"I first purchased my notebook on 12 April 2012. I designed a Clevo P270WM and was quoted a 1 month build since I also ordered a custom paint. Joe at AVA direct was extremely helpful in choosing a computer that is right for my various needs. I have been in the Army for 9 years, but also work part time in 3D graphics. I plan to go into the field full time after this last contract is up. I also game on X-box 360 and PS3 emulators (I buy the games a burn them to hard drives and play them on my computer). I need a killer machine with a powerful GPU, lots of RAM, and huge hard drives. Well, for those of you who don't know, the Clevo P270WM was recalled around 7 May due to frequent motherboard issues. NOT AVADIRECT's fault!! I then had to either wait at least 6 months or change my order. I changed it to the Clevo P170EM and a VG 236H monitor (3D capable). The price difference was about $800, which AVA direct REFUSED to refund me. I then looked into canceling my order. I was told that because I had custom painted parts that there was a 20% cancellation fee (over $1,100). THIS IS AVADIRECT's fault!! Because it was cheaper just to overpay I decided to proceed with my order. I was again quoted an approximate 1 month build time. I then waited from 9 May to 6 June to call to see how the build was going. I was told that all the parts were in and it was being built and would ship early the next week. Satisfied, I then waited again....and waited.....and waited until 26 June when I called them again. I was told that they were mistaken last time and that the GPU hadn't come in when I made my previous call, but that it had recently arrived and my notebook should ship no later than 2 July. They were only one day off as it shipped at 5 P.M. yesterday (3 July). My Notebook should arrive on 9 July, just shy of 3 months after my initial order and a full two months after my order change.
Overall Positive experiences:
1. AVADirect offers a huge variety of options for custom computing needs at prices that no other reseller I found can match. In some cases it is actually cheaper to order from them than it is to buy parts and build it yourself.
2. The customer service is great. I never once felt like I was being talked down to even though they are pros and I'm a novice. Joe even gave me pointers with a software issue on my current HP that I DID NOT buy from AVA Direct
Overall Negative Experiences:
1.Communication / wait: I know that they are busy, but I also know that Joe has help because he isn't the only person I talked to. I found out that AVA has had difficulties with the 7970M I ordered in my second notebook. I didn't find this out through AVADirect, but through a third party. It would have been nice to know the reason for the long time on the second build. Maybe they could have sub steps in the "Processing" status such as waiting for parts, assembling parts, bench testing, etc.
2. Inflexible Policies: For me I am talking about their fees for cancellations or for refunds. At the time AVA direct had over $5,600 of my money with nothing invested on their end. I don't understand why they couldn't give me the partial refund when I had to change my order to a cheaper machine.
3. No military discounts and no shipping to APO addresses. A military discount is nice, but I can understand if they can't afford it since they do have low prices anyway. What I don't understand is why they can't ship to at least some APO addresses. For those of you who don't know, the postal service recently put a ban on all electronics containing batteries going to Middle East addresses (APO, AE) This includes laptops, walkman's, IPods, watches, and anything else that contains any type of battery regardless of size. I don't know why they did it, they just did. AVA Direct still can ship to military addresses in Europe (APO, AU) or Asia (APO, AP), but they don't and I don't understand why.
I will update once my notebook arrives and I have used it a bit.

It is now 6 July 12 and I have my Notebook. It works great, but there are two problems. First, the 3d vision kit that Joe prescribed does NOT work with my GPU. I have to return my monitor and get one that works with an ATI Radeon 7970M GPU. Second, the computer did not get the custom paint job that I paid for. I now have no clue why the build took 2 months since AVADirect didn't do the step that they claimed was taking the longest! I will post again and give an update regarding the resolution to these problems. BTW, Let's add lack of after hours customer service as another improve.

31 July 12 Okay, I've been meaning to update this since I got my new monitor around 24 July. The returns / exchange process is amicable. AVADirect paid for shipping both ways and substituted the non-compatible monitor for one that was compatible with HD3D. The listing price is about $50 diferent in AVA Direct's favor, but all the specifications are the same and the product has favorable reviews so I don't mind. That being said, nothing has been done about the lack of custom paint job. I was told that it was written out because of the difference in price from my original bid and my second bid because my second bid was supposedly more expensive.(Clevo P270WM to Clevo P170EM with 3D capable monitor) As I mentioned earlier, the actual difference in sticker price when i went back and built the system with the specs on my updated receipt(according to the AVADirect website) was approximately $800 in AVA Direct's favor. Without the custom paint job it goes to $1,150 in AVA Direct's favor. Either way, I didn't get the paint job I requested, I overpaid, and it took 3 1/2 months to complete this transaction.

