What company did Jeff buy his PC from?

Title says it all. I forgot what company he used and would appreciate it if anyone remembered.

I'm planning on putting some money away to finally upgrade (my 10+ year old PC 😬) and wanted to check prices and configs.

Thanks!

I think it was Maingear, and they have a pretty good reputation for assembling PC builds. I know someone is gonna ask you this, so might as well get it out of the way: not interested in building PC and saving a pretty chunk of cash?

Several years ago, I built a 9th gen Intel mini iTX PC 16 GB RAM and a GTX 1080. The only storage was a 2 TB NVMe SSD. Air cooling, no LED bling etc, etc. Recently I updated the graphics to a GTX 3070. It does the job and handles pretty much anything I throw at it running 1440p.

Having said that...

Some people simply don't have the time or desire to tinker with PC hardware especially if they want a blinking, light show, but for me, building a PC was a no-brainer. I just wanted a solid performer that was pretty much a gaming PC with few peripherals.

I will add that as long as the place is reputable and all parts are normal off the shelf partS and not strange OEM parts with little documentation, buying a pre built might be the easiest way to get something with a decent GPU.

Pretty sure got his from Origin.

FWIW I did iBuyPower about a year ago and that worked out fine. My brother gifted me his old 1080 card since he had updated to a 2080, so I got everything else I wanted with the lowest-end graphics card option, then switched it out when the machine arrived. No problems.

Even PC builders are resorting to pre builds now as they have all the oem gpus in stock.

As someone who built my PC for decades, I finally went and got an pre-build gaming PC during the holiday season. This was mainly because PC parts for custom builds these days are expensive, because many of the parts now cost twice as much as the retail prices. Back in the day, if you could build your own PC, you did, because it was overall cheaper than buying one already made. Today, it's now the opposite. It's now cheaper to buy a pre-build, than it is to build one yourself from the ground up. This is especially the case with graphics cards for example. Many pre-build companies factor in the price of the card along with the other parts honestly, while getting the cards separate will cost around the same price as a pre-build itself, especially if you want a high performing one.

I did about the same in October/November of last year. It was the best way to get an updated machine, and I didn't have the time to fool around finding parts. I used MainGear, they are relaiable. My machine arrived correctly setup and all connections/parts tight as a drum; the cost was reasonable and the parts were at or above the qulaity I would have choosesn for myself.

Before, I bought my MainGear I built five computers...so, been there done that. It was nice to just plug it in look at the BIOs...see it set up well enough...and not need to think about anything else.

@bill_mcneal: Origin. I'm still not sure that I would recommend them, they've been acquired recently and getting stuff like replacement parts for their weird case has been impossible.

If you're looking for a recommendation; I have a friend who had a good experience with Newegg's Custom PC Builder. She logged in on a lucky day and they had a 3080 at MSRP set aside for their pc building service. The catch is you can only select what is currently in stock and you have to complete the PC, you can't stop at putting a harddrive in it. This means you also have to buy an OS and there's a $100 service fee. It's definitely more hassle than buying a pre-built but it's the most cost-effective and convenient way to get a new high-end video card in my experience. Looking at the list of available cards now though, I'm not seeing any good deals for today.

I've gotten RTX 3000 cards at MSRP through other means but it can take months. I refreshed best buy pages every thursday and friday around noon for 10 months to get a 3070ti and months after that, my turn in EVGA's email queue for two 3080's came up. Getting just a video card at MSRP is a part-time job now.

@mobiusfun: this sounds roughly equivalent to NZXT bld, though perhaps with more options (last time I checked NZXT, they had only a few gpu options, though they seemed decent). I haven't actually upgraded my desktop in a bit but friends have used that service and said it was a good way to go.

In general, some kind of prebuilt is definitely the way to go these days unless you're able to wait half a year for EVGA to give you a slot

If you want another option, I had a good experience getting a new prebuilt from here: https://seattlebuilt.com/

I would have assembled it myself, but finding a video card was too much of a hassle. It was much faster to buy the whole machine.

@monkeyking1969: Absolutely. As another person that has been building PC’s since 1999 I am very much in the been there, done that camp. My current 1080 build is still decent enough for most things but the next one I get is going to be a pre-built and I can’t wait to just plug it in and go.

Thanks for the input everyone, I appreciate it ✌🏻.

I've looked at the places listed and a few others, like Microcenter. I've got no clue, to be honest.

As maligned as they are, I've been happy with Dell in the past and I'll likely wait for a Father's Day/Grad sale on their Scratch and Dents.

I don't need (or want) neon lights. I don't need a 3080.

Lol, I'll probably keep putting money aside and figure something out. It's a little frustrating too, I've been "out of the game" for a long while now so I've got no clue what's a deal (not that there really *are* any anymore).

But I still appreciate it. Thanks again.