My AVADirect New Computer Review 02-23-2008 (Long read)
After much deliberation on how to spend my hard earned cash I decided upon a highly recommended by word of mouth company called AVADirect. Their prices were very good and they offered a standard 3 year warranty, something I was looking for considering my last expensive computer did not have it and I wanted to ensure that didn't happen again. To give you a good idea of how good AVADirect's prices are - comparative to Dell the machine I was buying was approximately $400 cheaper. Even with my employee work-discount through Dell I still would have paid more and to be honest the ratings for Dell around and on the net, including resellerratings.com were not good so I chose AVADirect.
AVADirect's website offers a lot of customization, if you know computers it's great, not so much if you do not because the level of customization is pretty in-depth. Since I'm an experienced user I find the number of choices great, although I will say the site can be a bit overwhelming just trying to choose from the plethora of choices. After asking many questions via email and phone and having all of my questions answered promptly, usually within 30 minutes, and in depth I gained confidence and decided to place my order with AD for a $1600 computer. Even after the sale my salesman, Stephen, continued to answer my many questions, many of which were very detailed and probably to him, somewhat nonsensical. Through it all he was very patient and absolutely passed along the vibe that I was valued as a customer.
I ordered the computer on February the 8th and as I stated above, during the process I was kept up to date as to the status of my build, although often I had to ask to find that out and it wasn't usually volunteered without doing so (the site would just say "Processing"). Some folks indicate they received pictures of their build through the process but I didn't so perhaps this is only if you ask and/or something that AVA has ince discontinued doing. One nice thing of note is that I had upgraded my power supply on my order and Misha emailed and told me that because my case already had a 400 watt power supply they were going to give me a $33.04 credit on my PC for the one I wouldn't need so that was great to see that I was voluntarily given a price break by something I didn't even notice. After my credit was approved (they make you fill out a form for your bank for the amount since a computer isn't cheap and they do it to avoid fraud, something I do appreciate, that they are trying to prevent fraud on my account) my build began in earnest the following day. Thankfully all of the parts on my order were in stock and/or ordered quickly. Immediately after ordering I decided to change a couple of things, I asked for a restore CD and partition be added (something that is not part of the build without asking and I think they should post this so people will know personally) and I also added another hard disk. None of this held up the order in any way and I appreciated Stephen and Misha's patience with my constant calls/emails and hand holding. Note on the restore CD/partition - per Misha this is not standard on non-gaming rigs but he authorized it on my machine as an exception. I don't quite understand why a restore isn't standard on all machines or at least included as an option for an extra price but to his credit once I brought up the issue that I wanted a restore CD and partition the exception was approved and added to my order in a very timely manner.
After my computer was assembled, which was February 18th, the burn in process began and luckily for me no errors held up my machine and it was shipped out on February the 20th, or 8 business days after I had placed my order. I received the package on Friday, February 20th, or exactly 2 weeks after my order was placed. The box came in a well padded box and there was no apparent damage at all. Inside that box was the case box and a lot of peanuts. It all seemed very nicely packaged and the computer was well protected. After opening the computer box within a box I took the PC out (all I ordered was a PC, no mouse/no keyboard/no monitor) and examined it I did notice two issues. One, the back case screw for the side panel had fell out and was in the box still, when I went to screw it back in it was somewhat stripped, or the case was. It turns out that it was the screw itself that was stripped because upon using another screw from my old computer it tightened up quite nicely. Secondly there was a minor, approximately 1/2 to 3/4", somewhat faint but visible scratch on the front of the case. This was disappointing but honestly it wasn't a huge deal to me as it's one of those things one tends not to notice until someone points it out to you.
The computer came with all of the retailer manuals, including Windows Vista actual CD, and all the CDs and driver disks that came with each individual component. However, part of my deal was to get some free games since the competition (Vigor Gaming) had offered me free shipping. Those games, one of which was promised to be Company of Heroes, were MIA from the box (UPDATE - after talking to Misha he indicated that free games are not standard and this is why they weren't included - however my salesman did tell me they would be included so I still do not like the fact that they weren't, however the explanation given makes more sense as there was nothing on the invoice about them and apparently there was a communication failure from sales to the build dept.). A quick call to Stephen and he sent out the games (Company of Heroes and Lost Planet) that day along with a non-stripped case screw to replace the damaged one I had. Upon taking the computer home and firing it up I was greeted with a fully installed Windows Vista (meaning I did not have to input a product key or anything - although I did have to register online later) with absolutely zero bloatware installed, which was great. They had installed the programs that came with my system, such as Nero 7 suite, which was what I expected, but no "SIGN UP FOR AOL" junk! The computer booted up very quickly into Windows Vista, and without any issue. Upon examining the system I was also please to find that AVADirect had included an extra USB card attached directly the motherboard which provided me with 2 additional USB 2.0 ports, for a total of 6 total USB ports! Upon further examination I was also please to find a folder with various benchmarks and information about the system including burn-in data. Nice touch!
