On line gaming PC companies?

[Forward Observer]

Has anybody here purchased a PC from either Cyberpower or Ibuypower. These are the on-line guys that always have the big two page adverts in PCGamer every month.

I'm about to take the plunge and buy my first real custom gaming rig---having alway previously owned brands like HP or Dell in the past. I've managed to add new graphics and sound card to these, but due to all the proprietary software and OEM hardware they come with, that is about all the upgrades one can do.

I thought about trying to build my own rig, but at my stage in life I am no longer a "do it yourselfer" type. I would rather pay someone else to do it, and have a nice warranty on the whole rig to boot,
so don't waste a post telling me I should build it myself.

With a $2,200 budget for just the CPU, obviously I wouldn't get much from the high priced boys like Alienware or Falcon Northwest, but one can put a pretty decent rig together with either of the two bargain priced guys mentioned. Actually the cost of the rig I configured is not too much more than if I bought all the components separately myself.

I just wondered if anybody here has tried them and has an opinion. I have heard a few horror stories, but a lot less that I have heard about the big boys like Dell and HP.


Cheers

[Achilleslastand]

I was about to do the same thing a couple months ago.....so i browsed their forums for a few weeks to see if i was willing to risk it. There seemed to be a lot of people with problems and if you get a pc that dosnt work,guess what?...its your responsibility to ship it back to them and you get to foot the bill.........Im sure Cyberpower and Ibuypower have worked for some but i wasnt ready to risk it....I found a local PC shop ordered my parts through them and they assembled it for me.......If your heart is set on these companys do your self a favor and browse through their tech/support forums before you invest that kinda cash.

[Forward Observer]

Actually, I did go here to get some feedback on customer opinions and complaints

http://www.resellerratings.com/store/

This site is where people go to post their reviews on just about any company selling on-line electronics and such. Both Ibuypower and Cyberpower scored about 82% positive feedback in the last 6 months.

A company like Alienware got a 92% while companies like Dell and HP get in the low 30's.
Of course one pays extra for the Alienware name and rep, so they better have a high customer satisfaction. Still, at either Cyberpower or Ibuypower one can get a rig for about half what they would pay for an comparable Alienware rig. To me, taking a 10% higher risk is a pretty good trade off for cutting my cost in half.


I also don't get too alarmed at an 18% negative feedback for a couple of reasons. First off, those negative percentages are probably over-stated----simply because people who have had a bad experience are more likely to post than people who have had a positive one. It's just human nature to vent when you are upset.

Secondly, if one takes the time to read some of the posts where people were dissatisfied, a lot of them are full of exaggerations and simple misinterpretations of the part of the customer.

Most of the initial problems have to do with units arriving damaged or DOA possibly due to poor handling in transit. This is unavoidable, and really no ones fault other than careless Fed Ex or UPS package handling. All of these companies will honor their warranties, but the buyer is responsible for all shipping charges and these are non-refundable if you have to return the product for repair.

It doesn't seem fair, but when you buy their product, you agree to those terms. Most people simply pay no attention to what they agreed to in the excitement of the purchase.

The worst complaints seem to be that the customers think that they are not getting proper customer service in these cases, and once again that can be pretty open to interpretation.

Anyway, I hope I am right and I am one of the lucky 82% because I just placed my order with
Cyberpower this evening. I paid extra to have it built in 3 days and have it delivered 2nd day air Fed Ex. My idea is that the less the transit time the less chance the carrier has to damage the goods.

I think I'll have a pretty sweet rig with the following:

Case: Thermaltake Spedo Full tower
PSU: 800 watt quad SLI ready
MB: Asus P6T Intel X58 chipset 3 way SLI or Crossfire support
CPU: Intel i7-940 2.93 GHz (which is suppose to be easy to over-clock to insane speeds)
Cooling: Asetek Liquid CPU cooling system
Memory: 6GB DDR3/1600Mhz Corsair
Video: NVIDIA GeForce GTX295 X2 1.7GB 16X PCIe Video Card (about the hottest card going)
Hard drive: 1 terabyte SATA II/ 7200rpm
Optical drives 2 LG 20X double layer DVD+-R/RW--one with lightscribe
Thermal Display: Xion color LCD thermal control panel
OS: Windows Vista home Premium 64 bit with 60day trial of Windows office
Extras: Two free games: FarCry 2 and Halo 2
Rush 3 day build and 2nd day Fed Ex shipping

All for $2165 delivered. I configured as close as I could get to the same components at Alienware's site and the same system without liquid cooling, without the thermal display, and without the two free games was going to run me about $3725. That included Alienware charging twice what Cyberpower charged for second day air--plus they even added State sales tax of $270!

It turns out that since Alienware is owned by Dell and Dell has sales reps living in my state they have to charge state sales tax--There's a nasty surprise for people buying $6k and $7k rigs on line.

Oh well, If I get a rig that boots up out of the box, I'll be way ahead of the game I think.

Cheers

[Achilleslastand]

Good luck bro......let us know how it comes out.......im right next door to ya in Okla.

[Husar]

Well, there is a certain chance that the less time the carrier has your goods, the higher the chance they'll throw them to be faster.

Either way, hope it works, looks like you got a nice system there.

[Forward Observer]

I'll post back about it after it arrives. I've also still got to buy a new monitor, but I'm going to shop for that locally locally. Sam's Club has a pretty good deal on a 25.5 inch Samsung that also has a built in hi def TV tuner, among others.

My old P4 3.2 Ghz system is getting pretty long in the tooth and since its mobo is AGP based, I hit my ceiling for GPU card upgrades quite some time ago. Still, its pretty much handled everything I've thrown at it including Fallout 3 (at lower settings of course)

In fact, I'm going to keep it anyway just to play the older games that only like WindowsXP.

It also has the Window Student and teacher Office software including Word, Excel, and Outlook, which I use all the time. I wonder if the old XP versions of these can be loaded on my new Vista rig, or do I have to buy them all over again since new versions were issued when Vista came out.

Cheers

[Ramses II CP]

I have a lower end box from ibuypower.com and it's perfectly functional, no trouble with it at all. The organization of the case inside isn't ideal in terms of cord management, and the fans are noisy, but otherwise it's been perfect. Had it for maybe 7-8 months now.

[Forward Observer]

I have a lower end box from ibuypower.com and it's perfectly functional, no trouble with it at all. The organization of the case inside isn't ideal in terms of cord management, and the fans are noisy, but otherwise it's been perfect. Had it for maybe 7-8 months now.

That's good to hear. I actually paid an extra $19 for what they call their professional wiring service, so I'm expecting a decent wiring job. Since I am getting liquid cooling for the CPU, the only fans I will have are the ones that come with the Thermaltake case, and Toms Hardward gave this case and the sound levels of its fans a fairly positive remarks in a review they just did recently.

The only disappointing development is that someone from the company called me this morning to let me know that the GTX295 2X cards are on back order and won't arrive until the 25th. This is the hottest card on the market right now, so short supply is understandable.

They are also going to knock off the extra I paid for a rush job, but now I may not have my new rig before Empires hits the shelves. Still at least it shows the company's good intentions and willingness to keep their customers informed.

My old rig just barely exceeds Empire's minimum requirements, but I vowed that I am only going to load it on a machine that will allow me to crank up all the graphic bells and whistles, so I'll just wait.

Cheers