Looking for a new gaming rig

TheMadGamer

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I'm looking to buy a brand new gaming rig in early 2013. For years I've been building my own rigs but this time I just want to buy one.

My question to all of you is who do you recomend (manufacturer)? The last time I bought a gaming rig was over 10 years ago from Falcon Northwest. But I'd like to get some feedback from some of you as to your experiences with whomever you've purchased from and if you'd recomend them. Thank you.
 
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Really? Nobody here has an opinion on a good reliable gaming rig manufacturer with decent customer support? It can't be true that I've seen the day where people here at the watch have no opinion... :p
 
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http://www.liquidcoolsolutions.com/index.html

These guys used to make great gaming systems but earlier this year they changed their name (from HardCore Computers) and I don't see a product list on their new web site.

(edit)
Oh: "In what is being described as a reboot of the company, Ewald will transition the company from being a direct manufacturer of high-end, liquid-cooled desktop computers and servers. Instead, the company will focus on selling its liquid cooling technology to other system vendors. And while LiquidCool will continue to service the Hardcore machines being the used by customers, it is no longer in the computer manufacturing business."
 
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I got my last rig from Digital Storm. You can totally customize it yourself or have them do it. So far it has been an excellent machine with incredible customer service at least from what little I have had to interact with them.

http://www.digitalstormonline.com/

They remind me of what Alienware was before Dell got them ... speaking of which my machine before the DS one was Alienware from Dell and honestly my next one may be as well. Over-priced? I suppose but it ran perfectly for two years with never a single problem.

So my own recommendations would be Alienware and Digital Storm. Been very happy with both.
 
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People will probably laugh at this - but I bought a Dell Studio XPS 9100 desktop three years ago for gaming and it's still doing great. However, I don't recommend Dell laptops for gaming at all (I've had horrible experiences with that in the past). Their high-end desktops have done fine by me though. Just check the power supply needs for whatever video card you plan to use, because that can be a weak point with Dell's standard configurations.

If you can afford it though, I've always heard good things about Alienware (even post-Dell acquisition).
 
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Really? Nobody here has an opinion on a good reliable gaming rig manufacturer…
The problem on my side is that I never buy a whole machine from one manufacturer but combine hardware I want by myself. And I bet I'm not alone, I mean… If you want a done deal combination, it would be a console, right? ;)

Besides, last time I was looking for a finished rig in stores in my country, none had a gfx card suggested by another member here (gainward nVidia phantom any model), and today I can't live without (the silence from) that card.
 
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http://www.liquidcoolsolutions.com/index.html These guys used to make great gaming systems but earlier this year they changed their name (from HardCore Computers) and I don't see a product list on their new web site.

Never heard of them - thank you I am checking them out!

I got my last rig from Digital Storm. You can totally customize it yourself or have them do it. So far it has been an excellent machine with incredible customer service at least from what little I have had to interact with them.

I've heard about this company before I think from magazines. I will definatley check this company out thank you!

People will probably laugh at this - but I bought a Dell Studio XPS 9100 desktop three years ago for gaming and it's still doing great.

A buddy of mine has a Dell XPS and warned me not to buy one as he has had a lot of problems with his. His warning has me leary about Alienware which I've come to learn has been bought by Dell.

I have some experience with Dell's office workstations and from that experience I am very unhappy with their customer support.

Alienware looks interesting to me but do they have the same crappy Dell customer support or are they any better?

The problem on my side is that I never buy a whole machine from one manufacturer but combine hardware I want by myself. And I bet I'm not alone, I mean… If you want a done deal combination, it would be a console, right? ;)

This is how I have been going along for over 10 years now. But like I stated in my OP this time around, due to time constraints and other matters, I just want to buy a PC. But that has presented the problem for which I have posted this thread... since I've building my own rigs for so long, I really don't have a feel for which manufacturer's out there today put out a solid product with at least decent customer support.
 
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By the way - here is the thread I started when I was first looking ot get a rig. Got the usual "build it yourself" but I just don't enjoy doing that at all, don't have the temperament, patience, or motivation.

One reason I really liked DS, which was recommended from another friend who usually built his own machines, are all the options. Anyhow you might find some useful information in the thread.

http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17043
 
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A buddy of mine has a Dell XPS and warned me not to buy one as he has had a lot of problems with his. His warning has me leary about Alienware which I've come to learn has been bought by Dell.

I have some experience with Dell's office workstations and from that experience I am very unhappy with their customer support.

Alienware looks interesting to me but do they have the same crappy Dell customer support or are they any better?
Ah, bummer - maybe Dell's quality has gone down in recent years or I just got lucky with my rig.

As for Alienware - I've just heard about the components being good quality - I don't have any experience with their customer support or know if it's handled by Dell.
 
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Really? Nobody here has an opinion on a good reliable gaming rig manufacturer with decent customer support? It can't be true that I've seen the day where people here at the watch have no opinion… :p

Sorry cant really help here. I've never bought a pc from a manufacturer as I've always built my own.

Out of curiosity why would you want to buy one when you obviously have the skills to build your own? You can have a pc from parts to up and running in less than 4 hours assuming you don't do crazy DIY watercooling or modding.

It took me 2 days to put my last build together with OC and stress testing but I built it into my desk with a dual rad and pump loop. Anyway I could suggest hardware but don't really know best pc manufacturers.
 
Sorry cant really help here. I've never bought a pc from a manufacturer as I've always built my own.don't really know best pc manufacturers.

It takes me a lot of time to research parts and prices - that is the long part for me. Once I have all the parts then yeah, I can assemble it all in an hour. But it's the researching, pricing, buying - all that time I just don't want to do it right now I'm more interested to replace my crappy annoying rig with a new one quickly.
 
