issues.

Unless you have a need for a dual core solution (media authoring, multi-app stuff, etc) then your money might be better served by going with a single threader. They're certainly nice, but if you never get the chance to use it, then why have it.
 
FWIW, I decided to go with Puget, after also considering ABS and Velocity Micro. Price-wise, they were all fairly close, but Puget's tech support was by far the most responsive, and their answers were much much informative. Furthermore, as I'm a deaf individual, it was important that the vendor have online forums and be responsive via email. Neither ABS nor Velocity have online forums, and their tech support via email was a bit disappointing. Puget has about 3 or 4 of their people perusing their forums and answering questions, generally within 24-36 hours, worse case.

As for ABS, I tried their online support, got someone with the name of ABS_GARY. I asked a tech question about the AMD 3800+ dual-core, and instead of answering, he cut and paste some marketing schmooz that had nothing to do with my question. And his broken english led me to believe ABS tech support might be outsourced. I never did get any kind of answer from him. In addition, ABS apparently used to have online forums, but they have been down for a while with some msg about "New, improved forums coming soon" leading me to believe that perhaps the forums might have become a source of embarrasment for ABS with voluminous complaints.

I have to say these HardOCP forums were consistently the best source for information while researching. When I started this search, I was so woefully out of date, and totally ignorant about AMD systems and motherboards.
 
From what they told me when I spoke to them, ABS outsources for their on-site tech support, but not for their online or phone support. Everything is run out of their California home base, so it's based domestically, but I can't vouch for who is actually there manning the computer terminals.

I'm not sure if you've already purchased your Puget or not, but we have an evaluation coming from Puget in the near future that you might want to read, just to make sure that you've covered all of the bases that we cover. :)
 
Croaker24 said:
FWIW, I decided to go with Puget, after also considering ABS and Velocity Micro. Price-wise, they were all fairly close, but Puget's tech support was by far the most responsive, and their answers were much much informative. Furthermore, as I'm a deaf individual, it was important that the vendor have online forums and be responsive via email. Neither ABS nor Velocity have online forums, and their tech support via email was a bit disappointing. Puget has about 3 or 4 of their people perusing their forums and answering questions, generally within 24-36 hours, worse case.

As for ABS, I tried their online support, got someone with the name of ABS_GARY. I asked a tech question about the AMD 3800+ dual-core, and instead of answering, he cut and paste some marketing schmooz that had nothing to do with my question. And his broken english led me to believe ABS tech support might be outsourced. I never did get any kind of answer from him. In addition, ABS apparently used to have online forums, but they have been down for a while with some msg about "New, improved forums coming soon" leading me to believe that perhaps the forums might have become a source of embarrasment for ABS with voluminous complaints.

I have to say these HardOCP forums were consistently the best source for information while researching. When I started this search, I was so woefully out of date, and totally ignorant about AMD systems and motherboards.
Click to expand...
Puget delivers a great value for the hardware you get, and I love their choice in cases and cooling. That said, I must say they're light on the tech support department...but their RMA process is fantastic. We have an article that will be published on a system from them shortly.
 
Arrggh. I've already ordered the system, so now I'm anticipating your Puget systems article with a little bit of dread. It's nice to know their RMA process is great --- I think! As for tech support, I actually think I would be perusing or posting on these forums looking for it more so than contact them -- and that would go for just about any vendor, not just Puget.
 
Croaker24 said:
Arrggh. I've already ordered the system, so now I'm anticipating your Puget systems article with a little bit of dread. It's nice to know their RMA process is great --- I think! As for tech support, I actually think I would be perusing or posting on these forums looking for it more so than contact them -- and that would go for just about any vendor, not just Puget.
Click to expand...
Don't worry, I believe you made a good choice, especially if you're coming here for tech support!
 
Don't sweat it too much, Croak. The upcoming article will just give you a little bit more information about Puget and what you should expect out of them. Chances are, you didn't buy a lemon, so sleep well :).
 
