Ava Direct or Maingear?

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Theres a legend round these here parts, and its called....


BLUEZILLA!

That thing was essentially murphys law in action, anything that could go wrong did go wrong. Looked amazing but it was never to be sadly :( Could have happened to any pc builder though.
 
Well they are going to send me a new one and I have ship back the broken one. I might order a couple ide drives from newegg for it my other pc needs one anyway.
 
Yeah Bluezilla was a cluster JUST like mine was... Man that guy spent THOUSANDS on the order of 6 grand and he got screwed like I did... He did manage to get a refund.... Not sure how but he said he got a refund although he did say he didnt get a full refund....
 
kodan said:
Yeah Bluezilla was a cluster JUST like mine was... Man that guy spent THOUSANDS on the order of 6 grand and he got screwed like I did... He did manage to get a refund.... Not sure how but he said he got a refund although he did say he didnt get a full refund....
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They didn't give him a full refund on a PC that NEVER left their facilities? UMMMMM anyone else notice the problem?
 
LOL that machine was sent out on a pallet shipment according to the guy that bought the maching Omega... You didnt pay attenttion to the thread apparently.... They FINALLY gave him a refund after months since he was moving to canada and I am pretty sure neither company wanted to deal with cross border shipments or Bluezill probably wouldnt have had a refund either.
 
Done like dinner. There were some stability issues that went unresolved for too long. I moved back to Canada in the meantime so I didn't want to deal with cross border shipping issues. They ended up keeping the machine and I got some of my money back.
Just got a Blackbird a couple of days ago.
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From the original Project Bluezilla fiasco thread

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1169021&page=6

My bad Omega I thought you were defending AVA.... But yeah Bluezilla was worst fiasco on Hard from a custom builder and while I was only half or less the cost for my computer it was EXACTLY the same situation for me... Stability/functionality/operability issues from day one,mulitple trips in for repair and in the end they couldnt get shit resolved so I too had to ditch their computer... Only I didnt move to canada so they wouldnt give me a refund.... One time being a canuk is worthwhile I guess.
 
Our return policy states once orders are past the "purchasing" phase of order processing there is a "restocking fee" that may apply. Bluezilla took quite some time to get up and running, and once we did it was quite the beast! Part of the problem was the customer tinkered with some of the settings and his surge protector began to bellow out a long high pitched beep at boot-up, followed by a "SYSTEM BOOT FAILURE" at the boot screen. Ultimately, he had to RMA the system and it was damaged in shipping, so after we offered to begin reassembly the customer decided to cut his losses and we went our separate ways on good terms.
 
THe machine was damaged in shipping to him according to him in his thread....
Well, I did receive it, unfortunately it was damaged in shipping and it had to go back to Ava. The motherboard and two vid cards were damaged in transit so I had to ship it back to them for repairs.
It's taken far longer than I anticipated and they were only able to overclock to 3.0 Ghz in the end citing stability issues with the motherbard and memory combo. If I had to do it all over again, I'd do something different.
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Expect it back in a couple of weeks, waiting on replacement parts. It was shipped on a pallet, but there's no guarantee it will protect everything.

It didn't boot properly at first, so I reseated the ram sticks, and that got it going initially, but there were repeated BSOD's.

Ava will make it right.
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I sure wish when I had begged you all to cut your losses with me repeatedly you would have done the same thing for me... I could have tolerated a restock fee ...

And you REALLY need your facts right man before you come to the table to talk about something... Its pretty obvious you dont have the facts right AGAIN based on those quotes above... I also tend to believe the guy that got the bad computer over you since all you are is PR for your company.

Hell he even mentions repeated parts failure that you guys continued to have WHILE it was in your shop(same shit happened to me and is why one repair was 12 weeks)... I know your mantra is you dont make the parts and therefor not resposible but other makers dont burn up multiple mobos and vid cards in their machines.... We have two dells in the house and neither of them has burned 4 mobos 8 video cards and 6 sets of ram....And its not just my machine... I can show you a post from Chris Mundy(pretty sure you know who he is right? Seein as hes your brother) where he mentions hundreds of people having issues with your machines... Pretty sure thats why you wont give refunds.. You'd be out of business...