I'm new to Vista so it took me awhile to figure out some options but the computer itself worked very quickly and without issue. Or so it seemed. When I went to install my first game I noticed there was no second drive. My computer had been ordered with two hard drives, a 150gig WD Raptor for C: drive and a 250gig WD for a data drive. After a quick visual inspection to see that the drive was there and a reboot and confirmation that the BIOS saw the drive I decided to try to reseat the cables. Opening the case was very easy and it should be noted the cabling was well done, probably not up the standards of some places where you pay $5000 for a PC but most certainly better than the average user who builds their own PC would ever do. After a reseat of the cables to the MIA drive I went back into Vista and still no sign of the drive.
Normally I'd call the vendor and test out their support at this point but AVADirect only has Monday through Friday support (9am to 6pm) which may be a bad selling point for some, although I usually only call support as the last resort so this wasn't a huge deal. However in this case I would have liked to test out their support but that was not an option as this was Friday night about 8pm. After poking around on the net and discussing the issue with folks I finally stumbled upon the answer after a few hours by figuring out that the drive simply had not been partitioned and formatted in Windows Vista. After doing this i was able to get the drive up and running, although honestly this sort of oversight is not good for a company that has built a reputation on the attention to the details. My only other issues were with the on-board sound, most of which I was able to figure out by reading the documentation and surfing the net. One issue I still have however is that the SPDIF digital output on the motherboard doesn't seem to work and the manual seems to indicate it's optional in some way so I am going to have to find out from AVA why it will not work when I connect it to my stereo. After using the PC for 24 hours+ now I am very happy with it's performance and overall value. It runs Vista fast as anything and the game demos I have run also ran maxed out and smooth as butter at 1900x1200. Here are the specifications on my machine:
CUSTOM COMPUTER, Core™ 2 Duo SLI Performance Series System $1634
• THERMALTAKE, Tsunami Black Mid-Tower Case w/ Window, ATX, 400W PSU, Aluminum
• ANTEC, NeoPower 650 Blue High Efficiency Power Supply, 650W, 24-pin ATX12V EPS12V, SLI Ready, 120mm LED Fan, 5-Year Warranty
• ASUS, P5N-E SLI, LGA775, nForce 650i SLI, 1066MHz FSB, DDR2-800 8GB /4, PCIe x16 SLI /2, SATA RAID 5 /5, HDA, GbLAN, FW /2, ATX, Retail
• INTEL, Core™ 2 Quad Q6600 Quad-Core, 2.4GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 8MB (2 x 4MB) L2 Cache, 65nm, 105W, EM64T EIST VT XD, Retail
• OCZ, 2GB (2 x 1GB) Gold GX XTC PC2-6400 DDR2 800MHz CL 5-5-5-12 SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC
• ASUS, EN8800GT/HTDP/1G/A, GeForce® 8800GT 600MHz, 1GB GDDR3 1800MHz, PCIe x16 SLI, DVI /2, HDTV-Out, Retail
• WESTERN DIGITAL, 150GB WD Raptor®, SATA 150MB/s, 10000 RPM, 16MB cache (I later added a 250gig WD drive as well)
• RAID, No RAID, Independent HDD Drives
• LITE-ON, LH-20A1L Black/Beige 20x DVD±RW Dual-Layer Burner w/ LightScribe, SATA, Retail
• MICROSOFT, Windows Vista Home Premium Edition 32-bit, OEM
• WARRANTY, Silver Warranty Package (3 years limited parts & 3 year labor warranty)
I was very happy overall with AVADirect, especially the Sales process, Steve and Misha do a great job of responding to inquiries quickly and if they do not have the answer they don't just feed you a line, they research it and get back to you in a timely fashion. To me that is huge because when I have a lot of money invested I ask a LOT of questions and I'm impatient, I want them answered NOW. Also, I'm ecstatic to finally have a well running machine as my last computer was a complete lemon and I've been stuck with it for 2 1/2 years so this is such a nice change of pace!! There were a few bumps on the road but that is mostly to be expected with a custom computer. The one real issue that is somewhat worrisome is the hard disk not being partitioned and formatted, something which a less experienced user would probably not be able to figure out and possibly "freak out" with not seeing the drive appear, thinking they got the order wrong.
