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The best place to buy a prefab?

spaceman

spaceman

Lifer
Well,i know building myself is the best way,but my cousin wants a system and i dont feeling like being mr tech support and im helping him/&her free of charge.SO=0 incentive to build one for them.
aside from the obvious gateway/dell/compaq trash boxes.
where are some good companies that offer/good prices/quality hardware/configurable systems/and good support so i can sleep @nite and not get harrased 24/7 🙂
looking in the $1000 and under price range sans monitor.
any info would be appreciated guys.
 
dell and gateway trash boxes? I'd hafta disagree, and most ppl here would concur I think. Dell & Gateway are both very solid. If your looking for under $1000, you can try alienware and falcon systems, but those are both normally high performance systems...I don't know if they offer 24/7 tech support or if they even have anything worth buying under 1 grand.
 
i know dell &gateway make some good systems if your willing to spend the $$$ but for the 1000 and under bracket they leave something to be desired.
 
so will any company - your not going to get anywhere near what you could build yourself today for under $1000 yourself. Maybe your looking for a small shop near you that will let you pick out the components and they will put it together for you. But they wont have 24/7 tech support either.
 
i know i wont get anywhere near what i could build myself for $1000,thats not neccesarily what im looking for. nutrend and cyberpower have some pretty nice prefabs.I just dont know how there tech support is.
 
Dell is the way to go from the big names. However, if you're going to skimp, you just as well build it because you ARE going to be tech support like it or not. If you recommend a retailer and he has problems, first place he is going to go is to you. Of you want to avoid being his tech support, then the thing to do is give him the tools to make the decison on his own. point him to reseller ratings and tell him the kind of features you think he will need, based on his requirements, and let him make the decision himself. That way if he has problems, you two can still be friends.
 
Personally I don't like Gateway. I recommended one to my roommate because I heard they were alright. As long as you don't change anything or add anything except memory you should be ok. Right now I would recommend a Dell or Micron, though I don't have much hands on experience with them. I think Micron doesn't use proprietary parts, but I could be wrong.
 
just tell him to get a Dell. So what if its not cutting edge or anything, it will work, and if there are problems, their tech support is the best.
 
Dell or Micron.

Gateway is a piece of junk. There consumer helpline is useless. "Yes we dont support that printer even though you bought it from us. Please call Cannon *click*."
 
hmm,this is tough,dell doesnt offer much sub $1000,64MB of ram?!?!?!?!and a puny 10gb,I think i may opt with just building them it 🙁 or buying one in fst ft forums 😀 !!!😛
 
here's what i came up with, just toying around

Nice System

Tax + Shipping on top of total, and no modem.
Pentium III 1 GHz
128 MB of RAM
20 GB 7200 RPM ATA100 HDD
32 MB Geforce 2 MX
No monitor


Heeh that link didn't work i will paste the specs
Dell Dimension 4100 Series: Dimension® 4100 Series, Pentium® lll Processor, 1 GHz
D4110W - [220-3454]
Memory: 128MB 133MHz SDRAM
128M - [311-7001]
Keyboard: QuietKey® Keyboard
W - [310-7002]
Monitor: Video Ready w/o Monitor
N - [320-3000]
Video Card: 32MB NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 4X AGP Graphics Card
32NVMX - [320-1423]
Hard Drive: 20GB Ultra ATA-100 Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
20 - [340-9909]
Floppy Drive: 3.5" Floppy Drive
3 - [340-2409]
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® Millennium (Windows Me)
WME - [412-2900][420-8050][412-1050][313-7222]
Mouse: MS IntelliMouse®
IM - [310-8124]
Network Card: No Network card
N - [430-0591]
Modem: No Modem Requested
N - [460-8920]
DVD-ROM or CD-ROM Drive: 48X Max Variable CD-ROM Drive
CD48 - [313-3922]
Sound Card: SB Live! Value Digital with Dell Jukebox
SB512D - [313-7869]
Speakers: harman/kardon Speakers
HK - [313-3925]
Bundled Software: New Microsoft TM Works Suite 2001 with Money 2001
WORKS - [412-3636]
Norton Antivirus® at no additional charge: Norton Antivirus® 2001
NAV - [412-4630]
Digital Music: Dell Jukebox powered by MusicMatch 6.0
JUKEBOX - [412-1411]
Limited Warranty and Service: 1 Year Next Business Day On-Site Parts and Labor, Years 2 and 3 Parts
S3W - [900-3442][900-1600]
Internet Access Service: 1-Year DellNet? by MSN® Internet Access Service[add$0]
MSN1YRP - [412-9800]
Resolution Assistant: Resolution Assistant
RA - [412-0175]
Proactive Support at no additional charge: Dell Proactive Support by Attune
ATTUNE - [412-4258]


$960 + tax and shipping
 
I say build it yourself. Have your cousin fork over the money, build him a decent system and pocket anything you have leftover. Charge for tech support. I've done too much FREE computer help for friends and family. Nowadays, if they need major help, I A)have them bring their systems to my house and B) slap a $20 bill in my palm before I take a look.
 
damn guys thnx alot!!! both of those look pretty tight,Vyle bro i get what your saying,in my case its just assumed that ill do it for free,so it gets aggravating when the relatives take advantage.Ive had many a long night sitting in front a relly's pc 🙁 Thats why id prefer just to "guide them" in making the purchase as opposed to something id be completely responsible for.🙂 these are both pretty nice!!
 
ABS computer is the perfect place if you want great prices, systems, support, and NON-PROPRIETARY! This last is important because or the obvious upgrading. But also because they don't skimp on cheap proprietary, motherboards, cases, and power supplies. It's like a home built system with support, and warranty. Plus you can do custom configuring there. Definatly check it out.ABS

I venture to say that they also beat just about everyone in price. Warranty and service is outstanding. They are the best as far as I'm concerned.
 
MADcap thnx for your advice!!
i opted for the abs,they offer some real kick ass system for really nice price(as far as retail goes)
thnx dude!~!!
 
I thought Dell had that 1GHz system on sale for $809? I know you had to strip the memory down to 64MB to get that price, but you can pick up that extra 64MB and install it yourself for anywhere from "free" to maybe $15-20, tops. Dell probably still charges $75-80 or more for that extra 64MB.

Micron also does a good job. The only prefabs I've bought in a long, long time came from Micron, and they were all well made, with standard parts.

Gateway is one of the main offenders when it comes to using proprietary parts. At least they used to be. Compaq too.
 
Im pretty psyched about the pc i got from abs:
gigabyte mobo
Inno3d Gf2mx w tv out and twin view
Tbird 900mhz
256MB PC 133 Kingston ram
Inwin Tower 300w
Lite on CDRW 8/4/32
Creative 52x cd rom
Windows ME full
Altec lansing speaks
keyboard,mouse
SB PCI 128
$947
no montior but i talked them into buying that,printer and optical mouse sperately,not a bad sys.

 
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