OH and I just realized you resorted to another favorite tactic... when you cant blame anything else you blame the customer... Its not your shit computers it something the customer did cause we all know your quality is top notch...ROLF

You guys could have stepped up and did the right thing and had a staunch ally and defender instead you choose to screw around and ended up with a bitter and determined and VERY STUBBORN enemy who cant forget or forgive you all for screwing me outta $4200 ... As I said I would be hard pressed to pee on your whole company if it was on fire unless I was peeing napalm........
 
When this system was first purchased this motherboard was still having its massive share of problems and we replaced hundreds of motherboards in systems because of this
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Christopher Mundy
Technical Support Manager
AVADirect
[email protected]
(216) 503-6371 Direct
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Took me a bit top find it but thats from halfway down the page and thats on my second or third repair with you guys... It was the one that ended up taking 12 weeks...Here is thread link

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1205762
 
Considering the similarities in schneider and kodans experiences, I would think that AVA wouldn't want ANOTHER kodan on their hands.

I'm not saying kodan is wrong to feel neglected and betrayed by a company he put $4200 worth of trust into at all.

I'm saying that if they clone kodan, AVA's [H]ard earned reputation will be shot.

If I were you, AVA, I would do everything in my power to make schneiders computer problems go away.

Word of mouth advertising is loud and strong, especially on the internet, and the more people you have yelling vileness from the rooftops, the less business you are doing.

I think kodan summed it up nicely (in one of his MANY posts) saying if AVA had done the right thing they would have had an avid supporter and defender but now AVA has an informed consumer who's not only dissatisfied with his experience but willing to share it, and all of it's negative aspects, with the world.

And as you can see from all the dredged up threads, this stuff doesn't go away.

That, folks, is bad for business.
 
kodan said:
And you REALLY need your facts right man before you come to the table to talk about something...
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Ultimately, he had to RMA the system and it was damaged in shipping,

Is that not what I said?

From the RMA notes we have on file, It shows the Bluezilla customer received the system damaged, so they shipped it back. When we replaced the damages, we tested to find the motherboard, both GPU's, and RAM were all defective and needed to be replaced. This is where the customer decided to opt for the refund.

Facts or not, bottom line is we came to an accord with the customer.

Chris Mundy's quote has absolutely nothing to do with a lack of care or regard. When hardware has problems it's either able to be worked around or inevitable. In this case, swapping RAM or PSU's would not have done anything so we replaced the motherboards.

Kodan, you could have continued to work with us and resolve your issue but instead you handled it elsewhere and the fact is that was your decision.

Shawnesee, we are currently working with Schneider to resolve all of his issues. As I've mentioned before, the last thing we want is for people to be dissatisfied with their AVADirect system.
 
I had my doubts about sending it back for the board replacement. The first time I wanted too failed do to unforeseen family circumstances getting in the way. I should have probably taken it as an omen and not requested another chance to dump the pos board looking back on it. The local tech I know though he charges an arm and leg to do any repair. I wasted enough on him though getting my other pc some upgrades that didn't work out well. I have learned one thing from all this EVGA boards are total and utter garbage.

Anyway they sent out a new burner today with the missing discs from the motherboard package. I went ahead and ordered a couple of ide http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136147 LG drives from newegg too. That drive that failed is a lite on LH-20A1L sata burner it seems they do have a bad rep even the tech I know has said before its common for lite on ones to fail.
 
AVAJoe after almost 18 months of sending the computer back to you guys every other month so with the EXACT SAME ISSUES EVERY TIME you all left me with no choice but to look somewhere else to get a working computer.... AT WHAT POINT was enough enough? Personally I only kept trying so long with you cause I hoped beyond all reality that you guys would step up and actully get your shit together and get me a working computer..... I think I was MORE than patient and I felt like you left me no other choice than to take my computer elsewhere since your warranty service sucked ass so bad.

What kind of realitic indicator did I have, after 18months of utter and complete assine incompetence on your part, that your three stooges act would suddenly end on the 4th or even 5th repair? Thats what Misha never got either there was something else wrong with the system and throwing more vid cards ,mobos, and ram at it wasnt fixing it yet you all couldnt figure out what that was(of course one of my first ideas as to what was wrong was wrong but you all insisted you tested the PSU throughly. Kinda like all the other shit you test so well....... If you had your shit together even some I would probably still be trying to get my computer fixed with you all. Seriously you incompetent buffoons had my computer more than I did and I paid good money for it.
 
Kodan,

We all know your plight with what happened to you system. Its a shame that AVA could not step up their game and fix the problem the 1st or 2nd time. But EVERY place has their horror stories and angry customers. Is it really fair to frag down AVA even though the other 99% of their systems run quite well???

