I'd second the build-over-buy suggestion, especially for higher-end desktops. The only really difficult part is speccing it out, and I'm sure you can find someone here who will suffer through the agony of surfing around for parts deals if you aren't comfortable doing it yourself [wink]

I personally prefer to buy a system that's already built for me that I simply spec'd out. I'm on my 2nd desktop and I've gotten both mine from IBuyPower.

I understand the arguments for building over buying, but for me it's more of a convenience to spec it and get a full built system in the mail. I'm just not comfortable with buying parts even though I've had hardware classes in college and done my fair share of tinkering.

There are tons of websites out there, basically just read around on what people say about the website.

As for IBuyPower, they mention they stress test the machines before shipping them. My first computer from them the GPU and Mobo somehow broke down on me and I needed to get replacements however it was an actual part failure, not necessarily IBuyPower who just assembled it for me. Also, my first PC I was forced to wait near 2 months before I got it as they were backed up with orders. Finally, my friend mentioned his dad ordered one from the company and the RAM had shaken loose during shipping and he had to pop it back in.

Now that may seem bad, but I've had plenty of great service from them. For example, my latest PC (few months old) is continuing to work great. When I received it, there was a solid shipping foam in the case to secure parts so they wouldn't shake around during shipping (see RAM problem above). And the time between ordering and receiving my system was significantly faster this time around.

My first system lasted 6 years (not considering the time off for replacing Mobo and GPU) and is now solidly working as my parents main computer and (sometimes) my programming PC.

I think if you search around you'll find pros, cons, and testimonials to all build-your-PC sites.

Finally, if you do anything I'd suggest at least spec'ing your own instead of just going to a site and just adding a full system to a cart and checking out without any customization, those tend to be not so great.

I believe CyberPower is the biggest competitor to iBuyPower.

Oh, and moved to Hardware Discussion.

[Edited by - Promit on August 9, 2010 11:05:22 AM]

My most recent PC was $2000 after everything including a new monitor. Mouse and keyboard are standard with IBuyPower as I recall so I got those too but didn't need them. Also, no speakers as I already have a set.

Again, I did the IBuyPower so you could pick it all up a bit cheaper as parts but I'm still happy with my purchase. Granted it's a bit old, but I can crank Crysis to max specs with little to no lag (the majority of the lag is probably from the single 1gb GPU I have) I usually run VSync on most games, if I remember right I think that is the one thing that makes it a bit slow but it's still playable, just kinda choppy.

Other games I've been running at max: Splinter Cell Conviction, Borderlands, World of Warcraft, Silent Hill Homecoming, and soon I'll be trying Starcraft 2.

I justify the $2000 by reminding myself my last PC lasted 6 years and when I bought that parts of it were already outdated (at purchase it was $1000) so I figure this one will easily last me that long and still hold up.