"Ordered "Awesome 3500" on 10/12/03 and recieved on 10/22/03. So far it's been a great computer. I had it up and running in no time. A much better experince than the "Dell" it's replacing- (problems from the start with bad support from Dell only making it much worse). Nice touch with all the software in a folder."

"Site was useful, easy to use, and organized. Order arrived about 1.5 weeks after ordering it. Ordered two memory sticks. Product wrapped in bubble wrap and boxed. Then was placed in FedEx container with packing peanuts. Satisfied with shipping methods. Products arrived undamaged. Still using the memory sticks to this date."

"I purchased the Ultimate M5. $1497. I ordered 9/26. The order was for money order, which when I chose it, a popup said COD money order. I was told on 10/2, when I called after not getting any responses in email, they no longer took COD. The site STILL says COD for money order option, not to mention it does not say who to make the MO payable to. I wasted a week without them doing a thing, because of this. I did get an email from alexramirez on 9/26 after I emailed attachment of money order. He mentioned nothing of COD problem or who to make payable to. He was responding to a change I requested in the memo. The change was for Blue cold light. He had no reason to ask unless he had received the email confirming purchase of money order. I ordered before and I never got contacted about that order (I later cancelled that one for this one). I was asked in the email if I was sure I wanted the blue light, so I replied that I indeed did want it. Never got a response, and I asked again in that same email about MO "pay to the order of." So on 9/30, I emailed customercare. No response either. So on 10/2 I called. A guy, I think Mike, told me that COD was no longer accepted. He also told me the Blue light was in the order. I also asked to change the LED fans to purple and asked how much that would be. He said it was acceptable and that it would cost the same. He also told me to make MO payable to ABS Computer Technologies. So I emailed sales, customercare, and webmaster (all @abspc.com) about the COD thing. No response and STILL COD is listed when you choose MO/Cashier's Check for payment. I mailed my money orders 10/3, a WEEK after I purchased them. The service was fast after they received my MO, I'm assuming 10/7. The system was sent 10/13 and the speakers were sent 10/14. I received them 10/16-17. So, the 18th I turn on the system for the first time. GREEN LIGHT!!!! I was horrified by the green light! But oh well, it's not like I was told the lighting would be changed (I obviously WAS told over the phone and in email that changes would be acceptable). So what gives? I had to attach the power to the NEC drive. When I looked through all items, I noticed the extras for the ATI Radeon 9500 were not included. All I got was the disc and one SVideo cable (the pics on site showed more). I noticed no discs for Microsoft Wireless Desktop (not installed, either) or NVDVD 2.0 (installed). I got Easy Cd 6 (the site shows 5) with the NEC DVD/RW drive (no prob, but the site should be updated). With the Logitech 640 speaker, I don't hear center channel or the rear comes thru the front 3 speakers. The video card may be causing an artifact at 1024x768 @32bpp 85Hz. A thin diagonal line shows up at bottom of screen. Doesn't happen on my other system which uses GeForce MX 420. I have not contacted ABS since I received the system 4 days ago. I hopefully will tomorrow (obviously by phone). Their hours are bad, and they rarely if ever email. My experience has been not so good with ABS so far. Other than that, the computer is very good."

"I've looked around and this same system would have cost nearly twice as much from the usual manufacturers. And the quality of it so far is perfect. Everything works wonderfully and is setup efficiently too. Plus, the customer service was outstanding in helping me with the questions I had. I'd definitely use this site again. "

" This is the first part of my review, please note I just placed the order today.

PART 1:

THE ORDERING

I have been researching a high emd system for the last 3 weeks. For my price range...2650.00, I had narrowed it down to a few vendors: Ibuypower.com, Cyberpowerinc.com, Monarch Computers and Vicious computers. Scrapped Vicious and Cyberpower due to reviews on this page.
Monarch was very, very, helpful and service was great. Ibuypower was the same.
BUT ALEX from ABS was the best. He took time to answer my questions on-line, and then called me to work everything out. The pricing was right in, a little higher, but nothing compared to the peace of mind I have after reading all the reviews.

PART 1.2

I have since called back twice, each time to change my video card, and then switch it back. Mike, at ABS, has been very understanding, and super helpful. These guys bend over backwards to get you the system you want.

PART 2

THE BUILDING AND SHIPPING...CONT

It took them all of 6 days to build and burn in my system. During that time I did change the video card twice, with no problems.
They issued me two tracking numbers for the computer and the monitor. The computer came on the 29th, and the monitor on the 30th. The boxes held up very well in shipping, and inside they were packed great.
Opened everything, great packaging. The binder with all the manuals, and software was a very professional touch.

PART 3
THE SET UP!

Now, I am not a computer guru, but I can atleast set things up. The system was up and running in 20 mins, would have been faster, but I was trying to be quiet, have a sleeping 7th month old close by.
Crossed my fingers, and hit the power button...vroooooom, fans fired up, and "There she booted!" No problems right out of the box.
Loaded a couple games, and man the system screams. No junk software on it like Dell does.

The basic system:
AMD FX64
1 Gig of High Speed Corsair Ram
2 Seagate 120 meg hard drives, with 8 meg caches
Radeon 8700 XT with 256k of ram
19 inch Sony Monitor
SB 5.1 sound on board

Man this system flies.


