Is there a single pre-built / customizable PC vendor that has a good reputation?

[Rauschen]

I made the mistake of buying from CyberPowerPC and having my machine die a month later (I previously thought it was due to something on my end, but now it's looking more and more like they really did just ship me some junk). To say the least, their customer service has not been helpful.

 

I'm going to try to RMA my PC and get a new one as I'm done with CyberPower but not especially confident in my ability to build one and have been researching their competitors to get a feel for who would be my best option.

 

It really seems like all of them get slammed for the same stuff. Even the supposedly "high price, high quality" ones like Origin and Xidax get absolutely trashed in reviews for poor customer service, defective components, and very long not-advertised lead times (for anything - it would be understandable if it was due to a customer wanting a 3080 or something like that).

 

Can anyone recommend any company in that industry that isn't total garbage? I'd like to get a replacement PC but this experience and my subsequent research into the alternatives has shaken me a lot.

 

Thanks

[jaslion]

Puget systems are king here maingear is also pretty darn good. Expect to pay a pretty penny extra with Puget system and maingear tho.

[gal-m]

Hey @Rauschen.

 

• What would you like your computer to do for you?
• What kind of programs do you use?
• What types of games do you play?
• How aesthetically pleasing do you want your computer to be aka. do looks matter or not?
• Where are you located?
• What is your budget?

 

That should help us giving you a hand  

[Triggeravus]

I'm not a fan of Newegg in general, but their ABS models seem ok.  I've heard good things about customer support and people being sent a new GPU if theirs died or was DOA.  

 

The bad thing is you can't customize them.  But overall I find them to be cheaper than customizing a similar build on a prebuilt site. 

[Rauschen]

45 minutes ago, gal-m said:

Hey @Rauschen.

 

• What would you like your computer to do for you?
• What kind of programs do you use?
• What types of games do you play?
• How aesthetically pleasing do you want your computer to be aka. do looks matter or not?
• Where are you located?
• What is your budget?

 

That should help us giving you a hand  

Answers, in order: 

 

I intent to use it predominantly as a gaming PC. I would do some minor work stuff and maybe pet projects (I like to mess around in Unity/Godot sometimes).

 

As far as demanding professional software - none, really. Unity/Godot game development engines might be the most taxing work-adjacent stuff I do. But they're an afterthought to actual games.

 

I play a variety of games, but I'd like to be able to run more demanding stuff fairly well (e.g. I would prefer 32 gb RAM so I can go full-bore in Cities: Skylines (although 16 has served me well too and would be okay), a good GPU so I can play on "high" in games that stand to benefit from it, but I'm not desperate to get 300 fps on Ultra in Doom or anything like that). Just "decent/good quality, not horribly laggy" is good.

 

Not super concerned about looks. A lot of "cool" cases look sorta silly to me anyway.

 

US East Coast - buying from CyberPower (west coast) was a big mistake. 

 

Budget is flexible. My now-dead PC was $1750, but I could justify as high as like $2500-3000 if the PC was very reliable and would last years to come (acknowledging that it would slowly become more average over time). 

 

 

[Rauschen]

48 minutes ago, Triggeravus said:

I'm not a fan of Newegg in general, but their ABS models seem ok.  I've heard good things about customer support and people being sent a new GPU if theirs died or was DOA.  

 

The bad thing is you can't customize them.  But overall I find them to be cheaper than customizing a similar build on a prebuilt site. 

What about the ABS systems stands out to you? I ask because their reviews on Newegg are pretty small in number and some of them are quite negative. 

[Triggeravus]

16 minutes ago, Rauschen said:

What about the ABS systems stands out to you? I ask because their reviews on Newegg are pretty small in number and some of them are quite negative. 

It seems a majority of the negatives are damage during shipment, or things not being properly connected.  At least the early ones I read.  

 

I got a 3080 prebuilt from them back in January.  As many reviews state, the GPU wasn't fully in the PCIe slot when it arrived.   I just snapped it in and moved on but others claim there was damage to the slot.

 

The packaging otherwise was great and it's been a great PC.  It's pretty much impossible to find the build I got right now for $2500.  I looked into many of the other prebuilt sites and they were all more expensive for often inferior builds. 

[Kilrah]

You can watch the series Gamer's Nexus currently has going that seeks to answer this question... but it's pretty grim for now. 

[GDRRiley]

great company to buy from but mostly aimed at being custom workstations. boring cases but they test everything well

https://www.pugetsystems.com/
 

[Rauschen]

1 hour ago, Triggeravus said:

It seems a majority of the negatives are damage during shipment, or things not being properly connected.  At least the early ones I read.  

 

I got a 3080 prebuilt from them back in January.  As many reviews state, the GPU wasn't fully in the PCIe slot when it arrived.   I just snapped it in and moved on but others claim there was damage to the slot.

 

The packaging otherwise was great and it's been a great PC.  It's pretty much impossible to find the build I got right now for $2500.  I looked into many of the other prebuilt sites and they were all more expensive for often inferior builds. 

Ahh I see. My current one is (or was...) surprisingly good for the $1750 price tag, but it would appear there was a reason for that (i.e. dying after a month). Afraid I won't get anything like that again.