3 Sep 2012

I talked with Joseph Mundy at length on 7 August and it became apparent that AVA Direct really does care about providing a good experience to it's customers. He provided me with a few things that definitely improved my experience with the company. He was extremely receptive to feedback and sudgestions that I had (especially with the order tracking process). I also found his demeanor over the phone to be polite and respectful as always."

"Absolutely the best laptop I've ever owned. My request was small enough: after causing myself considerable damage carrying around my 18" Qosmio to work every night, I wanted something much smaller and lighter (about the size of a netbook) but which could handle running a game like Minecraft. I tried Samsung's Chromebook and a few other options, and liked the size (about 11") but none of them could handle even the meager requirements of Minecraft. I tried talking to a couple of custom shops, but nothing could be done. Then a Google search turned up AVADirect, and I'm ecstatic to say that not only did I get a super-light-and-portable laptop (about 11"), and not only can it handle Minecraft, but for only a $1000 price tag, it can even handle Arkham City without much trouble. Initially had some problems trying to get my Batarang wired-USB joystick working, as it may have wanted to use just too much power from the USB port, but other Xbox-style USB controllers work just fine. Absolutely no complaints, although some of the pre-installed software had to be removed (the HotKey app kept interrupting typing whenever I'd hit Caps Lock) or edited (the Synaptics touchpad app doesn't seem to have the "disable when other pointing device is plugged in" option that my Qosmio version's does). "

"Awesome selection of parts. Great staff! Joe Mundy is a fantastic person to deal with. It's also good to see that the staff is active in their forums answering questions and providing feedback. PC build wise is top notch. Everything is accounted for and configured. Wire management is phenomenal. Packaging is great but shipping time could be improved. All in all I would definitely purchase from them again."

"Uneasy, skeptical; just a few words I could use to describe my initial feelings when I pushed the order button for my new gaming laptop from AVA Direct. Being a Dell customer for a long time (Far too long) I was incredibly uneasy going with a small company, wondering if my decision of moving away from the Dell juggernaut was actually a good idea; but I am a week in so far with my new powerhouse and it is a solid, stable build. I purchased a P170EM with a 7970M from AVA Direct and was treated very well by the staff despite a number of issues that were not AVA Directs fault (And I cannot stress that enough)

First issue I had was an issue with my credit card, I made the mistake of buying a slice of pizza with my card while on a business trip and my card was locked because I was several hundred miles from my home state when I bought lunch, needless to say when I tried to put nearly 3 grand on the card visa went on red alert. No more than 12 hours after placing the order I get a message from AVA that my card was denied. After I figured out what was amiss I notified the billing staff, after I hung up the phone and checked to make sure my pool filter was working, 10 minutes later I walked back to check the order status. The order was accepted and a message from the billing staff was also up confirming everything was fine. This situation could have been a nightmare but it was very easy to amend.

The next issue was with the 7970M. Any mobile enthusiasts are probably already laughing because they now what happened, but for the rest of you here's what happened. I ordered on may 11 after the credit card issue I was good to go a few days after that, but here's the kicker; there was an issue with the cards, bad voltage regulators or something like that I can't remember. But the original cards that were meant to be used had a high failure rate and I had to wait for "good" cards to ship after the problem was ironed out. Needless to say I had to wait for my order to ship for a little over a month, not AVA Directs fault, mostly just bad luck. BTW I likely could have switched to an available gpu like the 675m, but this card is about twice as powerful so I really wanted to wait.

My next issue is a rant at AMD. Firstly, the initial drivers for my 7970m were not very good (two BSODs playing Crysis 2). Being that the card is new I'm sure the installed drivers from AVA were the only available. Using the 12.7 beta drivers now and all my issues have been resolved. My next issue is with Enduro, an AMD technology for powersaving that swaps back and forth between my card and the processor's graphics. This was a nightmare to get my head around, but after I figured out he control center I'm fine with it for now.

Unfortunately for the AVA staff Enduro caused the only mistake I was able to come across. AVA does benchmarking; furmark, unigine heaven, etc. and saves the results to the computer. (Which is AWESOME) Unfortunately the darned enduro kicked on they accidently benchmarked (Whoops!) with the integrated graphics and saved it to my computer. The results really had me worried until I figured out the Enduro issue and did my own benchmarks more than doubling my results.

Moving away from the computer itself I'll rate the awesome staff! My experience with their staff was great. They answered all of my questions and will help you IF YOU ASK for it. The worst thing you can do is rate AVA's merit on them calling or sending you messages. They will notify you if something serious arises, but for the most part will not communicate with you unless something is amiss. If you have a problem or are having an issue with the wait; call them, message them for help don't assume they are psychic and know you are looking at the order status every 20 minutes due to massive impatient tendencies. (Ideally you will not wait 3 weeks but it can happen.) They will feel bad that you are waiting forever for your new computer, I promise; but somethings are out of their control. And know I will feel bad too, feel bad that you have nothing better to do with your time but wait.

