Pre-Built Desktop Buyer's Guide: Holiday 2011 Edition
by Dustin Sklavos on November 30, 2011 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
- Systems
- AMD
- Intel
- AVADirect
- Toshiba
- Puget Systems
- WarFactory
- Holiday 2011
Conclusions
Undoubtedly there are going to be some omissions in the list I've put together; this is just a rough guide to get you started. While notebooks are anybody's game (and a lot easier to recommend depending on a person's needs), desktops honestly feel like the province of boutiques. It's win-win across the board: you're oftentimes supporting a smaller business, and customer service is generally going to be superior. This is an area where boutiques are just going to be able to excel over lumbering giants like Dell, Lenovo, HP, or Acer: they're more agile in every way, and they're typically more apt to use higher quality parts.
But there's another benefit: if you have a lousy customer service experience, know that boutiques watch the comments on reviews and articles like these, and they check out what people are saying about them on forums. They have to; unable to wholly compete on price with major OEMs who can enjoy economies of scale, the customer service angle of the business becomes a much bigger deal, and word of mouth is a major issue. So what about boutiques X, Y, or Z (e.g. the ones we didn't mention)?
While the bulk of my recommendations are for machines from AVADirect or Puget Systems, I've also tested hardware from CyberPowerPC, iBuyPower, DigitalStorm, WarFactory, and Origin (we're still trying to get some Alienware desktops in house). CyberPowerPC and iBuyPower were taken out of the equation for two reasons: our commenters have a tendency to vent a little bit more about these manufacturers suggesting that everything may not be on the up and up where customer service is concerned, and I've generally been unimpressed with the cases they've chosen to use for their builds. DigitalStorm has potential and I wouldn't recommend against buying from them, but we butted heads a little over the unsettlingly high voltage that was being fed into the Intel Core i7-2600K in the Enix system we tested. Origin I've only tested one system from and found it to be a quality build, but their packaging is a waste of resources and frankly a royal pain to both store and manipulate: the wooden crate our review unit came in was heavier than the unit itself. Finally, I did recommend WarFactory for the budget gaming system, but they seem small and I'm not sure how that lifetime warranty will play out.
Ultimately, if you're in the market for a custom machine, this holiday season is a great time to get a smart, well-built machine from a good boutique. You can get something with a solid warranty, excellent customer service...and you won't have to suffer with an anemic video card. Yes, it's possible to get faster video cards from major OEMs, but you're usually locked into expesive choices across the board and the result tends to be unbalanced. If you think we missed a particularly impressive offering, though, let others know in the comments!
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tomek1984 - Wednesday, November 30, 2011 - link
"Sometimes there are also situations where we'd be better off just recommending a pre-built desktop to family than damning ourselves to being tech support at all hours for the next few years"I gave up recommending/building custom computers for my family/friends long time ago, it doesn't get me laid if it works well but if doesn't I become 24/7 support tech. Average user doesn't need latest and greatest hardware, because they simply don't know how to take advantage of it any way. So even though i don't believe it myself when I get a question "where should i buy a new computer", i just tell them Bestbuy or Wallmart, it saves me a lot of headache later on
Iketh - Wednesday, November 30, 2011 - link
I'd rather see a laptop buyer's guide. That's what I recommend the average user buy nowadays (and they prefer it anyway).superccs - Wednesday, November 30, 2011 - link
You can substitute the 3Gbs drive for the 6Gbs drive and save enough to get the 4gb memory upgrade and a Hyper212 HSF at no added cost.No bulldozer systems? : / Such a shame. Global foundries conspiracy.
piroroadkill - Thursday, December 1, 2011 - link
Of course there are no Bulldozer systems. These are supposed to be systems someone might actually want to buy.Dustin Sklavos - Thursday, December 1, 2011 - link
Zing!AmishPcFreak - Wednesday, November 30, 2011 - link
So my 19 year old unemployed brother-in-law needed a new system (he had asked me to build one for him previously and I deferred graciously) and this past weekend I helped him get this system from Office Depot on black Friday:HP Pavilion p7-1108p Desktop Computer With AMD A4-3400 Dual-Core, 6GB Ram, 1 Terabyte HD, Windows 7 64 bit--- no monitor, total cost $380
It was using integrated graphics of course, but it has a PCI express slot and I donated an old 8800GTS card I had lying around gathering dust.
Whammo! Once the card was installed he was cruising at super fast speeds playing his steam games like a fool.
Told him 'get a job' and left the room. Hope that keeps him covered for a while and the GTS holds out.
aylafan - Wednesday, November 30, 2011 - link
Did you wait in line on Black Friday to buy this? Costco/Sam's Warehouse is selling the HP Pavilion - AMD A6 Processor Quad-Core, 6GB Ram, 750-1Terabyte HD, Windows 7 64 bit for $399. If you wanted a 22 inch widescreen monitor with it then it is an extra $100. Maybe, the price is exclusively in my area, but it's extremely cheap.johnnype - Wednesday, November 30, 2011 - link
Thanks for this article. I'd love to build my own system but real life makes such a task inconvenient to say the least. In fact real life is all but forcing me to forget gaming on a desktop and go with a laptop instead even though I promised I'd never do it again after the last XPS I bought many moons ago.So, any advice on a good sub $1500 gaming laptop? I'm about to pull the trigger on a Cyberpower X6-9300 and up the RAM to 8GB for a total cost of $1388 but I'll pass if you think it's a bad idea. Thoughts?
frozentundra123456 - Wednesday, November 30, 2011 - link
I am happy that someone addressed the fact pre-built systems do have their place. I would, however, agree that the prices are pretty high for the categories he selected.Also, for low end prebuilt systems, I think most people would be satisfied with a Dell or HP from Best Buy another B/M retailer. Even Costco has a nice selection of PCs and I believe they extend the warranty for another year. Personally, unless I was buying a gaming PC, I would rather look for a good sale at a local store and not have to deal with shipping, especially if a return or repair is needed.
I also thought that a table or chart would have been nice summarizing the components for each system (CPU, ram, graphics, HDD) rather than having to go to the manufacturer's site to look up the detailed configuration. I also was confused if the price he listed for each configuration included a monitor, and if so what size and kind.
Death666Angel - Wednesday, November 30, 2011 - link
Not sure how the Euro-Dollar conversion works out at the moment (usually 1:1 in the past), but I built my brother a PC at the beginning of this year that was kinda high-end (X6 1090, HD6950, 8GB, pretty much silent). He is playing BF3 on high @1080 easily. That worked out to be 900€. And yes, that is with a case, PSU, ODD, HDD etc. as well, not just upgrade of the CPU/GPU.Anything above that component list (replace the AMD CPU with an Intel 2500k if you want or the HD6950 with a GTX570), I consider in the territory of enthusiasts who either need to drive a 27"/30" panel or do professional work on the PC.
So, saying 1k$ (or even 1.2k$) is anywhere near the realm of midrange, is hard to believe.
And on that Pudget system, does it even have a dedicated GPU? Buying quality is fine, but that's just a rip off.