Planning to buy a custom PC from monarch computer... feedback/opinions appreciated

[Special K]

Here is my situation: I need to buy a new rig to take with me to college this fall. Building my own is not an option right now. I don't really have the time or the patience to do it, not to mention the fact that my parents won't give me that option (they are going to pay for ~half of the new one, and I also had a bad experience last summer with trying to build one... don't ask). I have seen monarch's ratings and comments on resellerratings, and they seem like a good company. I know most of you on this board like to build your own, but would any of you happen to have bought a custom PC from Monarch before? Since they do let you customize everything, I will post what I have set up:

MSI K7T Turbo
Tbird 1.2 Ghz
256 MB SDRAM (CL2, brand unknown)
40 GB IBM 60 GXP
Asus V7700 Pure
SB Live! value
3com NIC
Asus 50X cdrom
Plextor 12/10/32
Enlight 7237 w/ 350W PS
Taisol CGK742092 or ThermoEngine Super CPU Cooler (A monarch tech recommended I get the ThermoEngine if I was going to get a MSI motherboard, because it was smaller than the Taisol, and he also said something about capacitors being in the way. What do you think? He said the ThermoEngine was quiet. Do you agree?)
Viewsonic PF770

Those are the basics. I am a bit hesistant to go with AMD because of all of the stories I have been reading about on this board, but my other alternative is to buy a Dell from the campus store which offers a small educational discount, but they only sell the Optiplex line of PCs, and a similarly configured Optiplex would run me over $2000, whereas the above config. is under $1600 (w/ kb and mouse, which I didn't list). I am almost equally hesitant to buy a Dell if I knew I could get equal or greater performance from the custom PC for less money.

 

[Gunbuster]

Leading Edge, Quantex, Micron, XXXX

I am pretty sure Dell, Compaq, HP, wont be filling in that next spot

 

[dullard]

The college should be able to order ANY machine from Dell and still get you the Dell educational discount (about 2-3% depending on your college). The fact that they only have Optiplex in stock shouldn't affect the Dell discount.

Edit: I just checked Dell.com for you using my college code. I configured almost the same thing for $1350. Note this was with a P3 1 GHz which should be around 20% slower (depending on the programs you use), but at Dell you can't buy the AMD.

 

[Andy22]

I was always an Intel or Bust kinda guy myself but after reading this board and others, I was convinced an Athlon Thunderbird would be the ideal way to go and save money to boot. I got a 1 gigger and have been very happy with it so far. If anything, reading this board should convince you that the AMD is the way to go.

Stick with your nice system from Monarch. They have pretty good ratings:

Monarch @ resllerratings.com

 

[IgnisFatuus]

Give a look to www.envisioncs.net. They are very highly rated by those at resellerratings. You have thew option with them of going with either AMD or Intel. They will be building my new system in the next few weeks.

 

[Special K]

dullard, I called the campus store and spoke with one of their sales consultants, and he told me that they only carry the optiplex line of computers (as well as other compaines' business line of computers, ex. the Compaq Deskpro) because they are the only ones that are "network certified", that is, guaranteed to run on a network in a coporate/educational environment (as opposed to a home computer such as Dell's Dimension series). He also told me that if I chose to buy a computer from another place, it should work on the campus network OK as long as it had a high quality NIC (3com or Intel). I don't know about Dell's deals with other colleges, but in my case there is a center on campus where you can take a PC you bought through the school to have replacement parts installed, etc. I know I would never use that (I could install any replacement parts myself), but on the other hand I want a computer that will work nice and stable, right out of the box. Judging from Monarch's commments on reseller ratings, they seem to be able to do that pretty well. I am just a little hesitant from all of the problems I have read about. (Although I have also read many cases of perfectly stable AMD systems).

EDIT: Just went to Dell's website. Apparently, Notre Dame doesn't have a standard educational deal with Dell, as they are not listed on the special school programs page.

 

[dullard]

If they don't have a special deal, then you will have to settle for the standard 2% discount that Dell has (That is you must purchase it directly from Dell, and not through your university). You may have to pay shipping this way though, unless you beg Dell to ship it to the computer store in your name... Of course, all the other big computer companies also have a discount similar to the Dell 2% for students.

In my experience, I'd buy whatever computer you want, WITHOUT an ethernet card. Then go to the campus store and have them install one that they guarantee will work with their network. My first card didn't work at my university (I went to Best Buy and not to the campus store. I know better now.)

As for AMD they have had problems with the motherboard chipset in the past. My old AMD crashed about 3 times as often (and I haven't purchased another AMD yet). However, it appears from these forums that the new boards and drivers have fixed this issue. As far as speed, AMD and Intel are nearly neck-and-neck. If you get a top of the line chip from either one, you will be happy. One program may be 5-10% faster on that T-bird, and another may be 5-10% faster on a P4. Of course the P4 will cost you more.