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Best place to buy a custom built pc

J

jc0481

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 16, 2005
228
0
I know I know a maccentric forum. I posted this same question on other pccentric forums with no response.

My wife's aunt wants to get a new pc and I decided to build it for her. But she wants it soon but I probably will be out of town. I am just wondering where is the best place to buy a custom built pc. Either online or offline. I have heard pretty good things on System 76 computers. She wants to spend between $500-700 dollars for the computer.

I can also use this information you guys provide for other distant relatives. I hope someone here can help me out with this. Thanks.
 
Honestly, building them myself was far cheaper and better in the long run.

The reason why pccentric forums don't respond is because they're too busying fixing their computer.
 
www.newegg.com

Then, get a local shop to put it all together. There's a similar site, NCIX, that will assemble your build and test it for $50, and still include all original packaging. Not sure if Newegg does it.
 
Puget Systems is a little pricey but they're definitely the most reliable and have the best customer service. They're also the highest rated store on resellerratings.com. I'm probably going to build my computer myself to save money and for the learning experience, but if I decide to have it built by somebody else I'm going with them.

Edit: Didn't realize the budget was between $500 and $700, nevermind.
 
Honestly having someone build it would not be worthwhile. Unless it is a custom gaming rig or will have a RAID array, as the manufacturers make you pay through the nose for a computer with a RAID 5 capable motherboard and multiple drive bays or with a good GPU and PSU.

As for your everyday $500 to $900 desktop do it yourself prices are pretty close to prefab. Unless you start upgrading parts. Once you throw in the cost of having someone do it for you $150+ you are losing money.

But for the vast majority of computer users any dual core with stock RAM and Hard Drive is much more powerful than they can fully utilize.

Now if you build it yourself that is indeed the best option.

My wife's aunt wants to get a new pc and I decided to build it for her. But she wants it soon but I probably will be out of town.
Click to expand...
Convince her to wait since Windows 7 comes out October 22nd.

And convince her of the need for a backup hard drive.
 
velocityg4 said:
Honestly having someone build it would not be worthwhile. Unless it is a custom gaming rig or will have a RAID array, as the manufacturers make you pay through the nose for a computer with a RAID 5 capable motherboard and multiple drive bays or with a good GPU and PSU.

As for your everyday $500 to $900 desktop do it yourself prices are pretty close to prefab. Unless you start upgrading parts. Once you throw in the cost of having someone do it for you $150+ you are losing money.

But for the vast majority of computer users any dual core with stock RAM and Hard Drive is much more powerful than they can fully utilize.

Now if you build it yourself that is indeed the best option.


Convince her to wait since Windows 7 comes out October 22nd.

And convince her of the need for a backup hard drive.
Click to expand...

RAID is silly for home use these days.
 
I just made a gaming rig/ not top high end but it will run most of the games on high settings


CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply
Item #:N82E16817139005
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy

$99.99

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

$84.99

Antec Three Hundred Black Computer Case

$54.95

ASUS Radeon HD 4870 EAH4870 DK/HTDI/1GD5 Video Card

$159.99


GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P ATX AMD Motherboard with
AMD Athlon II X4 620 2.6GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor


$168.99
Grand Total: $568.91

no screen of course
 
phas3 said:
I just made a gaming rig/ not top high end but it will run most of the games on high settings
Grand Total: $568.91
no screen of course
Click to expand...
Your forgetting an OS, hard drive, or any kind of cd/dvd drive
When I went to try and build a pc with parts before buying them, I was able to beat some online retailer's prices but not a local computer store's here for the same parts, so I would probably pay them to make it for me if I ever decided to get one.
 
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