"AVADirect is definitely the best computer seller I have ever dealt with. In a market increasingly concerned with cutting corners to offer a lower price than the competition, AVADirect does no such thing and still prices parts lower than the competition.

I spent an exhaustive amount of time researching all of my parts, along with their prices at AVADirect where the computer would be built for me as opposed to built by myself. I mainly used NewEgg for comparison. Almost every part was significantly cheaper at AVADirect (if I recall, several of my parts, which are only $100-ish to begin with, ended up being $20 or $30 cheaper).

This made me a bit worried about how the computer would end up being built and running, since I had just found AVADirect by a Google search, although their numerous glowing reviews helped to calm my nerves a little. My worries were all wrong.

It did take a while to get the computer since a couple of my parts were back-ordered, which they were extremely upfront about -- they tell you about a thousand times before you order that some parts need to be ordered specially and can take an extra week or so. They also stress test every system for something like 24-72 hours before shipping, just to make sure you have a very low chance of getting one of those infamous, extremely annoying defective parts that parts manufacturers send out all the time. If you've ever built your own computer, you know what I'm talking about, and will appreciate this service immensely.

But holy cow, when I got it, I began trusting AVADirect more than any computer seller I have ever dealt with (and I have dealt with a lot). Never have I bought something, let alone a computer, that I felt as much care had gone into assembly, packaging, and other such things solely for my benefit.

First of all, the thing came double boxed. The first box was filled with packing peanuts so as to prevent the second box from moving at all. In the second box, the computer was extremely secure by the styrofoam that you typically see in computer boxes -- I felt like I could have went at the surface box with a baseball bat without any hope of damaging the computer.

And it didn't stop there. When I opened up the boxes, I found a piece of paper detailing how I was to make sure absolutely nothing bad happened during shipping and that everything would work as it should. The directions for removing the further packing material that they had inserted *into the computer itself* were very straightforward and easy to follow -- it took me about 5 minutes, and might have taken a less experienced user only slightly longer. They even offered live help with opening up the computer and removing the packing material if necessary!

This allowed me to see and admire the spectacular build quality. I have never seen a computer this cleanly built. Every screw I unscrewed felt exactly as tight as it should be, every bundle of cords was neatly placed and tied up, and I have honestly never seen a case that looked emptier, which means that some of my high-heat components will probably last quite a bit longer than they would otherwise.

I got the computer in early June, and it's late July. I haven't had any problems so far with any of the hardware, and I absolutely don't expect any. I did have some case fan vibrations going on, which, as the rep I talked to yesterday said, were fixed in less than a minute by slightly tightening the screws outside of the case.

This is where I will give some advice to people when shopping AVADirect. They offer pretty much exclusively products by extremely well-known brands. This does not mean that they only offer the good, reliable stuff -- if they did that, I don't think there's any way parts manufacturers would continue working with them, since they'd basically be saying "Yeah, a lot of what these companies make will fail pretty quickly. Here are the coincidences that don't do that." You have to do your own research. I personally checked Newegg for the exact combination of products that had no review history of failure after a few months, which is the kind of product that burns builders all the time.

Now, I know that many people won't want to do this kind of exhaustive searching -- if they don't want to, they will "just" get a much better and probably cheaper product than they would have if they had bought the parts themselves and built the computer! This is in no way AVADirect's fault, and I am positive that considering average build quality, even if ASUS designed a motherboard incorrectly or something, an AVADirect computer would have that same board last longer than in a normally-built computer.

The only negative I could find with them after almost 2 months of ownership was that their monitors were more expensive than other places. I assume this is because of some sort of volume problem that doesn't exist for them in the department of computer parts -- look elsewhere for a monitor, but buy your computer from here, or you are seriously cheating yourself."

"We were referred to the AVA Direct Custom Computers through a friend of my daughter. He was able to design a computer to fit our needs. When I ordered the computer, all of you were very kind, patient, and willing to assist in what it was that we needed to design our present computer. I am very grateful we went through you to purchase our latest computer. When we did have some difficulties with our computer a while back, you were able to help guide us in order to resolve the problem. Thank you for developing a good quality, and reliable computer and helping us and being patient with the development and the purchasing of our computer."

"Ava direct built a very good computer. Still runs very nicely after nearly one year of use. Build was good quality and I would recommend using them. "

"I was very impressed with the ordering process, the building/testing process and the quality of shipping (materials/packing) at the time of my initial order. I made several errors when choosing components and got a phone call to this effect. At no time was I pressured to "upgrade" anything - it was just that AVADirect did not feel comfortable putting components into a Win7 64-bit machine that had not been certified to run with that then-relatively new operating system. There was no effort to "upsell".

As my machine was built, the quality of this process became apparent. AVADirect will not ship a machine that has not been stable when running for 72 hours straight. Mine didn't. The faulty component was identified and replaced. The result was that I received a machine that ran like a top right out of the extremely well packed box. The insides of the box are really neatly secured - no loose wires flapping around, everything neatly bundled and controlled. Very impressive.