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It takes me a lot of time to research parts and prices - that is the long part for me. Once I have all the parts then yeah, I can assemble it all in an hour. But it's the researching, pricing, buying - all that time I just don't want to do it right now I'm more interested to replace my crappy annoying rig with a new one quickly.

I normally buy the motherboard, processor and memory all bundled up in a very good price. Sometimes you can also buy 'barebone' bundles which also include the case and power supply. The rest is easy for the graphics card, hard drive, DVD drive and power supply to suit my budget. This is a shop in the UK which you probably can't use but it will give you an idea of what I am talking about:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/motherboardbundles/
http://www.novatech.co.uk/barebonebundles/
 
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Ah, bummer - maybe Dell's quality has gone down in recent years or I just got lucky with my rig.

As for Alienware - I've just heard about the components being good quality - I don't have any experience with their customer support or know if it's handled by Dell.

I had a high end Alienware laptop long ago. Very powerful but had a persistent heat problem which kept burning out the motherboard. I had purchased a 3 year warranty for it and the first time I called in they told me that it wasn't covered by warranty. After paying alot of money for this computer that wasn't even close to an acceptable answer and of course I got it covered but that they even told me that pissed me off. This problem came back once a year so it went back to them several times until it was finally out of warranty and died. Their stuff is powerful but If I pay a premium price I expect premium service which I did not get. I would not recommend them.
 
I had a high end Alienware laptop long ago. Very powerful but had a persistent heat problem which kept burning out the motherboard. I had purchased a 3 year warranty for it and the first time I called in they told me that it wasn't covered by warranty. After paying alot of money for this computer that wasn't even close to an acceptable answer and of course I got it covered but that they even told me that pissed me off. This problem came back once a year so it went back to them several times until it was finally out of warranty and died. Their stuff is powerful but If I pay a premium price I expect premium service which I did not get. I would not recommend them.

I spent a little time looking at user feedback of people who bought alienware products. There seems to be quite a lot of people complaining of poor customer service and very dubious warranty terms. I know that you have to take user internet bitching with a grain of salt but the complaints seem fairly widespread. That alienware was bought by Dell also causes red flags with me. Most likely I will not be buying alienware.

I've taken some time checking out Digital Storm and I like how well they've laid out their product line and how easy they've made it to put together a rig online. But their pricing seems a bit steep. For kicks and giggles, I selected their top of the line gaming desktop without making any customizations. The rig is in excess of 8k (US) and comes only with onboard sound and windows 7 pro. Those two things really struck me considering I thought the price was already quite steep but to not even include a nice Sound Blaster sound card and Windows 7 ultimate just struck me as crazy pricey. But I have to continue looking around to see how they compare with others.

So far I've mulled over Alienware, Digital Storm, Asus, and Falcon Northwest. Not sure who else to consider unless more of you have manufacturer suggestions.
 
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The rig is in excess of 8k (US) and comes only with onboard sound and windows 7 pro. Those two things really struck me considering I thought the price was already quite steep but to not even include a nice Sound Blaster sound card and Windows 7 ultimate just struck me as crazy pricey.

Wowza! That's fucking ridiculous.

I can only imagine people with too much money and too little knowledge of computers being willing to pay that kind of money for a gaming rig. You could easily build a high-end rig right now for less than half that amount.
 
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Wowza! That's fucking ridiculous.

Actually, the machine is just a tad under 9k lol.

If you take a look at it, it's sort of a situation where one can't see the forest through the trees. A lot of emphasis on the fantastic state-of-the-art cooling aspect of the machine and then they go and don't include a separate sound card or the most feature-filled version of Win7.

If a computer were all about cooling and the point of a computer was to sit and watch how well it cooled itself then maybe... but the cooling is just one aspect of an entire computer, not THE aspect.

I see that machine as an enthusastic's machine who has too much money on their hands. I fit part one of that description but certainly not part 2.

All that said, I'm still playing with configurations on Digital Storm to see if I can come up with a nice machine at a fair price.
 
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They can get very pricey but with some care you can get something fairly decent. I dropped my initial build price by just over $2K when I was looking and while I have some money I don't have it to burn. I got an awesome rig that has been very solid and no hassles that was cheaper than an Alienware and with better hardware.

However I am not their sales person :) It was just a suggestion as I did well by them and thought I got my money's worth as did the people who recommended them, two of which have built their own machines.

I also have a very busy life and I prefer to avoid the hassles of putting together a machine. For all the folks who go on at length about how wonderful it is there are also stories about getting components to work, issues with tracking down warranties and replacements, issues with configurations, etc. Building a rig may be fine for some folks who know their hardware and/or have the time, patience, and desire to spend on it, like my brother who has the skill and works part-time, but it isn't for everyone.

Course I have the same attitude when someone says they don't have time to cook or learn good eating habits since I do all my own cooking … I suppose its the same thing. People set their priorities and what they will or will not focus on.
 
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For a desktop, for the best quality/performance/ price you will need to build your own. For laptops the Asus G series are priced well with good performance.
 
Meanwhile I'm to lazy to build PCs myself; I did in the past. If I were you I'd probably take some i7 with a GTX-680 and an M4 SSD for booting… And I'm sure it would be somewhere around1.5/2k EUR.
Today, I'm using reliable and experienced services; people whom I trust and who know which parts go well together and who also tell you what does not make sense. IMO very good guys in Germany are grey-computer.de (edit: ah I see you're from Oregon, well that's not Germany ;))/ plus 5 yrs of warranty and good support.
 
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