PROS:
Lowest prices you can find in boutique dealers, and in some cases even beat the major vendors such as Dell, HP, depending upon what you order
Very high customization options on the website
English speaking Sales People and Technicians
Very patient employees with great technical knowledge
Very responsive to inquiries and questions, no matter how minute
There is no pressure to hurry up and order by Sales staff
My order was changed twice and this did not hold up my order
Order was processed, tested and shipped quickly
Authorization of credit is comprehensive to prevent credit card fraud
Although mistakes were made on my order AVADirect responded very quickly to correct
PC wiring is done very neatly without an extra fee being charged
Windows Vista actual disc and documentation included
Windows Vista already installed and setup for you
No bloatware installed
Machine runs everything very fast, is very stable (so far) and has no temperature issues
AVADirect allows the option of getting a restore partition in addition to a restore CD (although see cons for more on this)
CONS
Less experienced users may have real trouble configuring a PC on the website and th website allows you to configure "unworkable" PC's
You have to actively inquire as to the status of your order (the website just has a generic "PROCESSING" during the life of the build
Tech support hours are Monday-Friday so weekend problems will have to wait until Monday
Quality Control was errant in failing to partition/format my data drive
Quality Control also was errant in including a stripped screw for my case and failed to include my promised free games
No free shipping or specials (however this is offset with the low prices in general)
Website and/or Sales people should mention that a restore CD is extra and give you the option to order it when your order is placed as many people, including myself, just assume this comes with new PCs now
Asking for a restore CD costs extra (again offset by their super low prices and it should be noted that you can create a restore CD yourself)
My score for my experience overall on a scale of 1 to 100, 100 being best:
87
I deduct 8 points for hard disk issue as that was pretty major for me, 3 points for the minor scratch on the case, 1 point for the stripped screw and 1 point for the missing games.
BOTTOM LINE: A thumbs up with a few issues that should be noted. At this point I plan to order my next PC, a laptop, from AVADirect.
Below is a picture of what my computer looks like (althoug this is not my PC, just a pic I found on the net)
AVADirect's website offers a lot of customization, if you know computers it's great, not so much if you do not because the level of customization is pretty in-depth. Since I'm an experienced user I find the number of choices great, although I will say the site can be a bit overwhelming just trying to choose from the plethora of choices. After asking many questions via email and phone and having all of my questions answered promptly, usually within 30 minutes, and in depth I gained confidence and decided to place my order with AD for a $1600 computer. Even after the sale my salesman, Stephen, continued to answer my many questions, many of which were very detailed and probably to him, somewhat nonsensical. Through it all he was very patient and absolutely passed along the vibe that I was valued as a customer.
I ordered the computer on February the 8th and as I stated above, during the process I was kept up to date as to the status of my build, although often I had to ask to find that out and it wasn't usually volunteered without doing so (the site would just say "Processing"). Some folks indicate they received pictures of their build through the process but I didn't so perhaps this is only if you ask and/or something that AVA has ince discontinued doing. One nice thing of note is that I had upgraded my power supply on my order and Misha emailed and told me that because my case already had a 400 watt power supply they were going to give me a $33.04 credit on my PC for the one I wouldn't need so that was great to see that I was voluntarily given a price break by something I didn't even notice. After my credit was approved (they make you fill out a form for your bank for the amount since a computer isn't cheap and they do it to avoid fraud, something I do appreciate, that they are trying to prevent fraud on my account) my build began in earnest the following day. Thankfully all of the parts on my order were in stock and/or ordered quickly. Immediately after ordering I decided to change a couple of things, I asked for a restore CD and partition be added (something that is not part of the build without asking and I think they should post this so people will know personally) and I also added another hard disk. None of this held up the order in any way and I appreciated Stephen and Misha's patience with my constant calls/emails and hand holding. Note on the restore CD/partition - per Misha this is not standard on non-gaming rigs but he authorized it on my machine as an exception. I don't quite understand why a restore isn't standard on all machines or at least included as an option for an extra price but to his credit once I brought up the issue that I wanted a restore CD and partition the exception was approved and added to my order in a very timely manner.