John Barry
"

"I've got to say, so far, I'm thoroughly impressed. I priced similarly componented PC's at as many vendors as I could find including Cyberpower, NuTrend, Gateway, and Dell, amongst others. ABS was the best price by far in most cases, and in the closest case it was still over $300 less without the monitor, but including a better video card and more memory than most other offers. I have not yet received the PC, but am fully confident that it will outperform my expectations and will last well beyond the 3 year life I estimated for the other PCs I looked at. Based on price and customer service alone, I will recommend ABS to everyone I know when they're looking for their next PC."

"I am completely satisfied with the bare bones unit that I ordered. my son-in-law purchased a system from ABS because of my satisfaction and the overall quality of my system. He uses his to run Linux and Oracle at home and in connection with his workstation at the office. Quality components are carefull and neatly assembled. packaging for shipment was excellent."

"First of all I would like to say that I was a very wishy-washy customer. I canceled two orders, uncanceled one, then recanceled before finally settling on my third order. It was all handled smoothly with no hassle and no attitude.

ABS computers are basically computers you would build yourself without the hassle. Also you get a computer without all the fat of a Gateway, Dell, HP meaning upgrades and manipulating will be much easier. I ordered the Awesome 3500 with free shipping and I recieved the computer in 14 days. Would have been quicker if I hadn't been canceling previous orders. Business has been good for me so I splurged a bit on my order but even with my splurging I saved a minimum of $700 with comparable Dell and Gateway configurations.

The choice of parts is top notch and very respected amongst computer enthusiasts I found during my research. Everything worked perfectly out the box with only needed software preinstalled. The case is really cool but rather large which may be a pro or con depending on the room you have, personally I like it.

Conclusion:
Pros - Quality components to chose from, fast & free shipping, cool case, good customer service (at least while ordering)

Cons - ABS charges your credit card before shipping, large case may be con for some, somewhat noisy: system can sound like a freight train in a quiet house."

"Can't remember the exact date of purchase.

I bought the ABS Awesome 3240 Computer shortly before coming to college. I upgraded the speakers to the Logitech Z560, monitor to the Samsung 955df, and bought the Leadtek TV2000XP. I have been very satisfied with this computer except for a few things. I have been less than impressed with the time I have spent waiting on tech support. Some days it is very short waiting time and others it is outrageous. THe ram on the original ATI 9500 Pro was bad and had to rma the part back and exchange it. The remote for the tv tuner has quit working and I contacted abs. THey told me to contact leadtek which I have done. I have emailed, faxed, and called leadtek with very little response. On the whole this computer is super for the money.

2/1/04 I have stay say that right now I am seriously wondering if I will ever buy another computer from ABS. THe logitech z560 speakers have gone south now. They snap crackle and pop quite periodicly especially when they are first turned on. These speakers have never been played very loud or anything. I would not mind to exchange the part by RMA but the shipping will be exhorbitant I know. I find it very dissatifactory that this is the third time I will have to pay shipping to fix a problem on a computer. ABS needs to step up to the plate and accept the cost of a defective part. This is the 3rd computer part on this computer that has went bad and I am very concerned with the build quality incorporated into these computers.

Update 2/22/04 ABS has really been very good with replacing the speakers. THey have quit carrying the Logitech Z560 speakers but they replaced them with the Logitech Z680s! I have had the new speakers running for 3 days now and have been extremely satisfied. ABS has also taken care of the shipping. I just had to fax them a copy of the receipts to ship it. I will find out at the end of this month whether they have credited it back yet or not."

"Ordered an ABS gaming system, the Ultimate M5. What a fantastic system! I've built several PCs in the past and I only chose ABS because they used ALL brand name parts in their systems and they offered a good warranty. Gateway, Dell, HP/Compaq have good warranties also but the use only OEM and proprietary parts. I really appreciate the care ABS took in building my system. Cable management is top of the line. All hardware drivers were the newest available. All documentation was in this neat yellow binder with color coded ziplock folders bags for each component. Very professional process from start to finish. I'd recommend ABS to any user whether they be a gamer, business or home user.
Thanks ABS for being that "breath of fresh air" in the online PC building business. "

"Bought for a son. he was slow to get back with input"

"ABS is an excellent company. I got a great price on a high end PC that arrivedabout a week after my order. This computer was stolen, and I decided to replace it with a PC from Velocity Micro. The Velocity PC arrived late and without any drivers, which I spent hours downloading. ABS rocks."

"Is there a tech support???
After waiting on the line for 1 hour and 40 minute I had to leave for an appointment. This is not the firsttime there was such a delay. I have never spoken to anyone in person. I have tried an online chat session. This is a new computer. Even Gateway has better support. They is no one there on weekends or at night.
Strictly business hours.
This very disturbing.
Please become more sensitive to your customers needs!!!"

"I'm very satisfied with this purchase. I've had no problems with it. I have recommended ABS to my friends."

"Worked perfectly out of box. Software not loaded, but no big deal. Box has 5, count-em 5, cooling fans!
I'd buy another."