Good Custom Computer Site?

[Coffee Warlord]

So, it's time for a major upgrade to my machine. It's one of those situations where I need a new processor, which means I need a new motherboard, which means I need new ram, which means I need a bigger power supply, which means I need to upgrade out of the stock cpu fan.

Newegg and Tigerdirect are great for piecemeal stuff, but as far as I can tell, they don't do a simple 'build your own' setup. There's enough things here I need to replace that I'm wanting to price out a new custom box entirely.

Since Monarch died, I don't know of any good place that lets me spec out a box from scratch (Dell etc al aside, and well, no). Anyone?

[DaddyTorgo]

tigerdirect doesn't? I thought i saw they did that at least for laptops (so i'd have to imagine they would for desktops). fuckers

[DaddyTorgo]

dola

not to suggest the obvious, but it's quite cheap and really not very time-consuming to do it piecemeal. i know when i did it that way in college like 8 years ago, even not knowing the first thing about it, it took maybe half an hour to put the actual pieces together. the most time-consuming part was making sure beforehand that everything was compatible (which is fairly easy also given google)

[DaddyTorgo]

idk - magicmicro.com ?? i just did a google-search on "design your own pc" and that was a sponsored link

[Coffee Warlord]

tigerdirect doesn't? I thought i saw they did that at least for laptops (so i'd have to imagine they would for desktops). fuckers

My bad, they do. I'm SORTA trying to avoid them though, since I have to pay tax there (though on the plus side, I can just go pick it up)

edit: Don't have a lot of options, if any, for higher end processors, though.

[DaddyTorgo]

i vote "build your own from pieces" -- although it looks like magicmicro has barebones towers that you can then do a lot of customizing with

[Coffee Warlord]

dola

not to suggest the obvious, but it's quite cheap and really not very time-consuming to do it piecemeal. i know when i did it that way in college like 8 years ago, even not knowing the first thing about it, it took maybe half an hour to put the actual pieces together. the most time-consuming part was making sure beforehand that everything was compatible (which is fairly easy also given google)

Oh I know HOW to do it, and that's an option. But with the amount of things I have to get, I'm frankly wondering if it doesn't make more sense to put together a new box and keep the other one intact for...something.

[DaddyTorgo]

Oh I know HOW to do it, and that's an option. But with the amount of things I have to get, I'm frankly wondering if it doesn't make more sense to put together a new box and keep the other one intact for...something.

i figured you knew how to do it. didn't mean to imply otherwise.

well there's nothing to say you couldn't do that though - just order a new case+powersupply+fan -- those three together usually are what...30-50% of the cost of the processor alone? They're hardly the major expense.

[Draft Dodger]

I looked at cyberpowerpc (http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/) when I was thinking of doing the same. To be honest, though, I found their wealth of options so overwhelming that I ended up just building my own.

[Eaglesfan27]

I've been researching for when we get one next year, and I've read a lot of bad things about cyberpowerpc.

[gstelmack]

Newegg + build your own.

[cartman]

Newegg + build your own.

+1

If you need ideas, there are a lot of people who have posted their configurations on the site, and you can base your build off of them for ease of ordering.

[Shepp]

I built my own a few months ago and used the system guide at Tech Report as a baseline. They have several builds that target several price/ peformance points and they have all of the parts to their builds linked to Newegg so you'll have an idea what it will cost you. The newest guide just came out a couple of weeks ago too.

hxxp://www.techreport.com/articles.x/15381

[Raiders Army]

FWIW, I got the motherboard/case deal at newegg.com and it was a pain in the ass. You'd think that if they offered a combo deal on a motherboard and case it would make sense. I had to rearrange my hard drive brackets so my video card would fit in.

Lesson learned: just because they sell together doesn't always mean that they're the easiest components to assemble.

[weegeebored]

At some point there really is no "upgrading" an old machine, mostly because it is not cost efficient. Adding more Ram is one thing, but as soon as the talk starts of getting a different processor you are looking at a new machine. That's because a new processor begets the new chipset which begets the new motherboard which begets the new Ram which begets...well you get the idea.

I built a new computer last November from parts ordered from NewEgg. To me, half the fun was doing the research on what components I wanted knowing that I had a target amount of $700-800 to spend on the box. (I did not need a new monitor). Hell, tell me how much you want to spend and I'll spec it out for you!

And fwiw, I am NOT a fan of Tiger Direct. I have had people I know encounter way too many problems with them, esp the online ordering. I even tried a brick-and-mortar store and it took way to long for me to get checked out.

You live in Chicagoland so you could try the Fry's in the western 'burbs as an option.

[gstelmack]

I built my own a few months ago and used the system guide at Tech Report as a baseline. They have several builds that target several price/ peformance points and they have all of the parts to their builds linked to Newegg so you'll have an idea what it will cost you. The newest guide just came out a couple of weeks ago too.

hxxp://www.techreport.com/articles.x/15381

Thanks for this link. It looks very useful.

[Antmeister]

Here are some:
Maverick Marks Master Link Directory- Shopping and Travel > Computers (http://www.maverickmarks.com/masterlinks/index.php?c=148)