After my computer was assembled, which was February 18th, the burn in process began and luckily for me no errors held up my machine and it was shipped out on February the 20th, or 8 business days after I had placed my order. I received the package on Friday, February 20th, or exactly 2 weeks after my order was placed. The box came in a well padded box and there was no apparent damage at all. Inside that box was the case box and a lot of peanuts. It all seemed very nicely packaged and the computer was well protected. After opening the computer box within a box I took the PC out (all I ordered was a PC, no mouse/no keyboard/no monitor) and examined it I did notice two issues. One, the back case screw for the side panel had fell out and was in the box still, when I went to screw it back in it was somewhat stripped, or the case was. It turns out that it was the screw itself that was stripped because upon using another screw from my old computer it tightened up quite nicely. Secondly there was a minor, approximately 1/2 to 3/4", somewhat faint but visible scratch on the front of the case. This was disappointing but honestly it wasn't a huge deal to me as it's one of those things one tends not to notice until someone points it out to you.
The computer came with all of the retailer manuals, including Windows Vista actual CD, and all the CDs and driver disks that came with each individual component. However, part of my deal was to get some free games since the competition (Vigor Gaming) had offered me free shipping. Those games, one of which was promised to be Company of Heroes, were MIA from the box (UPDATE - after talking to Misha he indicated that free games are not standard and this is why they weren't included - however my salesman did tell me they would be included so I still do not like the fact that they weren't, however the explanation given makes more sense as there was nothing on the invoice about them and apparently there was a communication failure from sales to the build dept.). A quick call to Stephen and he sent out the games (Company of Heroes and Lost Planet) that day along with a non-stripped case screw to replace the damaged one I had. Upon taking the computer home and firing it up I was greeted with a fully installed Windows Vista (meaning I did not have to input a product key or anything - although I did have to register online later) with absolutely zero bloatware installed, which was great. They had installed the programs that came with my system, such as Nero 7 suite, which was what I expected, but no "SIGN UP FOR AOL" junk! The computer booted up very quickly into Windows Vista, and without any issue. Upon examining the system I was also please to find that AVADirect had included an extra USB card attached directly the motherboard which provided me with 2 additional USB 2.0 ports, for a total of 6 total USB ports! Upon further examination I was also please to find a folder with various benchmarks and information about the system including burn-in data. Nice touch!
I'm new to Vista so it took me awhile to figure out some options but the computer itself worked very quickly and without issue. Or so it seemed. When I went to install my first game I noticed there was no second drive. My computer had been ordered with two hard drives, a 150gig WD Raptor for C: drive and a 250gig WD for a data drive. After a quick visual inspection to see that the drive was there and a reboot and confirmation that the BIOS saw the drive I decided to try to reseat the cables. Opening the case was very easy and it should be noted the cabling was well done, probably not up the standards of some places where you pay $5000 for a PC but most certainly better than the average user who builds their own PC would ever do. After a reseat of the cables to the MIA drive I went back into Vista and still no sign of the drive.
