PCA Forums

Did a bit of comparison shopping, just curious as to markup of one of the top of the line "out of the box" computers, as to what I could build in DIY fashion. All prices compared at Newegg.com.

Components listed,

XP Home OS
Coolermaster 200 case
450 watt Enermax Whisper PSU
Asus P4T-533 mobo
2.2 g P4 Northwood
Coolermaster heatsink/fan
512 meg 1066 RDRam
Promise Raid TX2 controller card
2 Maxtor 60 gig L drives, 7200 rpm
Teac floppy
Toshiba DVD drive , with hardware decoder (couldn't find actual price on this one, guessing $100)
GF4 4600 vid card
Logitech deluxe KB
MS Optical mouse
Creative Audigy sound card

FW Northwest price, with one year full warranty.....$2894.18 UPS ground
Newegg DIY price, without shipping costs..............$1989.00

I'd build these all day for people at that kind of markup Though from the reviews I've seen, they really do give you a well built computer with unmatched tech support and overnight delivery of any bad parts during warranty.

Custom Automotive paint job is another $400 bucks, btw

sethpa

Hey, It's your birthday. Get on that phone and call Newegg. They'll give you a break on shipping.

hehe, nice idea, but more than happy with current rig. I had recently read an article about the Falcon NW stuff, and it got me wondering. So configured a decent box on their website and got a quote. Not something I would ever do, but for some I guess, it would be the way to go to get a fast and dependable computer. If you go all the way, top of the line everything, with speakers and monitors, it would be about the price of an entry level car!

sethpa

All i can say is the paint jobs on Flacon's stuff is awsome, But i think i could paint my car for $400 bucks..lol

Falcon systems are VERY nice, but yes they are pricey. They cater to people who want primo gaming systems but don't want to or don't know how to build one themselves.

isnt that what alienware does also? but I dont really like them. they stil ltry and cut corners on high end systems.

Greg

Alienware, GamePC and Falcon NW build custom PCs (they're the biggest three). Another nice feature that I want to add to FlyingPenguins points is the centralized warranty management through one company.
Most people building their own boxes are unlikely to purchase EVERYTHING from just one vendor, thus they're likely to have to tackle upcoming warranty issues with different vendors.

You will also miss out all the compatability hassles you might run into when you built your own rig

Those companies will usually build your rig to selected specs and normally run gamebenchmarks as burn-in test for a day or two to test it ... at least that's what they did 3 years ago. They'll let you know when there're problems with your selected setup and allow you to change things ... like GamePC back in the days: When I selected the Quantum3D (or whatever the 2 x Voodoo2 in one card was) and that card didn't run in my selected setup they emailed me and I was able to change to a 12MB Monster 3D II (and later add the card I already had for SLI).

My first PC (P200) was regular prebuilt from SysTechnology, my second PC (P2 450) was custom built from GamePC and my current rig is done all by myself.
I don't mind building my own system and tackle the sometimes timeconsuming hardware conflicts but many other people want custom rigs without the hassle and are willing to pay more for that service.

There is a market for custom built PCs, even though they're more expensive than Do-It-Yourself ... Alienware, GamePC and FalconNW have been around for more than 3 years.