Need help buying a custom PC

[bummyjab]

Looking to buy a good custom PC. In the price range of 2,000 to 2,500. With a monthly plan. I was going to go with Monarch but they dont have a monthly plan. I also checked HP but they dont show the motherboard they use or any fan or cooling options(maybe cause they use cheap ones?). Dell, well I heard bad things about thier customer service.


Ok searching for the right computer has given me a big headache. I will be using this mostly for Music programs, video editing and possibly to play a few games.

Any recommendations are welcome. My last PC was actually an HP that lasted me 6 yrs but it died on me and id rather invest in a new one than fix that old junk.

[Steve R Jones]

Getting a loan or credit card through your local banker will open all sorts of doors.

[bummyjab]

I got a credit card. BUT some companies like Dell offer thier own card that lets you pay off the PC with no interest. Or HP has a card that also has no interest and u can start paying 12 months later. I would buy off them but im sure there are other companies with better deals on good computers. I just wanted to know instead of searching all over. I did find:

abs
monarch
alienware
and a few others......

[bombledmonk]

Well If you have absolutely no desire to build one, I'd look @ www.ibuypower.com to get a decent system for the amount of money you spend. I agree with Steve, there are probably other, better, ways to fincance the computer.

I put the following together to give you an idea of what you might be looking for. You may want more processor power and a bigger monitor? or you may want less graphics or less than 2GB of RAM? It's all up to you, just throwing it out there for you as a reference.

Case ( NZXT Trinity ATX Mid-Tower Case w/400W Power Supply Black )
Case Lighting ( None )
Power Supply ( Enermax EG565P 535 Watt Power Supply [SLI-Ready] )
Processor ( [939-pin] AMD® Athlon-64 X2 3800+ CPU w/ Hyper Transport Technology )
Free Software/Game ( Free Game --- Half Life 2 Download Coupon with purchase of any AMD-64 based systems or Mobile Turion notebook )
Processor Cooling ( Certified CPU Fan and Heatsink )
Motherboard ( Asus A8N5X nForce4 Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0 PCI-E Motherboard )
Memory ( 2048 MB [1024MB X2] DDR-400 PC3200 Memory Module Corsair-Value or Major Brand )
Video Card ( [PCI-Express 16x] Nvidia Geforce 7800GT 256MB w/DVI + TV Out Video )
Hard Drive ( 300 GB HARD DRIVES [S-ATA150] Maxtor 300 GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache Hard Drive )
CD/DVD Drive ( 16x DVD-ROM Drive Black )
CD-RW/DVD-RW Drive ( [** Special !!! ***] 16X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive Black )
Sound Card ( 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard )
Speaker System ( 600W PMPO 3 PCS Super Bass Subwoofer Speaker System )
Fax Modem ( Creative Labs V.92 56K Fax/Modem )
Network Card ( Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100) )
Floppy Drive ( Mitsumi 1.44 MB Internal Floppy Drive Black )
Monitor ( LCD Monitor ViewSonic 19" VX924 TFT LCD Monitor [Extreme Gaming; 3 ms; Silver/Black 2-Tone] )

Keyboard ( PS/2 104 Key Windows 98 Keyboard Beige )
Mouse ( Microsoft IntelliMouse 1.1A USB Internet Mouse Beige )
USB 2.0 Accessories ( Build-in USB 2.0 Ports )

Operation System ( MS Windows XP Home Edition w/Service Pack-2 )

Warranty ( Warranty Service iBUYPOWER Deluxe Warranty Package(Standard Warranty plus: First Year On-site Service and 24/7 Phone Support) )

Sub Total: $2,048.00

[JiminElkGrove]

Velocity Micro builds a good machine, has decent ratings on this forum and hard to beat prices. Don't know if they offer the financing you are looking for, though. I would check them out:
http://www.velocitymicro.com/
Most HP motherboards on Pavilion home PC's are either Asus or FIC. Like you I have a Pav that just turned 6 years old. Many other computers from that era died a long time ago so with the longevity of Pav's you have to give HP good credit too. My biggest beef with them is that their systems come without recovery discs. With Velocity, you get the original Windows CD with the system AND a recovery disc. One thing to look for from any PC builder is that they provide you with the original Windows CD. That's worth a lot to me.
Jim

[frogpond_1]

Companies to definately take a look at;
www.maingear.com
www.boxxtech.com
www.bullypc.com

The first two come very highly recommended. BullyPC I have only heard about.

[patleiby]

I have purchased 2 custom buildt computers in the last year from www.kccomputers.com Check out their reviews at Resellers Rating. Excellent company to deal with. You pay upfront. So you will need your credit card. or discount for personal check.