"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!

"

"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.

"

"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.
"

"I was looking for a Shuttle Computer to do a specific job, and needed a supplier who could help me with the spec and then build the system. A quick phone call to AVADirect confirmed the base model and the configuration tool on their web did the rest. I placed the order, arranged payment by credit card and was given a delivery date. The system arrived on time and as specified. It's a pleasure to deal with a company that keeps it's promises.

A couple of other points:

1. I considered doing the build myself, but the price for the assembled system and tested system was about the the same as my component costs would have been.

2. I was impressed by the quality of the build. I ordered a system without an OS. As part of the build, they did a very compact and clean temporary OS install to check the hardware. This allowed me to verify hardware function before easily reconfiguring for my own needs.

In my experience, it is rare to find a company that delivers what they promise without drama. I will use AVADirect again for my next build."

"Five stars, but not without minor issues, all which were fixed. I purchased a new custom desktop computer. Excellent selection and advice for building your own computer. Almost too much to choose from, but the staff provided great help in areas I didn't know enough about to make an educated choice on my own. I am very happy with the final choices I made.

Note that when they build to order, it'll take one to two weeks before they ship it.

I thought about buying the parts seperately and building it myself (which I've done for my past few desktops), but I wasn't going to save much money, would have to spend the time building it (which I have less of now a days), and not have any of the support and warantee AVA Direct gives.

I encountered minor three hiccups:
1) They did not receive my fax approving my credit card charge, so I had to resend it a few days later. Not sure what happened there, as the fax records show it went through and was received fine to the same phone number.
2) Was charged an extra $10 for an item they added and then removed. It was a bracket they added after I ordered because they thought I needed it, but I pointed out I already ordered a bracket as part of the SSD (solid state drive) kit, so it was quickly removed.
3) When I finally recieved the computer, it did not include that same bracket (we both were wrong and I didn't need it). The SSD with bracket (which I paid for) cost five cents under $5 more than the SSD without the bracket (which I ended up with).

Customer support was very responsive. For the first two, taken care of within a few days after ordering, they offered a couple free games. Then when I noticed the last issue when I got my computer weeks later, they refunded $20, which is more than the ~$15 costs of the two brackets (and less than 1% of my total order). It took a while emailing back and forth, but much better support than other locations I've ordered from in the past. I received the total refund and the two games."