Octopus Overlords

Hi - do any of you have experience with ibuypower.com?

They seem to get reviewed rather frequently but I was wondering if someone here had hands on experience.

My folks are looking for a deep deep budget machine and I found this one here for $418:

http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/conf ... aspx?mid=1

It's a terrific price but I've never heard of them before.

I really dig them cases. I think someone ordered one from them back on GG, he had some issue related to billing or shipping, but I'm not sure.

Definitely a legitimate seller. I'm sort of surprised you've not heard of them, they get brought up on various web forums I frequent from time to time. I've never seen a rave for them a la NewEgg or Opera, but I've never seen any real rants against them either.

I've gone the deep discount route for upgrading a PC (i.e., no need for a monitor), and in that same pricing ball park I've ended up happy with the Dell Dimension line. Couple that with the discounts available over on www.gotapex.com (and a bit of patience, as the "good" discounts only pop up from time to time) and you can end up with a nice selection. And don't listen to Grandy's whining about Dell's proprietary OS -- that's from their days of yore. If you don't want to be hand-holding your folks through computer issues, having a Dell 800 # may keep you out of the loop should anything go wrong. I went this route with my mom about four years ago and she was really happy (as was I) whenever she needed technical help. Of course, that may be a bit different now.

Best of luck!

~Neal

hmmm. First off - thanks for that link, Neal. I haven't seen that site either and they have a very attractive deal right there on the front page.

One thing I didn't mention was that my folks are both gamers so they need a deep discount computer with a good graphics card - one that can play RCT 3 and Pirates! and stay viable for a few years. So I want to get a solid machine with good upgradeability.

I've been steering clear of Dell because they're pricing certainly makes me whine! I have a Dell and it's a good machine but I've come to loathe Dell's dodgy bait-and-switch practices.

But I'd buy a Dell if I can find one at the right price. I've been avoiding their 3000 line because it doesn't have an agp slot. Is that right? It just seems like a dead end, even if it's a nice machine in other respects.

I don't know if my folks will get an I buy power machine or Dell either for all I know. They're being difficult. <shrug> I just wondered if there were some field reports here.

If you don't want to be hand-holding your folks through computer issues, having a Dell 800 # may keep you out of the loop should anything go wrong.

/me laughs bitterly.

Meghan,

Three of us ordered from them about 6 months ago.

I had a great experience, with everything being delivered as promised, as planned. They even let me come pick it up from them (I'm fairly local).

Orpheo had a really bad experience, something to do with delays on his order, them lying to him, and then delivering something with f'ed up paint. I think he eventually cancelled his order and went with Falcon-NW.

Grievous Angel also had a slightly delayed order, and something wasn't great with it when it arrived, though I don't recall what.

I'll let the other guys chime in though with more detail.

I'd personally recommend them based on my experience, but based on the experiences of my #gonegold/GGNL brethren, I'd say stay away.

gellar

Nope, I made all that up. Go with IBuyPower, they have power for sale!

I bought from Ibuypower, and they got everything to me quickly and it was what I ordered.

However, I had an issue with the speakers I bought from them, and they sent me a new set to swap out.

They did not inform me they were putting a 100 dollar hold on my credit card I used to order from them. This happens to be my Debit card, so I wanted them to switch what they were using to an actual credit card...

The customer service people hung up on me and were assholes...They treated me like slime and when I asked to talk with the manager, he told me he was the manager....

<shrug> Also two of the USB ports did not work, so I had to open the case and fix the loose conenctions...They wanted me to ship it back to be fixed...

So all and all I will not buy from them again, but the computer I got from them was cheaper than Falcon, just not the level of customer service that Falcon gives you...

I've heard good and bad about ibuypower but I've never ordered from them myself. Check out www.resellerratings.com for user reviews on them.

Hey, just getting back to this...

When I purchased a Dell a few years ago for my desktop rig, I migrated the monitor, video card, sound card, and a hard drive. I found that was about the extent of what I needed to do to make it gamer-friendly. If you didn't have some or all of those components at the ready, then I could see where a Dell may not be the optimal budget upgrade path. Hopefully that discount site helps spell that a bit, however.

Meghan wrote:I've been steering clear of Dell because they're pricing certainly makes me whine! I have a Dell and it's a good machine but I've come to loathe Dell's dodgy bait-and-switch practices.

I'm not familiar with what you're talking about here. I've purchased two Dells for myself in the past, oh, four years, and haven't felt bait-and-switched either time. And in neither case have I felt like I've overspent for what I got (but I've always been a savvy Dell coupon user)

I've been avoiding their 3000 line because it doesn't have an agp slot. Is that right? It just seems like a dead end, even if it's a nice machine in other respects.

I'm not sure the specifics on that line, and I'd agree about that being a show-stopper for one of those models.

If you don't want to be hand-holding your folks through computer issues, having a Dell 800 # may keep you out of the loop should anything go wrong.

/me laughs bitterly.

Ha-ha! My brother, the paint salesman from the Detroit area, quit his job, loaded up his truck, and moved to California about six years ago. He enrolled in a bunch of Microsoft courses and translated his old salesperson skills and newfound technical abilities into a position with United Way in Sacramento. He then cranked up his aspirations/machinations and pretty quickly found himself in the role of the MIS director for the site. Talk about a load-off for the mere engineer when it came to performing gratis tech support for the family.

~Neal

Another good one is Monarch Computers. I've ordered my last two machines from them and I've been happy both times.

My brother ordered a PC from them a while back. It was slightly delayed (3 - 4 days), but other than that, everything went fine.


It's a damn fast computer.

neocomputers.com is pretty good, too. I bought a desktop from them about a year and a half ago and it's been fine (with occasional minor problems here and there, though).