YAYY NEW TOY!!
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Pax · 02-02-2013, 01:27 PM

My brand new PC arrived today - I'm using it now, in fact (while things download in the background).

...

Some background: for Christmas, I got a shiny new Blu-ray drive, one that can write to disks as well as read 'em. Great, I thought, let's get this puppy installed! So I proceed to open the case, and take the opportunity to dus it out - hold the fans still one by one, as I direct short bursts of compressed air hither and yon. With that out of the way, I installed the drive, connecting the correct power cable and the SATA data cable in all the right places.

...

And somehow, completely killed the whole computer. Now, to be fair, I was a bit reckless - I didn't take the time to find my antistatic wrist strap, so even though I switched the power supply off and disconnected the power cord from it ... I probably caused a short-circuit across all or part of the mainboard.

Poof, a thousand-dollar (when I bought it) computer, dead years before it's time. It wouldn't even boot up to the BIOS window.

...

Now, I had already planned out a savings program that would have given me a $5,000 budget for a new computer, nearly twice as much as I expected to need - but I'd only JUST started it, and wouldn't have that money until December of 2015. No way could I survive without my video games and such, for three entire years!!

So, hat in hand, I went to my housemate Jeremy - an amazingly generous soul - and he happily offered me a loan for however much I needed. (He's happy to lend to me, because I pay loans back ASAP, and also pay more than I borrowed, ESPECIALLY if the loan came from freinds or family!)

I went first to the OEM ("Original Equipment Manufacturor"; the people who assemble computers for folks. Dell, Alienware, and Gateway are examples) who built my prior computer, as well as DGF's desktop.

Not to put too fine a point on it? Never again. Their customer service has absolutely tanked; the computer I came up with there, including shipping & handling, came to #3,464-and-change. They had every penny of it on 2 January. They didn't even start "gathering materials" (read: actually getting the various parts togethr in one place) for 8 days. Then, two weeks later with zero visible progress made, I finally decided enough was enough, and cancelled the order.

On to Plan B, it seems. Fortunately the first OEM processed the refund with greater alacrity than they processed the order itself.

Plan B was an OEM I had seen recommended a few times, but knew nothing about: Puget Systems, in Auburn WA. And I am so very, very, very glad I gave them a try!!

My sales rep, William, was very friendly, and very helpful; he suggested a few tweaks to my order which sacrificed not one iota of "power", but saved a few dollars and make future upgrades easier. He also readily determined that I was already impatient, and suggested a way to get the computer into my hands: back off from overnight shipping, apply the difference to Priority service and rush-ordering the two parts not already in stock.

Needless to say, I leapt at those suggestions, eagerly, and reached for my wallet with no hesitation!

Now, here's the extra-cool part of it: Puget's website gives customers a way to wathc the progress being made on their order. I don't mean video, though. I mean, they have a step by step log of the process, that is updated in real time. For parts they have to order out, you get a lnk showing the ETA ... and if they have a tracking number, YOU TOO can track the delivery's progress.

And once the computer is assembled, all software installed, and a very gratifyingly-rigorous series of tests have been passed, they take pictures, which you can download. Inside, outside, even thermal imaging.

Here, see for yourself; I uploaded all of them to a Photobucket album: New PC 2013 Photos by GMPax | Photobucket

They also put together a three-ring binder with all kinds of information (including the benchmark/test results), and the first name and picture of the people who worked on my order.

Really, I can't say enough good things about Puget Systems. I'm so very pleased with their service, I went and ordered a $50 Dunkin Donuts gift card, mailed directly to them in a custom thank-you card.

And no, it wasn't cheap. Even though I downgraded a few components slightly - and decided not to get a brand-new monitor just yet - it still came to $3,365-and-change. Hopefully, it'll be six+ years before I need to even contemplate a replacement, ha!!

But, for those of you who are also gamer-enthusiasts like me, this is what she's got under the hood:

AMD FX-8350 CPU - 8 cores, 4.00GHz, with Turbo to 4.20GHz (generally when using half or less of the cores);
Corsair H60 closed-loop liquid cooling for the CPU
ASUS-built Radeon HD 7970 (3GB) video card, one of the top five cars on the market, and the most reasonably priced of those top 5, IMO;
16GB of Kingston DDR3-1600 RAM (2x8GB);
An Intel 520-series SSD, 240GB capacity, as the System drive;
A Western Digital Caviar Green HDD, 3TB capacity, as a Data drive;
A Seasonic X-850 power supply, 850W and 80+ Platinum certified

So, yeah. Lots of horses under that hood.

Now if you'll excuse me, the first big game download just finished, so I'm going to go play Borderlands 2 for a while ... with all the graphics turned up to 11.