Recently, I've had a hardware problem. I was pretty sure of that before contacting AVADirect. Joseph Mundy, who happens to have been with me through this entire experience, had me do some testing and confirmed that the problem was bad RAM. This has now been replaced.

If I have a gripe about this last process, it is that the new RAM was drop-shipped from the manufacturer (based on their lifetime warranty of their product, no doubt) and it came 2/3 of the way across the country by UPS Ground during severe heat advisories. This was, of course, the manufacturer's discretion, not a decision made by AVADirect.

All in all, I would recommend and have recommended AVADirect to my friends as a place that builds responsibly, provides a quality product and stands by what has been produced."

"I chose this company based upon both price and quality.
I chose wisely.
The customer service is outstanding. Some software corrupted my system and they worked diligently and patiently with me.

I highly recommend them.
"

"I bought several products, including a few adapters. I was very pleased with the expediency in which I received my items. I'm still using the products today, they have yet to give me any problems. I am very happy with my purchases."

"I have purchased several computer systems from AVADirect and their professionalism, knowledge and service has been outstanding. Not to mention their computers are incredibly well built. Highly recommended!"

"Well the price was great, but I'm not impressed with the shipping cost. To pay around $17 for shipping on a part that is only a few ounces and cost $2.50, isn't even right."

"Good product, good price, friendly service"

"Fantastic company, this is an account of my second purchase with them. I bought my first computer from Avadirect about four years ago. It actually had quite a few problems from the start, but Avadirect's amazing customer service convinced me to stick by them. With that said, that computer died recently. It was a high performance computer with four years on it, so it wasn't really surprising and isn't indicative of any wrongdoing on Avadirect's part.

Therefore, I decided to order another system from this company. However, my first order with Avadirect took nearly a month from ordering to delivery. A month without a computer wasn't really acceptable for someone like me. With that said, I gave them a call and asked if anything could be done to expedite my order, because while I wanted to give Avadirect my business, an entire month without a computer was unacceptable.

Liek always, they were very accommodating and assured me that it was possible. The salesman looked at my system's configuration, suggested virtually identically parts that were available in stock, and took my order. He said that he would rush the build and shipping, and that I could get it as early as next Friday. Well, they did me one better because I got it Thursday!

The wiring and packaging was immaculate, although I was disconcerted by the fact that the Fedex guy was violently ROLLING my 2000 dollar computer up the steps.

All in all, a fantastic experience and I couldn't recommend this company more. Like I said, my first computer with these guys was riddled with problems, but the reason that this company stands out is that they truly stand behind their product. If the issue is genuinely not your fault, they will take care of you and not charge you a cent while they're at it. "

"Firstly, I'd like to say this was first custom configured computer, and I was a bit apprehensive after doing alot of research online on various companies and reading about horror stories with build, parts and customer service. However I decided to dive on in and chose AVA Direct.
I recently received my custom configured desktop from AVA Direct, and I have to say I am extremely impressed, all the way around. The website and configurator were easy to use, the selection of quality products and pricing were great. The product assistance and technical & configuration help I received from Joe Mundy was superb. He certainly is highly knowledgeable and didn't try to sell me anything I didnt really need. His suggestions were spot on. From start to finish I was always kept in the loop and any questions that arose were answered efficiently and promptly. Once my computer arrived I was totally blown away. It was expertly packed, all the additional extra components, cables etc., were neatly organized, along with manuals etc. in a seperate box.
When I opened the case to take a peak inside, I have to say I was more than impressed. Everything was expertly assembled and the wiring was virtually invisible, what a fantastic job. The system fired up immediately and has been cruising along since. I have already recommended AVA to several of my friends and co-workers who are thinking about new systems. AVA Direct are real pros. Thanks.

"

"I purchased a custom PC from AVADirect and found their staff very knowledgeable and the web site displayed the options available that were detailed enough for my needs. The whole experience was great and I would definitely recommend them to my friends looking to purchase computer equipment and I would purchase my next PC from them."

"I had nothing but excellent experience with AVA. I found AVA after searching for custom computer builders but was getting frustrated with all the gaming builders which is not what I was looking for. AVA impressed me for several reasons: pricing was very competitive, website was easy to navigate, tons of choices on hardware when building. The final reason I chose AVA is because of the sales staff and how they helped me, Joe was fantastic and helped me with everything. I can certainly recommend AVA and will definitely use them again in the future when it is time to upgrade."

"Very pleased with my new laptop. AVA communicated everything that I needed to know about my order in a timely fashion. This was put fully to the test when Intel recalled the mother board just before my computer shipped. My main business computer lost a motherboard and my laptop had to take up the slack during the time the desktop was being fixed. It never missed a beat. For a price that is much less than others charge this may well be the best computer buy I have ever made. I won't say it is a fast computer, but I've finally made my gamer son jealous."

"The AVA staff was helpful, responsive and knowledgable. Even though our configuration was unique, and the order was for only one unit, the level of service we received was excellent.

I would heartily recommend both AVA Direct and our sales rep (Joseph Mundy, I believe), and will purchase from your company again when the need arises.

Thank you."