As for the OP, seeing all this hardware fail just doesnt happen. Every computer I have built just does not suddenly fail. Either one major part (PSU or mobo) is causing all the problems, or something else bigger is happening here.

And you cannot blame AVA about the EVGA boards and hardware. They are simply the hardware builder, and all decisions about what hardware to choose is up to the customer. You have only yourself to blame for choosing hardware which is shoddy and has many negative reviews.

Did you ever take the time and effort to ASK which hardware might be best for your situation? Many of the people at [H] know whats up and will give you our opinions and facts about what works and what doesnt.

As for Joe, your spreading water on a grease fire. I dont think there is anything you can so or do here that can make all this go away. Best bet is to fix the OP's computer and be done with it.
 
antecuser said:
Kodan,

We all know your plight with what happened to you system. Its a shame that AVA could not step up their game and fix the problem the 1st or 2nd time. But EVERY place has their horror stories and angry customers. Is it really fair to frag down AVA even though the other 99% of their systems run quite well???

As for the OP, seeing all this hardware fail just doesnt happen. Every computer I have built just does not suddenly fail. Either one major part (PSU or mobo) is causing all the problems, or something else bigger is happening here.

And you cannot blame AVA about the EVGA boards and hardware. They are simply the hardware builder, and all decisions about what hardware to choose is up to the customer. You have only yourself to blame for choosing hardware which is shoddy and has many negative reviews.

Did you ever take the time and effort to ASK which hardware might be best for your situation? Many of the people at [H] know whats up and will give you our opinions and facts about what works and what doesnt.

As for Joe, your spreading water on a grease fire. I dont think there is anything you can so or do here that can make all this go away. Best bet is to fix the OP's computer and be done with it.
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So It would be my fault then? Because I wanted to RMA a board that crashes the computer 50% of the time you play a video. Its my fault they used old sata cables that would not even stay in the sockets and were reamed in. Its my fault they wired the hard drive light to the case power button. Its my fault the case has a small gap in the top of it now. Its my fault the dvd burner died. Its my fault they left out 2 discs meant to be included with the motherboard.

Blame picking wrong hardware all you want when the pc wouldn't even turn on after its RMA because the power button was wired to a case light. I hope the next time you RMA something for warranty repair you get sent a box of scrap.
 
Schneider,

No, read what I have said. You cannot blame AVA about the EVGA board that YOU picked. Thus, all the issues of motherboard related issues you cannot blame AVA for.

However, the SATA cables, missings discs, and bad wiring, that you can blame on them. The optical drive.... those things are so cheap its no wonder they dont break more often. That is another thing you cannot blame AVA on.

You yourself picked the Lite-On drive, known like the EVGA hardware to be inferior to other hardware. But because you wanted to save an extra buck, you choose the cheapest hardware. Should have choose a Samsung, known to work so much better.

You can blame AVA all you want on the wiring and missing discs. I agree with you on that. But the hardware issues due to the EVGA and Lite-On stuff, you should have researched your hardware you choose more before buying the system. Like I said, did you even take the time to ask AVA or [H] about the hardware before buying it?
 
antecuser said:
As for Joe, your spreading water on a grease fire. I dont think there is anything you can so or do here that can make all this go away. Best bet is to fix the OP's computer and be done with it.
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I think that was the jist of my post and most everyone elses as well: Fix the OP's computer.

And they CAN make this go away. Step up and fix the problem.

Question for you: Who would you put more faith in? People on forums or the people you are giving your money to? If your answer is the latter then that company should be informed about what is shoddy hardware and should make you aware of that. If the customer insists on crappy hardware after being advised against it, well, THEN you can blame him.

But I don't think you can blame anyone in this situation. I think the problem with the computer needs to be fixed or the guy needs to get a refund and its as simple as that. No blame need be given.
 
antecuser said:
Schneider,

No, read what I have said. You cannot blame AVA about the EVGA board that YOU picked. Thus, all the issues of motherboard related issues you cannot blame AVA for.

However, the SATA cables, missings discs, and bad wiring, that you can blame on them. The optical drive.... those things are so cheap its no wonder they dont break more often. That is another thing you cannot blame AVA on.

You yourself picked the Lite-On drive, known like the EVGA hardware to be inferior to other hardware. But because you wanted to save an extra buck, you choose the cheapest hardware. Should have choose a Samsung, known to work so much better.

