Recommended prebuilt PC vendors, with UltraMode in mind?

I'm thinking I want to start prepping for Ultra Mode for later this year. My machine, built in 2007, is still reasonably potent, but I have the feeling the architecture will be a bit long in the tooth (I'd have to upgrade pretty much everything but the video card). I've always homebrewed my PCs, but this time I'm entertaining a prebuilt option, if it's got the right price tag.

Looking to spend $2000 or so capped. I just need the box: No monitor, external peripherals, etc. I've looked at Alienware and Falcon NW, and while sexy, it tends to cap out well beyond the $2K I'm budgeting myself. (Granted, the cost might be worth it, but still.)

I can flex a bit, but I'm curious about other recommended vendors. Any thoughts on favorite vendors out there for prebuilt systems?

@TURGENEV - Freedom Server / IRON / B.A.N.E / HORDE

Turg Fiction: Ghost in the Machine Acts III & IV coming 2012!
Turg Fiction: IX is now LIVE on Architect Entertainment!

Just out of curiosity, why would you want a pre-built machine after building them yourself for so long?

We'll see....

Only thing that could get me to buy a prebuilt is getting the OS with it.

Everytime I find a system that looks like a good buy I go to Newegg, price components and see what it comes to.

There may be some good prices for systems out there, but you usually have end up with at least a few parts in the system that are less than optimal. Slower memory, crappy PSU, subpar motherboard, ugly case.......

There's a reason boutique computer builders charge more for their systems. They usually use all high end parts.

For the cost of parts and the OS, I'll bet you could come very close to Alienware or Falcon NW with 2K.

Isn't that worth a few hours of your time. Just a thought.

Well, as others have already gone the "Why pre-built" route, I'll throw out a vendor that I went with for a laptop a while ago that seemed to have some nice prebuilt desktop options. It was through IBuyPower.com

The laptop I got through them was quite beefy (for the time) with gaming in mind, and it worked quite well overall. It was a bit less than other places (Mainly Alienware) in price while matching specs.

Here is another site you can look at, cyberpower. They are similar to iBuy. I have no experience with either site. The last computer I bought was a Dell because my son wanted something for school and I upgraded a few components for gaming (bigger power, better video card.) Before that my last computers were bought in 2002.

I guess the real question is are looking to spend $2k or just around $2k?

You can easily drop an extra $400 to get the "newest" i7 core or settle for a step or two slower and bank the $400. Same for video cards. Ignoring the "Dell Sucks" crowd, I have 4 of them in my house. 2 Core2Duos, 1 Celeron, and P4 ranging from 2 to 5 years old. All still happily churning away day in and out under varying usage loads, but still all working fine. Yeah, its a Dell, but it works. If you do go this route, I would recommend planning on getting the worst video card they offer and just upgrade the PSU and video card as soon as you get it. And this applies to most OEMs not just Dell. You are almost certain to be happier with what you can get from eVGA or where ever instead of the stock cards OEMs use. And most OEMs only use the min power supplies needed so whenever you upgrade cards, youll need to up the PSU.

(Small upgrade story; When i went to a 8600 in my Dell P4, I dropped an Enermax Liberty PSU in with it. But I had to cut a hole in the PSU mount plate for the power switch on the PSU. Oops. But it fit after that and its still running today as my backup rig.)

http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/deskt...eals_anav_03~~

$1099
i7 920 Processor, 8GB ram, for $60 more you could get a 24"WS monitor.
(Could get a nVidia 240 for $130 more)

Just pricing out the parts + OS at NewEgg is pretty close to the Dell Price.

OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English edit
CHASSIS COLOR Cosmic Black, Alienware Aurora Chassis edit
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i7 920 2.66GHz (8MB Cache) Quad Core Processor edit
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 1 Year Basic Service Plan edit
VIDEO CARD Single 1.8GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 295 edit
MEMORY 9GB Triple Channel 1067Mhz DDR3 edit
MONITOR No Monitor edit
HARD DRIVE 500GB - SATA-II, 3Gb/s, 7,200RPM, 16MB Cache HDD edit
SOUND CARD Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Titanium edit
OPTICAL DRIVE Single Drive: Blu-ray Disc (BD) Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD) edit
MOUSE Alienware Optical Mouse, MG100 edit
WIRELESS 1525 PCIe WLAN card with 11n mini-Card & external antenna edit
KEYBOARD Alienware Multi-Media Keyboard edit

$1984 from Dell. Thats about as tight as I could configure an Alienware with Ultra-Mode in mind for under $2k.

You can probably find something from CyberPowerPC or IBuyPower or maybe Puget Systems, if you can't find one on NewEgg just like you want.

My system came from IBuyPower. On their website (not a third party retailer site) you can customize all the parts that go into your system. I've had mine for about two months now and the frickin thing is awesome! I looked around a LOT to try and find somewhere cheaper or more open for design possibilities and I really couldn't. That would be my vote, Turg. For what it's worth!

@The Omega Elementress
Currently playing Project Willow lvl 50 DB/WP Incarnate Shifted Scrapper

Thanks for the suggestions, all. I've found one or two prebuilts from IBUYPOWER on Newegg's site that are attractive ($1699-2099). A buddy of mine who works for Dell also gave me some Alienware links I can use, along with a coupon option that brings about $6-700 off their systems... I have some serious weighing to do tonight, I think.

I'll let you guys know how it goes! Cheers!

@TURGENEV - Freedom Server / IRON / B.A.N.E / HORDE

Turg Fiction: Ghost in the Machine Acts III & IV coming 2012!
Turg Fiction: IX is now LIVE on Architect Entertainment!

I understand you want something pre-built Turgeney and maybe money is no object in the matter, but you're gonna be throwing a lot of cash at a name and some tech monkey's boss laughing all the way to the bank.

I built a PC less than a two weeks ago for $1k that will take me through the decade... It took less than an hour to assemble AND put Windows 7 on it -- would have been done an 45 minutes if it wasn't for those stupid processor fans.

Just hate to see our kind (tech inclined) throwing money away like that.

If you have a Costco membership, costco.com is selling Velocity Micro PC's. They seem to have a decent reputation for building good PCs. The good thing is Costco's generous return policy so if something isn't working right you can always bring it back.

I was in the same boat. Been building my own PCs for the last 15 years and just decided to let someone else do the work for me this time.

Bought from ibuypower and, aside from the agonizing wait(which I think was due to it being the holidays at the time), I haven't had a single problem.

$2000 is about 6-700 more than I spent on my i7 920 and 5850 setup, so you should be able to get a damn nice puter.

Seeing how you know what you want in a PC and simply don't want to have to build it, you can always go with NCIX. They have a tool where you pick the parts you want, and they ship it to you built and ready to go for something like 50$ ca.

Here is the link to their basic config for the I7. http://pc.ncix.com/pcbuilder/index.p...latformid=1000

I would implore you NOT to use ibuypower.com, I have had two heartrending experiences with them, once through the loss of 2000 dollars to them for a desktop system that became a giant night light and agian from the lack or service they're supposidly five star customer service provided. I seriously was disappointed...