monarch, alienware, abs etc? looking to buy new pc

[buggs1a]

I'm looking to buy a new pc from a major manufacturer and have some concerns. I am in the research mode, eliminating those companies that are not what I want. So, i've got it down to alienware, abs and monarch.

Reading the reviews of monarch here make me nervous about ordering from them. Every review except only a couple that I read had order problems and so forth. Even if monarch fixed the problem etc, made up for it etc, it is rediculious how many problems people had. I mean sheese, almost every single review here on this web site said they had a problem. That's extremly bad in my opinion no matter how the company makes up for it. So, i'm now thinking twice about ordering from them, specially when it could take up to a month or more to get a pc from them, according to some of the reviews. waiting more then 1 week is completely insane and rediculous in my opinion and no matter what it should not take more then a week to get the pc unless you order snail speed shipping., i can not and will not wait that long.

So what do people think of monarch, alienware and ABS for around $1800? I can get a pc for that cost from all three that seem to be ok for what i want. I'm just needing to find out about customer service, how long it would take to get the pc and well, the support must be based in the Us, not freaking india or some crud like that. i would never support a company that outsourced the support.

I can probably get the best pc specs wise from monarch for $1800, but weary now from reading all the problems people had with them on this reseller ratings web site. From what i read and how picky on companies i am, how demanding a customer must be, monarch would not have a rating as high as they do on this site, it might be half of what it is. to me, any problems look bad on a company even if they make up for it.

Anyway I'm also interested in other suggestions about other companies. These i will not buy from.
HP, dell etc. none of those places i will buy from.

The pc must be an AMD64 3000+ or faster, 1gb ddr good ram, 120gb drive, good video card, etc etc.

anyhow take care guys.

[JiminElkGrove]

Both of these vendors have a good reputation and will build a great AMD machine for you:
www.boldata.com
www.velocitymicro.com
As for Alienware, they build a great machine at a very premium price. You can not go wrong with them but you pay too much.
Jim

[buggs1a]

neither one of them compare with the alienware pc i picked for the same cost actually. alienware was better for about the same or less money. boldata had crappy video card choices too. nothing inbetween the best and crappiest.

[bombledmonk]

Would you be against building yourself? It is a fun and rewarding experience. There are lot's of people here to help you out and you get much more for your money.

Does that $1800 budget include only the PC itself? or a monitor also?

[buggs1a]

The pc i have now i built and from day one it's been somewhat fishy, I will not build again ever. The pc is for pc only, no monitor. $1800 pc only with keyboard and mouse. already have a good monitor.

it's weird cus the alienware pc i picked last night was the hyperspeed and it was like $1866 when i got done configuring it then today i went and chose same thing and it was over $2000 for the same thing. i don't know if i did something different/wrong or what the heck happened. i did print out everything tho.

anyhow umm, that's about where i'm at now.

why the heck would the cost be different picking the exact same thing?

[sshaw223]

I purchased an ABS's Computer about 5 years ago and I still use it today. It was fast at 1 gig and still faster at 2 gig with an upgraded chip and BIOS. In Nov. of last year the Mother Board died and they sent me another one. The Mother Board they sent me was not the original, but a better, faster model which runs great!

I have been very pleased with this machine and would buy another one from them, but for two reasons.
1. This computer still does everything I want it to do.
2. I would build my own next time.

It does not sound like you need a lot of Tech Support since you have built one already. I would go ABS!

Sue

[buggs1a]

I have built 2 myself and don't like the last one cus since day one it's been fishy. Great performance and everything, just a lot of minor things that are making me sick of dealing with tech myself lol. Allthough it's fun to give me something to do when I'm bored lol. Not sure if the parts I chose were not great together or what. So from that I won't build ever again. I would prefer someone else deal with any issues that might happen.

I've found alienware, ABS and monarch to be it so far, just not sure about ABS or monarch cus I don't still know exactly what i want, that may not happen till my current pc sels and i am ready to order the new one. monarch just told me they don't ship restore cd's/dvd's and to me that is a very important thing, so i am not sure if i will buy a monarch if they won't do that for me. other then that i can build a good pc from them.

[bombledmonk]

Making your own restore DVD's are a piece of cake if you have 2 partitions or a second hard drive. All you need is a norton Ghost on a Floppy and about 4 mins of your time to make the image.

[buggs1a]

I've done a restore dvd with ghost and it's difficult somewhat and always does not work, it takes a lot longer then 4 minutes, try more then an hr sometimes.

anyway, a aystem restore disc is a must.

[bombledmonk]

hmm.... I just made one for my friend. took 5 mins to make the image and about 20 to burn. Never failed me yet. I've restored this computer multiple times. But I do see your point since you just want someone else to deal with all the hassles. It would be nice some time, but I like a challenge so I guess my opinion is tainted. Good luck with your search.