So concluding my experience with AVA Direct I am very satisfied so far. The computer works great, despite my exposure to newer techs that were initially annoying. The staff was helpful and will help you too so long as you ask for it (It's their job to help you, the fear of starting a dialogue isn't logical). I will update this if something goes wrong and I end up needing to get repairs done. Based of my experience so far I would recommend this company for your next purchase. Give them a try, their customization options for your new rig will be nearly impossible to match!

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"I could not have picked a better company to build my HTPC. The price was very reasonable considering the labor and bench testing they did. Works very well and I could not be happier. "

"I was extremely pleased by AVADirect Custome Computers. They provided a great product in a timely manner with professional service."

"Wow! 4 years after I bought my laptop from them, I contact AVADirect to for assistance regarding a replacement part for the very same laptop. (LCD bracket snapped, common problem when laptops get old) While they didn't have the part in stock anymore, Joe was able to point me to someone who could. Such service, 4 years down the road! I have 2 laptops from them, an MSI and Compal, 4 and 3 years old (respectively) that are still going strong, would buy from again."

"I was extremely pleased with AVA Direct. They give the most customization options for your computer out of all the other laptop builders I looked through, and they don't nickle and dime on the small stuff like other builders (I even got my leftover thermal paste!) Customer service was good, and kept me in the loop when the case for my original order got recalled.

I will buy my next laptop through them."

"I am very pleased with the laptop I purchased from AVADirect. It is the perfect option as I migrate away from Apple products, of which I have been a loyal fan for the past 10 years. Custom builds all the way, go AVA!!"

"Really good experience with AVADirect, and I will recommend (already have) this company to friends and family.

PROS:
Great pricing and build options
Excellent and prompt customer service (thanks Joe!)
Exceptional Build quality (from cable management to burn-in testing...)
Great warranty options

CONS:
Only 1 con and that is the time it took to get the system. If you choose AVA be prepared to wait a bit as they work on your rig. IMO, well worth the wait.

Overall: Great experience, pretty sure I've found my PC supplier from here on out!"

" I was skeptical to order a PC I was not building myself. But due to time constraints I took a chance. So I wanted to try one of the build your own machine sites. I use my PCs strictly for pro audio work and have not updated in 4 years.

Even though there is a long wait, it is well worth it because they take the time to test and configure things to ensure it is going to work. That is one less thing I have to do myself. So beware that it can be a while before you get your machine, but also be aware that it will come in "working" order.

They set up my special pro audio card exactly as I would have! Usually this takes a bit of tinkering but I was able to use it as it had been set up by AVA.

I would highly recommend them and I personally will go back to them in the future.

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"Thank you AVADirect for keeping me involved in all stages of the creation and customization of my order. You were very easy to work with, response to my E-mails, and shipped a product that I'm happily using every day."

"AVA Direct is awesome. True customization with all the latest technology at a discount. I saved many dollars on my last build and was one of the first in my area to have a new 3rd generation i7 processor machine. I believe they started production the day the processor was released to the public. The machine is super fast and performs better than expected. I have ordered several machines through AVA and always been happy with them. "

"Joe and the gang at AVAdirect took great care of me, and very patiently answered all my questions and catered to all my needs before I placed my order, and kept me up-to-date on my order every step of the way until after I received my new system. Highly recommended."

"Greetings! I purchased a GAMING PC, Core™ i5 / i7 Z77 2-way SLI® / CrossFireX™ Custom Gaming System, which I selected the following: INTEL, Core™ i7-3770K Quad-Core 3.5 - 3.9GHz TB, HD Graphics 4000, LGA1155, 8MB L3 Cache, 22nm, 77W, EM64T EIST HT VT-x XD; ASUS, Sabertooth Z77, LGA1155, Intel® Z77, DDR3-1866 32GB /4, PCIe x16 SLI CF /1+1*, SATA 6Gb/s RAID 5 /4, 3Gb/s /4, DP + HDMI, USB 3.0 /6, HDA, GbLAN, ATX (among other things). First thing I loaded "Dear Esther" in, just to see the graphics, everyone there commented about how vibrant the picture was. Just like you're actually walking it. There were certainly chin dropping moments and so I decided, lets try something harder. I went to "Fallout 3", which as anyone can tell you can be a bitter experience to get to run in the first place. Not only did it come up after a tweak, I can do 360's with the greatest of ease and am waiting for the beta of Secret World and Bioshock 3 to open to me. There's another computer some 15 feet away from mine which is a perfectly good machine. I can hear it over my build, it's that quiet. I'll admit I was nervous as a first time customer. Not any more. Over the weekend from the way it's loaded up and runs all my programs, I'm just delighted. Thanks for a great build.
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