You can blame AVA all you want on the wiring and missing discs. I agree with you on that. But the hardware issues due to the EVGA and Lite-On stuff, you should have researched your hardware you choose more before buying the system. Like I said, did you even take the time to ask AVA or [H] about the hardware before buying it?
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Couldn't have said it better.Anyone who configures a high end system with a Nvidia board should expect problems,every forum like this is filled with horror stories about them.Bluezilla was doomed from the start with that 680 board.All a builder can do is use the parts requested by the customer.And they have no control over what the customer himself does inside the system.
 
I got my new burner and missing discs today. I'll will send them back broken one tomorrow or Friday.

Antecuser you do know this pc was bought earlier this year and these evga boards were fairly new to the market. This was a problem most did not even know of or even know it was board related. I even RMAed videocards to fix the issue which never did. I couldn't of asked for hardware advise here unless you want to build a time machine and go back and tell me this forum even exists. As for the dvd burner It really pisses me off that you assume I am some kind of cheap ass. When I ordered it they had two options for sata burners samsung and lit-on. I had a samsung in my other pc once and it was no good. I had two choices or use ide ones.

Most of the problems I have since managed to fix myself. I bet if I send this pc back again it comes back with even more problems so as long as I can fix the problems myself I won't send it back unless a major issue beyond my expertise develops. The cure is worse than the disease.
 
About the equipment you bought..... I have had a number of Lite-on burners and players and have never had an issue with any of them. While they may be less expensive than others, they are far from junk.

As far as the board you choose, EVGAs are not cheap.... and they should be much better than they are. Originally, my PC (an AVA) came with a 680i EVGA. At the time, it was out for a while and the problems were supposed to be solved (the board got great reviews, by the way...). But the board was nothing but trouble.... had to RAM my RAM, get the SATA burners replaced, replaced a HDD.... finally, AVA replaced it with a ASUS-P5K which has worked like a champ.

My point.... you did nothing wrong configuring the PC the way you did or in your choice of hardware.

Hope this all works out for you. Be patient and I think AVA will pull through for you....
 
Every review I read said great board as well. The initial build from ava was nearly problem free. Two problems video corruption and a usb card reader that needs replugged in sometimes after heavy use were all I ever had. Sadly no way too fix the problem but get a new board. I don't know who they hire to do their construction but its clear to me the people that first built this pc are better trained than ones they have working on the RMAs.
 
Same situation with me... Every review I had read out there gave GLOWING reviews of the 680i's at launch it wasnt till about 4-6months in that you started getting all the horror stories.... IMHO I think calling EVGA boards cheap or low quality is a bit obtuse... There is nothing wrong with thier overall quality... NO one but Nvidia had any control over the utter shit that was the WHOLE 680I release.

What about the 8 BFG video cards that my computer burned up? Before you call them crap too I have bought their cards since the voodoo 3 days and guess what in all that time I have had ALL OF ONE video card of theirs go bad(besides the current AVA's) and that was just a bad fan.

What about the 7 sets of high end micron based memory from Corsair the computer also ate? What about the other quality parts I put in my machine? PCP&C PSU western digital HD's I think I picked some pretty high quality parts on my build yet I am in the same boat as several other people here....

I could train a deaf and blind monkey to do better RMA work than AVA.... Hell I know some Downs Syndrome people IRL that couldnt screw things up as bad as AVA can... Its rediculous... If find it really hard to belive you guys want to stick up for a company that has so little concern for their customers and while they might not have alot of failures boy when they do fail they are spectacular...

Also I LOVE how AVA direct wants to always blame a manufactures poor quality control but you dont hear routinely about other companies needing to replace so many parts and other companies use the exact same makers parts...... Hell if you were to really look at it I have had a 80% failure rate(8/10 BFG 8800gtx failed) and I guarentee you if the failure rate is really that high around the industry you would hear it and I cant believe for a second my luck was that bad... Its the incompetents over at AVA that couldnt assemble it right.....

Hell if the parts they are using are that fucking bad stop using those parts... STOP LETTING CUSTOMERS BUY SHITTY PARTS IF YOU KNOW ITS SHIT.... Stop carrying or building machines with substandard parts if you believe them to be so and only use the right parts.... Telling me it should be my resposibilty to know ALL that is bullshit.... I did all the due diligence that I could before I bought(read everything I could find on the net and considered 5 or 6 companies and even posted builds here before I bought and GUESS WHAT EVERYONE ON [H]ARD SAID GOOD BUILD GO WITH AVA OVER MAINGEAR...

