need recommendation for vendors other than endpcnoise.com

[wr3zzz]

I have been building my own rigs since the late 80s but now no longer have the luxury of burning approximately 12-15 hours putting together my own system. I like the spec for the high end HTPC machines in endpcnoise.com but the markup seems very high relative to components. By my calculation, the system I want, which costs ~$2600 can be built for about $2000 on my own (and I will have to pay retail for the parts vs. their whole sale costs). Are there other decent vendors out there can put together systems like endpcnoise.com with better pricing? Or should I get a Dell XPS, with same spec it runs me $2200 excluding shipping and taxes. Don't know if it's quiet and the XPS will look terrible in the living room.

Many in the forum suggest using a local custom shop if one does not feel like putting together a system. However, most custom shops in NYC fall into two groups: liars/cheaters or the honest shops let me bring my own parts but that is almost as time/energy consuming as building my own rig as I have no car.

any help is appreciated, thanks a lot.

[Chris Chan]

Don't go with a Dell XPS. They are ugly as sin and besides that, use proprietary everything. Try polywell.com - they are pretty good from what I've heard. And they build to order. .

Edit: oops, forgot to correct a mistake my handwriting software made.

[fri2219]

Puget Custom Computers has an excellent reputation, has a wide variety of offerings, and uses decent components. They're not cheap, but they do a good job with silent builds.

[daremo]

I totally understand the need to keep personal expenditures down, but I would reconsider what you have said -

...$2600 can be built for about $2000 on my own...

so you're saying it's a difference of $600 and on your own time would take

...approximately 12-15 hours

That's $40 -$50 per hour from the vendor for what we might assume is at least experienced labor and presumably minimal testing. (I've only bought a few parts from endpcnoise but they seem pretty reputable). For that, I'm not sure the markup is way outrageous. Especially to get a unique machine like we silent/quiet pc'ers want. just something to ponder.

Puget, as mentioned, seems very good - I signed up for their newsletter a couple of years ago. But their prices are more than I can do.

[wr3zzz]

Thanks for the replies.

1. I have looked into Puget but their prices are almost the same as Endpcnoise but in Endpcnoise I get every part I wanted.

2. The 12-15 hours is my time. If I have all the tools and no need to order and wait for different parts, I should be able to put together the system in 3-5 hours with testing. I don't have a problem paying for the service but $100-120 per-hour is really steep. This makes building my own rig more cost-effective, but not appealing from a time-management perspective.

If Endpcnoise charges $2300 instead of $2600, this would be a no-brainer.