49 minutes ago, GDRRiley said:

great company to buy from but mostly aimed at being custom workstations. boring cases but they test everything well

https://www.pugetsystems.com/
 

Wow, those are some really expensive work stations though. More than twice my now-dead PC. Surprised to see how beefy they are, though.

 

@GDRRileyHow do you feel about Maingear? Their pre-builts seem comparably priced to my old computer, but are surprisingly the same price for more power. 

1 hour ago, Kilrah said:

You can watch the series Gamer's Nexus currently has going that seeks to answer this question... but it's pretty grim for now. 

Yeesh. Watching some of his videos now and it is really depressing.

[Alan G]

4 hours ago, jaslion said:

Puget systems are king here maingear is also pretty darn good. Expect to pay a pretty penny extra with Puget system and maingear tho.

+1  for Puget Systems.  they stand beside the work they do and pick the best parts.  I'm a DIY but if I were to buy a pre-built, this is who I would buy from.  The other possibility is to check locally to see if there are small shops in your area that do builds.  they do exist.

[Amias]

I haven't bought from them in ... holy f*** ... 14 years. But if you're in the UK https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/ built my original top gaming rig (intel q6600 with an nvidia 8800gtx back in 2007) and it was built incredibly well.

 

Thing is you're not going to find a good prebuilt pc builder cheap. PC assembly, cable management, testing, proper care and maintenance of your parts etc etc, that takes time and good people. These companies might get a discount on some parts, but they still need to pay their employees, cover warranty issues, shipment, office costs.

 

If you're going pre-built, don't go for one that is only a little more than the base parts. They will be skipping steps to build and ship them at that price.

 

 

[Kisai]

5 hours ago, Rauschen said:

 

 

It really seems like all of them get slammed for the same stuff. Even the supposedly "high price, high quality" ones like Origin and Xidax get absolutely trashed in reviews for poor customer service, defective components, and very long not-advertised lead times (for anything - it would be understandable if it was due to a customer wanting a 3080 or something like that).

 

Can anyone recommend any company in that industry that isn't total garbage? I'd like to get a replacement PC but this experience and my subsequent research into the alternatives has shaken me a lot.

 

Thanks

 

At present, the build quality of just about everything is pretty poor, unless you buy a Mac Pro. Like reasonably, yes, HP or Dell or Lenovo usually has the competency to at least ship things without getting damaged... usually. However this has more to do with their economies of scale, so you're more likely to have breakage later (eg >6 months) from the poor build quality of cooling fans. Especially in anything that's not the highest-end part.

 

On the flip side of that, you have specialty system builders like BOXX, which are actually a bargain relative to gaming systems, but they don't make game systems, they make enterprise workstation's (eg CAD systems) so they have a 20% price premium to MSRP. Now consider that GPU's are currently selling at 2.5-3x the MSRP, yes it's a bargain. Gaming on a Quadro though, probably not the best use of money.

 

I'm not endorsing BOXX here, but I have seen at least one of their systems before and they were pretty solid for what was in it. But it's not something I couldn't build myself. The only reason I'd consider them, or, really Dell or HP right now is because of the utter pain in the ass it is right now to get a GPU.

[Rauschen]

1 hour ago, Alan G said:

+1  for Puget Systems.  they stand beside the work they do and pick the best parts.  I'm a DIY but if I were to buy a pre-built, this is who I would buy from.  The other possibility is to check locally to see if there are small shops in your area that do builds.  they do exist.

My biggest issue there is just the pain of knowing they're on the exact opposite side of the country from me, so any warranty claims come with a pretty massive shipping cost. Currently butting my head up against the wall because of that with CyberPowerPC too. 

 

1 hour ago, Amias said:

I haven't bought from them in ... holy f*** ... 14 years. But if you're in the UK https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/ built my original top gaming rig (intel q6600 with an nvidia 8800gtx back in 2007) and it was built incredibly well.

 

Thing is you're not going to find a good prebuilt pc builder cheap. PC assembly, cable management, testing, proper care and maintenance of your parts etc etc, that takes time and good people. These companies might get a discount on some parts, but they still need to pay their employees, cover warranty issues, shipment, office costs.

 

If you're going pre-built, don't go for one that is only a little more than the base parts. They will be skipping steps to build and ship them at that price.

 

 

Unfortunately I'm on the US east coast and would really, really prefer to avoid international shipping. Even just cross country shipping is currently biting me in the ass. That said, I don't mind paying a premium for a higher quality company, provided others can earnestly recommend the company. Do you have an opinion on Maingear? 

 

37 minutes ago, Kisai said:

At present, the build quality of just about everything is pretty poor, unless you buy a Mac Pro. Like reasonably, yes, HP or Dell or Lenovo usually has the competency to at least ship things without getting damaged... usually. However this has more to do with their economies of scale, so you're more likely to have breakage later (eg >6 months) from the poor build quality of cooling fans. Especially in anything that's not the highest-end part.

I'd hope to avoid buying a workstation to use as a gaming computer just because of the associated increase in cost and unnecessary components (for my intended use). Pretty sad to hear that everyone is not living up to expectations right now, though. I've been looking at Maingear a lot today... do you know anything about them? Their online reviews seem good but I much prefer testimony from real people (even if they are strangers on a cool forum, haha).