AVA are SUPPOSED to be the professionals..Thats why I paid them to make me a nice computer... AND THEY went over my build at the time of sale and NEVER once expressed a concern about the quality or compatibility of the parts and I SPECIFICALLY said I wanted them to check the build for those kinds of issues SINCE THATS THEIR BUSINESS NOT MINE OR I WOULD BUILD MYSELF.....

AVA would have you believea t the end of the day they dont have any responsibility for bad parts and to that I call bullshit... .They have every obligation to deal with that since they sell the parts and CLAIM TO WARRANT THEM ALTHOUGH YOU CAN DEBATE THEY SUPPORT ANYTHING......

I really hope a couple of you rabid AVA fanboys end up in the same place I am so I can point and laugh... To me that would make my day to see you realize how shitty AVA really is.

Wish I had never even heard of AVA from here. Its been a very costly lesson in never buying something expensive that you cant walk over to the seller and have a face to face with if something goes wrong.
 
The thing that astounded me most was they didn't use the q connector on the board something I figured out just by reading the manual. The sata cables a blind man with no vision at all could of felt them with his fingers and known -they will never stay in or go in flush-

I have a friend in canada that bought a dell earlier this year not one problem but hes so afraid of breaking it he hasn't opened the case since he got it. If he had gotten his pc in the state mine was in after this RMA he would of snapped and smashed it to bits. If I weren't somewhat versed in how to repair it this pc would be back in ohio still on a second RMA the day after getting it back from its first RMA or beat to scrap in my driveway.
 
You know for all the hate dell gets around alot of places and the personal aversion I have to them I do have to admit they can get a computer right... My mother and father both own a dell my dads is a desktop and my moms is a laptop...

My dads desktop is at least 3 years old now and its still running strong with nary a hiccup. I havent even had to reformat and reinstall on it.. Dad just hasnt been able to hose the os on it... Maybe hes just gotten better at computing.... Either way its been a flawless machine.....

My moms personal not job laptop craped out on a friday night.... Come tuesday a tech was at her job fixing computer... When it was determined to need more parts dell overnighted them and tech was back at my moms job on weds... Computers been flawless since....

Pretty sure I will get ridiculed but my next machine just might be a dell... At least they stand behind their work and CAN diganose and fix a computer properly the FIRST TIME... I dont blame the tech that didnt get all parts... He KNEW how to fix and got it done in less than 24 hours from his inital contact....
 
Kodan, you wouldn't consider a Maingear? Personally, I would look at them before Dell....
Not they I hate Dell or anything. I think they have given up on all the proprietary parts in their gaming PCs, which is a step in the right direction....

I have an old Dell P3 from 1999.... still chugging along quite nicely. But I still don't think I would buy a gaming PC from them....
 
Didnt say I wouldnt consider a Maingear. I wish I had went with Maingear originally... I was tryin to save some money though... When dealing with making something you can have quick, high quality or cheap but you can only pick two.... Well AVA is cheap and fast and sadly left the quality out of the equation. After getting burned by one company halfway across the country I am a little gun shy about buying another mulit thousand dollar computer like that.

At least from what I have seen Dell can at least perform solid warranty work AND they put togehter pretty stable machines. And if I absolutely had to Dell is based in Roundrock/Austin which is 4 hours from me... So worst case I could fairly easily make a day of it to take it in directly to a Dell facility. Kinda hard to do that from Texas for either Maingear of AVAdirect.
 
So whats the word schneider? Whats being done about your paper weig...I mean, rig, now?

And for the original OP, who did you end up going with? Maingear or someone else entirely?
Let us know what you got! :D
 
Well after 6 pages thought it would be time to post again!

I sadly haven't bought my PC yet. I was full throttle for AVAdirect until this post and the problems that arose. Though I know that faulty machines occur rarely, I can't afford to put my money on the line to have a faulty machine get sent back every month or so. So I am currently still deciding on who to put my trust in..

Im still looking at AVA but again, im not sure.

Maingear holds up solid, but its unfortunate they do not offer DDR3 in the 3000$ range builds.But again, they seem to hold up to their word of building a great machine

And finally I've been looking at Digital Storm lately. They're reviews have mostly all been good, and they do offer alot of customization, but Im afarid to order a computer that I have to ship cross country. I currently live in Philly and they are located in Cally, so I can only imagine the shipping costs if I had to get it fixed up and hope to get it back in a month's time.

