Im looking to order myself a new computer...I dont have the time nor the patience to build one myself....I am familiar with the site www.ibuypower.com where you can go to build your computer...Wondering if anybody knows of any other good sites like that which i could possibly look into before i order from ibuypower...Any info would help, thanks..

Make sure you do a little research on the components you are selecting and try to find stuff that is known to work together. Find out what is stable and what works together, ask a knowledgable sales rep. Do a little research on the companies too before purchasing www.resellerratings.com

Honestly, I think mass produced systems are the way to go. You get a known good configuration, and if something goes wrong - the support has probably seen a lot of systems just like yours and will have a better idea of potential issues.

i dont really see what the difference is....For example, if i take a computer they already have made to order online and swap the processor for a faster one and add more memory...You just get to add more of what you need verse getting the computer and having to upgrade

Sounds like you should be ok then. If its a company that sells a lot of custom systems, you should be OK (I'd stay away from small operations who do everything including custom systems). That company you pointed out does look reputable, but it looks like it is possible to configure something that won't work. Hopefully it will work and if it doesn't they will spot it relatively quickly.

I just ordered from them. The customer service is crap, but I've heard good things about the end product. I'll let you know once I get my machine (I ordered last week)

Originally Posted by NullPointer

I just ordered from them. The customer service is crap, but I've heard good things about the end product. I'll let you know once I get my machine (I ordered last week)

thanks, would like to hear what you think once you get the system..

I have done my obvious research here and there...But just like any other product/company you have your bad reviews here and there...Samething with cars, some say they are good some say they are crap...Theres always people to knock a good thing at a minor mishap that is bound to happen...I will say i have read more good reviews then bad reviews...Surprised to hear about your customer service comment though as most of the comments i read said customer service was great...Most dealt with somebody by the name of Lee if im not mistaken....

What i did first was looki at their system made to order...I picked a somewhat decent system and changed the case to my liking, gave it a faster processor and opted for less memory since i have a ton of external memory....

What ive noticed about ibuypower is that the products they offer are from the same company pretty much, just different models...For example, the graphics cards, they are all by the same company they just get better and better as the price goes up...So its not like your pickin some half *** product by some no name company...They deal with major companies that are well known in the industry for making great products...So you dont really get the chance to mix the good with the bad if you know what im saying...Im going to be running XP as well cause i have heard some things with Vista and a lot of issue with printers, cameras and etc etc..

The guy I dealt with isn't very pleasant and he's probably the reason why my computer is arriving late. They had an issue with the processors and had to order new ones from the manufacturer. No big deal stuff like that happens. My customer service rep never notified me of the problem though. So I called in the day after it was supposed to ship and found out. Then I asked if I could have a different processor put in so it would ship sooner and he replies that had I notified him earlier (he never notified me there was a problem) they could have done that and shipped it out on time. Then he says now since I didn't have telepathy if I change the processor it will only ship out a day earlier, which would have been the day before yesterday. So I call back yesterday and say hey, did my computer ship. He tells me it won't ship until friday. So had I gone ahead and paid more for another processor it would have shipped 4 days earlier than it will now. I probably won't get it until this upcoming monday, which suck considering the reason I wanted it quickly (I paid for a rush service) was because I wanted my new machine so I could get some work done before I got caught up in school. Fall quarter starts tomorrow.

Other stuff happened too but I don't want to go into detail. I've read bad stuff about their customer service, but I can't complain too much considering my system would cost twice as much at alienware. As long as the end product is decent I will be happy.

thats why i have been looking into ibuypower...Ive looked at tons of systems and what i want would cost me 800-900 if i didnt go with ibuypower...almost a grand equals 1 nice monitor and a tablet to go along with it...From a company like alienware im paying a couple hundred for memory i dont even need when i have something like 2tb of external memory already...

I just compared. My $1400 system at ibuypower would cost me $2400 at alienware, and thats without the second 20" LCD I ordered.

Sounds like a good deal. IMHO Alienware is for fake computer enthusiasts who like to overpay. If your comfortable waiting for them to aquire the parts, build and test your system, then that seems like a good solution. I would definitely buy from a place like ibuypower before even thinking about alienware.

It was actually only slightly more expensive to buy from them than to build it myself. The fact that there is a 3 year warranty sold me. I just wish they'd get the thing shipped (its supposed to go out today).

have you gotten your system yet?


The 3yr warranty is nice but you have to think about this, when building your own computer you get a lifetime warranty on a lot of the products...Lifetime is way better then 3yr...They give you a 3yr so if something does happen after that and you send it to them they can tell you the warranty is up and you need to purchase another product...But in reality they still hold the warranty papers to the actual product which they purchased, so they can send it back and get a brand new one to throw in another computer....Thats the good thing about building computers for somebody else when your just a small company doing it....

Still haven't recieved it. I'm hoping it shipped and they just never gave me my tracking number. I'm going to call again during business hours on monday. I ordered on september 15th so I hope you are a patient person. Judging by the customer service I'm going to guess that their warranty isn't worth much.

But I can't complain too much, the last computer I bought was a laptop from bestbuy. I paid $150 for a 2-year warranty. When the hard drive died on me I sent it in for repair. Three weeks later I get it back, same problem. Gave it back to them, one month later I get it back.... same problem. On the third try and after another 3 weeks I managed to get a working laptop back. I told them it was the hard drive when I brought it in but I guess they didn't believe me. They replaced the heatsink and keyboard the first time, the screen and motherboard the second time, then finally the hard drive.

I just got it last night and so far it's been everything I hoped for. First thing I did was open it up, great cable management everything is in perfect working order. The processing delay was terrible, but delivery time was great and the overall product is great.

dell.com is a good website where you can totally customise the computer you want.