Thanks for all the suggestions, guys. Maingear is on my list now to check out. I agree with all that Falcon NW is overpriced. I'd say the same about the company in Toronto, Voodoo PC.

I don't think I'll wait for the HD5970 DX11 card. That thing is 13 inches long! I don't fancy putting a monstrosity like that in my PC. And after going with ATI a couple of PCs back, I came back to Nvidia with the Geforce 8800 GTS and have decided to stick with Nvidia. But why would I need or want a DX11 card? What advantage or extra features would that give me for sim gaming?

Here's another one:

http://www.digitalstormonline.com/

I went through the same scenario before I decided to build my Evga 680i-SLI/X6800 back in late 2006.

plug_nickel (Al)

I checked out Maingear. Too expensive. Cyberpower. Too many decisions to make regarding parts. Digital Storm is still a possiblity, but I fear I might be going back to ordering from Dell. My God, there is a huge difference in price between Dell and the small boutique dudes for almost the same system, except for generic RAM in the Dells.

I just ordered a system from Cyberpower a few days ago. I went with a pretty hotrocd system. The Fang series Viper http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Viper/. I picked it because of the larger (240mm vs 120mm) water-cooling. Went with 17-920 overclocked and 6 GB of the Corsair Dominator mem, ATI 5870 video, plus a few other changes and additions. There is a website of cyberpower coupons and I tried one of their listed codes and it saved me an additional 5% ($83 in my case). That $83 was the decider when I was trying different companies. Cyberpower was most competitive in price, then that $83 made it even better. My total came to $1,659 without monitor. Shipping date is Nov 6. I will let you all know how it works.

Bought Cyberpower not quite a year ago. Overall solid experience. Good price, Shipped right on schedule, came complete and as promised and worked out of the box.

Why did you pick Cyberpower over Maingear, iBuypower, Digital Storm, Falcon NW, VoodooPC, Alienware, etc.? Price alone?

Always a good bet to check this site when making a purchase.

http://www.resellerratings.com/

Gives a good overall idea of customer satisfaction.

Price is always a big consideration. Alienware was on my short list, but they don't overclock. I seriously balanced Digital Storm against Cyberpower, but the price factor made the break; especially when I got that additional $83 off.

I'm usually not one to bad mouth a company, but since I've owned 3 Alienware computers I have some insight. Granted my last Alienware was purchased 7 years ago, since then the company was bought by Dell, BUT my last rig had problems from the day I plugged it in. I sent it back and they worked on it, returned it, and I found it still had not been properly fixed. My secondary hard drive had not even been formatted. There were files left on the computer that had nothing to do with my setup.
Whenever I had a problem their tech support (located in Costa Rica) would tell me to reformat and reinstall the O.S. That was their standard reply. You could tell that the tech support on the other end was reading off a cue sheet or manual.
I cant tell you how many times I ended up doing a online search and finding a solution myself, and it did not involve a reformat or OS reinstall.
I had USB outlets that didn't work, but it was like pulling teeth to get them to acknowledge a problem.
I had a vid card go bad, and since my vid card was no longer being manufactured, it took a couple months to get them to substitute a comparable card. It was a real fight. The support people in C.R. could care less, I think they get payed by the call, not the solution.
Again this was 5-6 years ago and Dell has bought them, but the support is still outsourced to other countries, and with the state of our economy, if having "in U.S. support" doesn't mean anything to you, at least consider keeping a U.S. citizen employed.
We've already sent way to many jobs overseas.

SOOOO what have we learned from this, and I can't stress it enough.

Find a company that handles all problems "IN HOUSE".
Search the internet for complaints about that company. There's a ton of complaints about Alienware, but very very few against Digital Storm, Maingear or Falcon NW.
Trust me, that extra $100 you spend will be worth it when you have a problem and the company is responsive and quick in solving it.

I'm just sayin.......

Rant over....

I love it when Angry Customers come back to bite the company in the butt (by falling into a thread like this and sharing their real-world experience). I'm doing my part for Acer... maybe one day they might learn that customer service sells product and is not a liability.

I know that generally speaking, US people are much more open for online retail as opposed to Brick&Mortar stores, but custom built rigs is still an area where I think finding a good shop in your city or nearby is worth pure gold. If just for the fact you can walk in there and slap people around if things don't work.

Is that no option, Plainsman?