Normally I'd call the vendor and test out their support at this point but AVADirect only has Monday through Friday support (9am to 6pm) which may be a bad selling point for some, although I usually only call support as the last resort so this wasn't a huge deal. However in this case I would have liked to test out their support but that was not an option as this was Friday night about 8pm. After poking around on the net and discussing the issue with folks I finally stumbled upon the answer after a few hours by figuring out that the drive simply had not been partitioned and formatted in Windows Vista. After doing this i was able to get the drive up and running, although honestly this sort of oversight is not good for a company that has built a reputation on the attention to the details. My only other issues were with the on-board sound, most of which I was able to figure out by reading the documentation and surfing the net. One issue I still have however is that the SPDIF digital output on the motherboard doesn't seem to work and the manual seems to indicate it's optional in some way so I am going to have to find out from AVA why it will not work when I connect it to my stereo. After using the PC for 24 hours+ now I am very happy with it's performance and overall value. It runs Vista fast as anything and the game demos I have run also ran maxed out and smooth as butter at 1900x1200. Here are the specifications on my machine:
CUSTOM COMPUTER, Core™ 2 Duo SLI Performance Series System $1634
• THERMALTAKE, Tsunami Black Mid-Tower Case w/ Window, ATX, 400W PSU, Aluminum
• ANTEC, NeoPower 650 Blue High Efficiency Power Supply, 650W, 24-pin ATX12V EPS12V, SLI Ready, 120mm LED Fan, 5-Year Warranty
• ASUS, P5N-E SLI, LGA775, nForce 650i SLI, 1066MHz FSB, DDR2-800 8GB /4, PCIe x16 SLI /2, SATA RAID 5 /5, HDA, GbLAN, FW /2, ATX, Retail
• INTEL, Core™ 2 Quad Q6600 Quad-Core, 2.4GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 8MB (2 x 4MB) L2 Cache, 65nm, 105W, EM64T EIST VT XD, Retail
• OCZ, 2GB (2 x 1GB) Gold GX XTC PC2-6400 DDR2 800MHz CL 5-5-5-12 SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC
• ASUS, EN8800GT/HTDP/1G/A, GeForce® 8800GT 600MHz, 1GB GDDR3 1800MHz, PCIe x16 SLI, DVI /2, HDTV-Out, Retail
• WESTERN DIGITAL, 150GB WD Raptor®, SATA 150MB/s, 10000 RPM, 16MB cache (I later added a 250gig WD drive as well)
• RAID, No RAID, Independent HDD Drives
• LITE-ON, LH-20A1L Black/Beige 20x DVD±RW Dual-Layer Burner w/ LightScribe, SATA, Retail
• MICROSOFT, Windows Vista Home Premium Edition 32-bit, OEM
• WARRANTY, Silver Warranty Package (3 years limited parts & 3 year labor warranty)
I was very happy overall with AVADirect, especially the Sales process, Steve and Misha do a great job of responding to inquiries quickly and if they do not have the answer they don't just feed you a line, they research it and get back to you in a timely fashion. To me that is huge because when I have a lot of money invested I ask a LOT of questions and I'm impatient, I want them answered NOW. Also, I'm ecstatic to finally have a well running machine as my last computer was a complete lemon and I've been stuck with it for 2 1/2 years so this is such a nice change of pace!! There were a few bumps on the road but that is mostly to be expected with a custom computer. The one real issue that is somewhat worrisome is the hard disk not being partitioned and formatted, something which a less experienced user would probably not be able to figure out and possibly "freak out" with not seeing the drive appear, thinking they got the order wrong.
PROS:
Lowest prices you can find in boutique dealers, and in some cases even beat the major vendors such as Dell, HP, depending upon what you order
Very high customization options on the website
English speaking Sales People and Technicians
Very patient employees with great technical knowledge
Very responsive to inquiries and questions, no matter how minute
There is no pressure to hurry up and order by Sales staff
My order was changed twice and this did not hold up my order
Order was processed, tested and shipped quickly
Authorization of credit is comprehensive to prevent credit card fraud
Although mistakes were made on my order AVADirect responded very quickly to correct
PC wiring is done very neatly without an extra fee being charged
Windows Vista actual disc and documentation included
Windows Vista already installed and setup for you
No bloatware installed
Machine runs everything very fast, is very stable (so far) and has no temperature issues
AVADirect allows the option of getting a restore partition in addition to a restore CD (although see cons for more on this)
CONS
Less experienced users may have real trouble configuring a PC on the website and th website allows you to configure "unworkable" PC's
You have to actively inquire as to the status of your order (the website just has a generic "PROCESSING" during the life of the build
Tech support hours are Monday-Friday so weekend problems will have to wait until Monday
Quality Control was errant in failing to partition/format my data drive
Quality Control also was errant in including a stripped screw for my case and failed to include my promised free games
No free shipping or specials (however this is offset with the low prices in general)
Website and/or Sales people should mention that a restore CD is extra and give you the option to order it when your order is placed as many people, including myself, just assume this comes with new PCs now
Asking for a restore CD costs extra (again offset by their super low prices and it should be noted that you can create a restore CD yourself)
My score for my experience overall on a scale of 1 to 100, 100 being best:
87
I deduct 8 points for hard disk issue as that was pretty major for me, 3 points for the minor scratch on the case, 1 point for the stripped screw and 1 point for the missing games.
BOTTOM LINE: A thumbs up with a few issues that should be noted. At this point I plan to order my next PC, a laptop, from AVADirect.
Below is a picture of what my computer looks like (althoug this is not my PC, just a pic I found on the net)
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