Is this a good/stable system?

[tigerwolf8]

I just ordered a system from Falcon North-West, and I'm hoping this will be stable and compatible. Any comments?

Thunderbird Athlon 1000mhz
Asus KT-whatever board (Asus is best, right?)
64MB Geforce 2
256MB 133mhz CAS-2 7ns Crucial RAM
45GB IBM Deskstar ATA-100
16x Pioneer DVD-ROM
HP CD-RW (I think a 9300)

So should this be good/stable/compatible? I need to upgrade for Deus Ex

 

[Erasmus-X]

Sure, it will be very stable, but it's beyond me why you didn't want to build your own. Falcon Northwest, Alienware, and all of those other "custom gaming PC" outfits are ridiculously overpriced (even more so than Dell or Gateway). All I'm really saying is that you could have saved at least $800-1000 by doing it yourself.

 

[tigerwolf8]

Well that's okay. I don't have any current parts I can use (not even a spare keyboard or mouse anymore), so I want to just buy from a single place. I'm planing on upgrading it then in two/three years.

Just wondering if I'd have problems with it (or if anyone's had problems with Falcon). They seem to know what they're talking about, and it's a nice experience at least.

 

[Compuguru]

Anything from Falcon will be good and stable. Itll be fast as a mutha too.

 

[Sephiroth_IX]

Man, if you dont mind paying the extra cash, Falcon is the way to go. Think of it this way--they push all kinds of testing on their systems, and make them run them all for 3 days in a warm room.

Beat that for stabilitiy.

 

[veryape]

Falcon is the best place to buy a pre-fab pc if thats what your into. Personally,With the money you spent on that system I would have built 2 systems just like it and sold one to someone like yourself. They are outragiously expensive. You must be rich. Either that or your young and your parents spoil you. Either way,must be nice to have money. Have fun with that bad ass system.

 

[tigerwolf8]

Neither veryape. I've built a few systems before, but I don't have any place I'm comfortable buying from. Falcon's getting me exactly the parts I want. The KT Asus board, Thunderbird, Deskstar, etc.

I don't think the prices are THAT bad, really. They sell a Talon system for $1250 with a 650 Athlon, and a Geforce (probably SDR). It would run anything currently great.

Also, the prices are cheaper than they list on their web page. I'm getting a Thunderbird 1000mhz for about the price they list the regular Athlon 900 for.

Anyway, I appreciate the comments. Makes me feel a lot better with other people telling me they're a good company.

Of course, as soon as my system ships, I'm just sure the AMD 760 motherboards will be released And then I could wait for faster processors, and then the next Nvidia card, and then the Sledgehammer, etc., etc. I need a new system now for Deus Ex

 

[Vich]

www.gamepc.com is better than falcon northwest. With the custom generator you can pick everything from your mnotherboard to what company of memory to even the raid cards (and i cant forget the alpha coolers!)

They burn in 72 hours, give you benchmarks, install latest drivers optimize performance and its all in silicon valley so they get stuff cheap. Check it out quick, so you can cancell that northwest order.

 

[Vich]

I jsut built the exact same system tigerwolf8 from gamepc.com

and i even threw in 19" sony monitor and cambridge fps-2000 speakers, and a thermaltake cooler for that athlon, and a hugfe hard drive coolmaster. heatsink and bay cooler.

Date: 6/30/00
Time: 2:33:04 PM (EST)

AMD Athlon 1000MHz OEM CPU (requires fan) - $1075
Thermaltake AirCooler FC-PGA / PPGA Fan - $19
ASUS K7V KX133 - $175
GamePC Infineon PC133 256MB CAS2 SDRAM - 2 DIMMS - $358
IBM Deskstar 75GXP 45GB - $310
CoolerMaster 4002 CoolDrive Heat Sink and Bay Cooler - $30
TEAC 1.44MB Floppy Drive - $18
Pioneer 16X IDE DVD Tray Loading 40X CD - $190
HP CDWriter Plus 9300i 10x4x32 Internal EIDE - $295
Guillemot 3D Prophet II GTS 64MB OEM - $399
Sound Blaster Live! Value Digital - $62
Creative Labs FPS-2000 - $136
Addtronics 7896A Full-Tower with 300W Power Supply - $188
Keytronic Windows Keyboard - $21
Microsoft Intellimouse Optical - $55
GamePC RatPad - $12
Windows 98 Second Edition OEM - $99
Sony CPD-G400 19" - $700
Standard 1 Year Parts and 3 Years Labor Warranty with Recovery CD - $45
Assembly, Burn-in Tests, Benchmarks and Drivers by GamePC - $180

Total: $4367.00 (not including shipping, discounts or taxes)


Better than your system and cheaper!

And these guys specialize in hardcore gaming.

and if you dont feel comfortable making your own system you can get a pre made rig from them, 5 to be exact.

And if you do custom order your system you talk to them on phone to get the best setup so nothing will go wrong.

 

[tigerwolf8]

Well, that comes to about $200 less than I paid (when I subtract out the stuff I'm not getting), but I'm getting a Thunderbird Athlon, not an old one, so it's worth it to me. Otherwise the systems are about identically configured, so one's not really better than the other.

Thanks for the suggestion though. Hopefully I'll like Falcon, so I can finally have a place to recommend again.

 

[piku]

Falcon Northwest is an amazing company. This next part is taken from issue 104, July 1999, of Computer Games Magazine (awesome mag, cheap too).

"Falcon included a nice three-ring binder that includes printouts of all your current IRQ, DMA, and I/O Port usage, as well and other pertinent system information. It also includes the actual shipping checklist, build order, and QA checklist used by falcon when building the machine. The pages of this useful binder continue on with simple troubleshooting tips, useful phone numbers, and even a page to store your Internet service provider information."

Also this:

"Falcon doesn't have an automated phone system or help desk. Rather, tech support calls go directly to technicians. Also offered is a seervice calles Falcon Ovcernigh, which is basically insane: if there's a hardware problem that can't be solves by calling tech support, Falcon will pay to have the system shipped overnight back to them so they can repair and test it, and then overnight it back to you."

They are really expensive tho

 

[Vich]

tiger that is a t-bird they dont mark it.
btw what monitor you get? and cooling?

 

[Lance]

I've recently been exchanging emails with Bill Jeffers from OutsideLoop.com.

Looks like they build fine systems (and sell parts) for a heck of a lot cheaper than Falcon. He flat-out told me that he doesn't have stuff like the 64MB GTS in stock, but can get it pretty cheap (well... cheap for a GeForce2 ).

They don't have a fancy menu like Alienware or GamePC, but if I was ordering something that costs as much as a used truck, I'd rather speak on phone or through email, like Bill does.

BTW - Check out the "Afterburner" on their site.

 

[Prodigy^]

I REALLY wouldn't get any 1000 MHz CPU right now. Go with a 900 MHz, the difference in speed with be SO small, but you'll save a LOT of money. Something in the area of $400 saved for a measly 10% slower CPU. Go buy a scanner, a webcam, a good mouse, and two-three games for the money you save

 

[Lance]

Definitely. NEVER buy a company's flagship item unless you've just won the lotto, or a rich relative has died.