So hopefully I'll pick soon, and let you guys know of the outcome...
 
I would deffinately say either Maingear or Digital Storm but you should have gathered that already... Have you considered looking for someone local or even buying something from say Best Buy or a place like that? Sure you might not get a totally custom computer but you can add parts to a machine AND that gives you some place local to go and bitch if something does go wrong.

I thought I would be slick with this system and get something I could brag about rather than buying the work horse powerspec brand comps I had previously. I was tired of buying a comp and dropping another grand on assorted upgrades before I could even get the computer home. Let me tell you I would have come out ahead though if I had done just that. Instead I get to brag about how woefully incompetent the buffoons are over at AVAdirect....
 
Alkasier said:
Im still looking at AVA but again, im not sure.

...
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What I would suggest is to contact the 2 or 3 companies that you are considering....and get your feel for them.
I did this when I recently bought my PC....I was considering the same 3 that you are considering.
I had read all the different reviews took the good and the bad with the grain of salt.
Because when people are happy they boast and then there are some that don't even bother to post that you have to consider also but the complaints you almost always see. Typically when there is a complaint people get vocal (which is good until they just don't let it go 3 years later and you wonder what is the point)...**not meaning this to anyone in particular just what I have noticed when reading reviews on forums in general**)

So I read reviews made my opinions had them in the back of my head....and then contacted the 3 companies...1 company never replied back to me so I threw them out right away because I didn't want to deal with tech support that wouldn't respond if they wouldn't respond to a presales question.

The company that went the farthest for me as far as helping was AVAdirect (I know that they have had some bad reviews but ...I have also read that they have changed some employees and did a lot of overhauling to improve things and overall their reviews are still great.) I know that to the people who are having problems it is a huge deal...and I feel for them...but you have to also look at the big picture of all the other good reviews as well.
I am sure there is not one PC boutique on the net that there is not some dis-satisfied customers (all businesses have them it is just the reality)

I think in the end you have to feel comfy with the people who are building your PC and not everyone feels comfy with the same people (it would be like everyone wearing the same shirt ....not everyone is going to be comfy in a size 5 blue polo shirt) Also I would suggest a person to person phone call before the final purchase (I did this also ...well I was on skype while my best friend did it we were both buying the same PC so I just listened in and asked questions as I had them through him.)

I would make up a list of my questions that you want answered (do a quote for each company and e mail it to them asking your questions and asking for advice on the quote.)

In the end you have to be happy with your PC and you want the best PC that you can have built so make sure you are happy with the people building it and have a good relationship where you can contact them and ask a question if need be. If you are anything like me you will be talking to these people a lot so you want to make sure they are pleasant, helpful, and knowledgeable.
Good luck in deciding who to buy from and I hope your new PC is great!
 
Shawnasee said:
So whats the word schneider? Whats being done about your paper weig...I mean, rig, now?

And for the original OP, who did you end up going with? Maingear or someone else entirely?
Let us know what you got! :D
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Well I have it operational and it seems to be working. I reinstalled windows xp for now and got rid of vista 64 which I will reinstall on a different hard drive later. Its not freezing up now. Playing video files with ffdshow is smoother It was really choppy for some reason that has improved with the clean xp install. I will have send them back the broken dvd burner tomorrow. They have yet to refund my shipping costs I sent a copy of the ups slip last Saturday. I got my two new ide burners from newegg and installed them. The ribbon cable came with board sucks I should of ordered a round cable. I'll have see how it goes from here and if any more problems pop up.

And Alkasier if I had to rate this company after this experience I would say initial build quality B+, warranty and repair quality D-. Its taken me a lot of work to repair the mistakes they did to this pc and I'm not skilled at all I'm learning as I do it. I really think finding a local company to build a pc is the best option after all this. The guy I wanted to build me a pc from this local company I looked into before ava was slow as shit and that is why I went with ava. I should of had more patience and got it done by him. I would have a 20 minute drive to get it serviced instead of an $80 ups fee and I actually would want to watch it being assembled or repaired to ensure no screw ups happen.

One thing don't get a motherboard with sideways sata and ide sockets.They are a total pain in the ass to work with.
 
Dont be fooled by AVA's presell service and attitude it all changes drastically if you have an issue....