Man I just took a look at Puget's website because a buddy of mine wants a decent gaming computer mostly to play Age of Empires 3. I got as far as the cpu cooler and for an xp90 they want to charge $72.50!! That is insane! I dont mean to come in here and put down your new system by the way. I am sure it is going to rock. I was just pretty surprised at some of the prices they were charging. PSU's were very expensive as well.
 
Bucken said:
Man I just took a look at Puget's website because a buddy of mine wants a decent gaming computer mostly to play Age of Empires 3. I got as far as the cpu cooler and for an xp90 they want to charge $72.50!! That is insane! I dont mean to come in here and put down your new system by the way. I am sure it is going to rock. I was just pretty surprised at some of the prices they were charging. PSU's were very expensive as well.
Click to expand...

One thing to consider is with a full system build most companies factor in labor into their prices. You are not just paying for the part but the trouble to install. I have never installed an XP90. If it is a pain to put in...maybe they are accounting for that. Also on the PSU's could they be sleeving them or something? In our builds we include many small things we don't list but their cost is reflected in the overall cost. Things like we use AS5 for all HSF/waterblocks, Zip ties (Does not sound like much but they add up.), cleaners, polishes, media blanks for restore disks, for water cooled systems there is coolant, UV dye, odd screws, sleeving, heat shrink tubing, solder, etc, etc. Many people don't think about all the little things they buy when build a A+ system. When a OEM makes one they better factor those in because they add up.

Finially I know that we pay more on certain things due to our size and location. Just the reality of life is that Newegg is the largest parts seller out there. They get a better price than 99.9% of the companies. They also sell at close to cost or cost on many things. Most companies don't get that price or have the capability to sell at cost. This is even more true when you don't just get to throw it in a box and ship it.
 
Bucken said:
Man I just took a look at Puget's website because a buddy of mine wants a decent gaming computer mostly to play Age of Empires 3. I got as far as the cpu cooler and for an xp90 they want to charge $72.50!! That is insane! I dont mean to come in here and put down your new system by the way. I am sure it is going to rock. I was just pretty surprised at some of the prices they were charging. PSU's were very expensive as well.
Click to expand...

Bucken,

Keep in mind that when you configure a system at Puget, you start with a baseline price of $0 so the labor is built into the components cost, while at other sites, the labor is built into the system baseline, so you start with some initial cost of $1500 or more.

I priced Puget against some others and I got total system pricing that were very similar.
 
Thanks guys for clearing that up for me. The cost of labor did not even enter my mind. Going to read up on H's front page article today on Puget. Hope your system is rockin croaker. Good luck with it.
 
Good luck with your purchase Croaker, hope it runs well and does what it does best (play games!) Im wondering if you could report back on your epxerience with your Puget system
 
Received the machine yesterday.

My experiences thus far are very similar as to that in the review -- needing to install the Creative software, the nDVD program, etc. Booted up Half-Life 2, Lost Coast, and it was an amazing difference, the improvement in performance, in video, and audio made the game so much more immersive. Had some trouble getting the 5.1 speaker setup identified but eventually persistence and a few reboots did the trick.

One annoying thing is that they throw all these cables, CDs, and docs in one box, you don't know what cable came with what component, a little disorganized. The video card only has dvi connections, and as I have an aging trinitron (due to be replaced by very soon by a Samsung 940b), I had to guess as to using a vga-dvi adapter to get the monitor hooked up. Really, just a few trivial complaints, so far, I'm very happy with this machine, although I've not done much with it as yet.
 
Croaker24 said:
Received the machine yesterday.

My experiences thus far are very similar as to that in the review -- needing to install the Creative software, the nDVD program, etc. Booted up Half-Life 2, Lost Coast, and it was an amazing difference, the improvement in performance, in video, and audio made the game so much more immersive. Had some trouble getting the 5.1 speaker setup identified but eventually persistence and a few reboots did the trick.
Click to expand...
That's probably the best thing I have heard about our systems evaluation program since we have started. If we are mirroring the customer experience closely, then you should be having the same experiences we are. That's fantastic. And don't worry, you bought a good machine, and I believe that Puget will stand by their product if you have any issues you need help resolving.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top