Quality of custom PC through AVADirect, iBuyPower, or CyberPowerPC?

Neurotoxin · 2013-04-15, 12:44 AM

I've pretty well narrowed down the hardware I want, but now I need to figure out how to get after it. I can build a machine from scratch and put it together myself, but I am wary of faulty / DOA hardware.

AVADirect, iBuyPower, and CyberPowerPC are three that have been recommended to me. Can anyone confirm the quality of these companies, or your experiences with them? Is there a better company to go with?

Thanks!

Goku · 2013-04-15, 08:45 AM

I wouldn't worry about any DoA hardware. Even if you get one that is I would expect the retailer to be more then helpful with handling your situation. Probably take less then a week to get a working order part back. In terms of warranties after the 30 days as long as you buy from the rights companies you can expect to have good terms and CS in the event of anything happening.

In terms of who to decide on? I'd probably go with AVADirect. I have also heard good things about Falcon Northwest. Though they are likely more pricier vs other options, but have better quality.

Assist · 2013-04-15, 11:05 AM

I purchased my last PC from ibuypower, had no problems. At the time when I bought mine it was a $300 difference from building through newegg, which was cheap enough for me to allow them to build/stress/ship the computer in 3 days. My only issue was the heatsink was not properly seated(possibly due to shipping), but it did come with a yellow paper to make sure you check all screws in the case as well as an extra tube of thermal compound for the heatsink.

I'd just check the price difference between them, and the brand of the hardware, compare/contrast etc.
Just a word of warning, make sure you check the ship dates. Sometimes it's 30 days+ for certain builds, sometimes it's 1 day.

Hamma · 2013-04-16, 11:49 AM

I've been really happy with an iBuyPower rig I bought a couple years back. They were good on a warranty issue as well.

bpostal · 2013-04-25, 01:01 AM

If you've got a list of the hardware you want and double checked to ensure it's all compatible then why not give newegg.com a shot? They've got an amazing return policy if you ever need it and their gear is typically high quality.
Building a computer from the ground up can be a little daunting at first but you save money and get the satisfaction that comes from knowing that you built it.

If you can brew beer, you can build a pc (while drinking beer!)

Neurotoxin · 2013-04-25, 04:31 AM

I know I can build a machine, and that is what I'm gonna do.

ibuypower / cyberpower warranties can suck two turds, after the first year they want me to buy new parts and let them keep the old ones so I can't RMA for spares.

I was working on a LGA2011 build, but really the 3770K is better for me so I've switched tracks a bit. I also decided I want 32GB of CL 8-8-8-24 DD33 1600 to help with things more resource-demanding than gaming. I'm waiting for the 700 series Nvidia cards to come through in a couple weeks, and have a backup 8800GTS to use til then (talk about GPU bottleneck right?)