Being honest I would rate before sale service as A
build quality as a B- / C+
after sale RMA/tech as a F / INC
They are GREAT though if you dont have an issue but then its god help you getting it fixed.... As far as not letting things go now after a long time I figure I owe them another couple grand worth of bad press/ or a few more people not buying a machine after reading my posts... Once I feel like I had $4200 in entertainment at their expense I will probably quit harassing them... And unless Misha isnt CEO anymore all the other personel changes in the world wont matter for AVAdirect....
 
kodan said:
I would deffinately say either Maingear or Digital Storm but you should have gathered that already... Have you considered looking for someone local or even buying something from say Best Buy or a place like that? Sure you might not get a totally custom computer but you can add parts to a machine AND that gives you some place local to go and bitch if something does go wrong.

I thought I would be slick with this system and get something I could brag about rather than buying the work horse powerspec brand comps I had previously. I was tired of buying a comp and dropping another grand on assorted upgrades before I could even get the computer home. Let me tell you I would have come out ahead though if I had done just that. Instead I get to brag about how woefully incompetent the buffoons are over at AVAdirect....
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I'm looking to have a PC built for my dad and my search on this forum for "Digital Storm" brought up the following:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1140147&highlight=digital+storm

The thread starts in 2007 but revives back in 2008. Based on reading and reading and reading it seems Maingear is really the only vendor left on my list after deciding Dell just doesn't provide enough customization for the price.

::edit::

Forgot about Puget. They are $300-$500 more expensive based on the comparative builds I've put together. Then again they're not thousands of miles away from me like Maingear.
 
kodan said:
Dont be fooled by AVA's presell service and attitude it all changes drastically if you have an issue....

Being honest I would rate before sale service as A
build quality as a B- / C+
after sale RMA/tech as a F / INC
They are GREAT though if you dont have an issue but then its god help you getting it fixed.... As far as not letting things go now after a long time I figure I owe them another couple grand worth of bad press/ or a few more people not buying a machine after reading my posts... Once I feel like I had $4200 in entertainment at their expense I will probably quit harassing them... And unless Misha isnt CEO anymore all the other personel changes in the world wont matter for AVAdirect....
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I think you already have had $4200 in entertainment by persuading at least 4 people to not buy a computer from AVA.
 
Misfate said:
I think you already have had $4200 in entertainment by persuading at least 4 people to not buy a computer from AVA.
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I'd like to think people here are smart enough to do real research to choose,and not go by one opinion.Regardless of how many times it's rehashed and reposted,it still only equals one opinion.
 
Let me say I feel bad for anyone who had a bad experience with something they ordered. If I paid 4200 for a system from AVA Direct or any other company and it had issues right away. I would write down the issues I noticed and not tinker with it at all and send it back again and again til it fixed. For that much money I wouldn't give up that fast. Yes I would be upset if it happened to me but, I don't see how name calling back and forth can solve anything. I've had issues with my Bank Dell and it sucked but, it was resolved eventually. Name one company that LOVES problems welcome to the real world it stinks but, it is what it is. If I was good at building my own systems I would do it myself but, I can't so I will go with AVA Direct who I have researched for a long time.

I will use overnight shipping that will cost alot but, figure less chance of damage vs cheaper shipping like ground.

Did you ever consider a better known proven brand like Gigabyte esp having issues over and over? Not ragging on anyone just asking?
 
Found another problem now. I'm getting 3fps sometimes in world of warcraft. I do mean 3fps. I've never seen it drop below 60 before with the old board.
 
Ok I lied. I'm falling back to AVA and Puget. Maingear just doesn't have as many options in the RAM and hard drive areas. I just wish Puget wasn't so $$$.
 
schneider said:
Found another problem now. I'm getting 3fps sometimes in world of warcraft. I do mean 3fps. I've never seen it drop below 60 before with the old board.
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this thread is making everyone think more and more that you're just breaking your own computer...I'm sure you actually are having problems with your PC, but you pick the most random crap and complain.
 
SouLXIV said:
this thread is making everyone think more and more that you're just breaking your own computer...I'm sure you actually are having problems with your PC, but you pick the most random crap and complain.
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It sure seems that way,how can anyone tell where the problem lies now with all the fiddling around he's done?I thought he was talking about a barebones at first.It doesn't help his case when he makes the statement " I'm not skilled at all I'm learning as I do it".
 
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