"Velocity Micro offered to replace my computer with a new one. This certainly confirms their commitment to quality. Although I was initially dissappointed with my order I would now have no qualms with ordering from them again. Still not satisfied with the technical support.

Computer arrived 2 days early. When I powered it up there was an error saying that a fan was slow or not working. I called the technical support number, (I paid extra for the 1 year of 24 x 7 technical support). An answering service answered and said that they would page technical support. The technical support never called back. After 3 days of waiting for technical support I opened up my computer and found the CPU fan flopped over on the other side of the CPU and resting on one of the SLI boards. Pretty shoddy workmanship to not mount the CPU fan so that it won't come lose during shipping. There is no telling if the fan did any additional damage to my computer as it flopped around. The computer hangs up about every other time that I use it and has to be rebooted with the power switch. If you decide to order a computer from these guys don't pay extra for the 24 x 7 technical support because the only 24 x 7 technical support that they will provide is what you do yourself"

"Everything went well, the computer is great and quieter than I expected, and the few questions I had were answered quickly and professionally. Thanks!"

"Purchased from Velocity Micro:
Velocity Raptor™ Signature Edition
Black LXe-W case with side window
1000 watt power supply
Blackflash Onyx premium power cable
Double blue cold cathode light kit
Asus A8n32 SLI deluxe mobo
FX-60 AMD Dual core 2.6GHz clocked up to 2.9GHz
Liquid cooling
4 Gigs Mushkin pc-3200 ddr400 ram
4 GeForce 7900 GPU video cards in Quad SLI
Creative Labs X-Fi Fatal1ty 64MB sound card
2 Western Digital 150GB 10k rpm hardrives in raid 0 for 300GB total
1 500GB Hitachi hardrive for storage
2 Plextor PX716A DVD+/-rw dual layer optical drives
8 in 1 floppy drive and media reader
Widndows XP pro with sp2

Purchased on my own from other vendors:
Dell 30" falt panel monitor
Z5500 Logitech speakers
Logitech G7 wireless mouse
Logitech G15 keyboard

I have to say, laying out $7500 for the computer from VM, I was a bit nervous. But not anymore!
Randy Copeland emailed me personally to keep me updated on the progress of my machine. And what a beautiful machine it is! It is the fastest computer I have ever seen. It runs flawlessly from the moment I fire it up to when I shut it down. Rips through games with the most stunning video and graphics I have ever seen. I can honestly tell you, there is nothing like coming home to a $10,000 computer system, the heart of which lies a Velocity Micro computer. I can't say thank you enough to Randy and all his expert technicians for building the greatest computer I have ever seen or used, Thank you so much! If anybody is thinking of laying out as much money as I have, by all means go to Velocity Micro for your next computer, you can't go wrong! Even if you can't or don't want to spend as much, you should still think Velocity Micro. I have purchased less expensive systems from them in the past, and they have all performed just as well.
Their support is second to none. And all my machines have shipped in immaculate condition.
Thanks again guys..............

Steven"

"I was excited to order the SX-V; it had gotten very good reviews on Cnet, in PC Mag, etc. What a disappointment and frustration the experience has been. The initial communication re: the order was excellent, tracking the progress of the system's building and shipping. But it all fell apart after that.
The PC came without the Ethernet adaptor installed; despite my purchasing the 24/7 Tech Support package, this situation (on a weekend, when I had time to unpack and set up the system) was reportedly not judged to be an "emergency" -- so there was no response despite several calls. There was also no follow-up, until I called Velocity that Monday.
The monitor was never shipped, until I called them a week after the tower arrived, and they finally got it sent out.
Then the system kept crashing. Memtest showed that there was a problem w/ memory; the tech offered to send me a new "memory stick" for me to install. What happened to the on-site service contract? A couple of the techs' manner on the phone suggested that these things were not a big deal, and basically sounded like Stepford Techs. The only one who was of any real and appropriate help, K., agreed to send me a UPS return shipping label and also acknowledged that my 30-day return period was ticking away and should be extended.
The mailing label arrived a day late despite their promise that it would go out that day. I drove 30 miles in a rainstorm to my work PC to print it out, only to find it had not been emailed.
I sent it back on 10/26, having been told there would be a week's turnaround. I called today and learned that it was still "in queue" because they had had so many ("unusually large number of") systems returned for repair in the past month.
I think this company is in over its head, and am sorry I ordered from Velocity Micro. And am VERY disappointed to have to say this."

"My Velocity Vision Athlon 64 is a great PC, and the folks at Velocity were great to deal with, partucularly Trace Dixon, who assisted me and took my order. The quality of the unit is the highest I have seen, and I have owned a number of PCs. I wanted a nice custom PC to do CAD applications and also to use for entertainment and internet communications as my main PC, and this fits the bill great. I am very happy! "

"I would just like to say that at this point I am very pleased with velocity. I haven't recieved the machine yet, but was kept well informed on the "build" progress and the machine is being shipped sooner than I expected. I am curious, however, of the people that have had problems with their machines, what type of shipping was chosen. I see alot of happy cutomer ratings with only a few "somewhat satisfied" or "Very dissatisfied". Shipping method may be an issue. "Ground and Pound" so to speak. I seriously doubt Velocity, being in business and having a reputation to uphold, would allow a product to leave their facility inoperable, or substandard. I will soon find out as I chose next day air and will hopefully have my system tomorrow, or Monday at the latest. I will update this review when I recieve the machine.

My system:
Gamers Edge PCX
Intel P4 3.6
ASUS P5ND2 Deluxe SLI Mobo
2GB Mushkin memory
Dual eVGA Nvidia 6800 PCI-E
WD 200 GB 7,200 RPM HD

**UPDATE**
I received my machine as promised and am extremely pleased. I had read a reviw where the customer complained of not receiving software, manuals, or remaining component parts with the machine. This was not the case with my purchase. All software CD's, including users manuals and any left over parts were shipped. The Software and manuals came in an "Owners Portfolio" neatly organized. The machine was in pristine condition and is operating flawlessly. I would recommend Velocity Micro to any gamer who wants a very pleasurable gaming experience.
"

"From the day I placed my order, doing business with Velocity Micro has been most satisfying experience. Initially I chose the company because of the highest ratings "PC World" (or "PC Magazine", I am not sure) has given Velocity computers. But what has really turned me into their most loyal customer was the way their Service Dept has helped me when I needed such help the most. They answered my e-mail immediately, told me to run some tests and have found solution to what I believed was a hopeless problem. I specifically want to thank Dan, customer service coordinator for his patient, friendly and highly professional conduct."

"Customer service is outstanding!! Odering process was smooth, built it quickly and sent eamils to let me know each step of the way."

"My experience with Velocity Micro was fantastic. The computer lives up to all the reviews, and their service was outstanding. I was updated daily on the progress they were making in the assembly of my custom PC. The unit arrived at my door in less than two weeks from the date I ordered it, in perfect condition. I would certainly recommend Velocity micro for their great service and product."

"I ordered a custom-built laptop from VM about a year ago and it is / was amazing. I have now ordered my second computer from VM and this experience was even better than the last.

VM's customer service is amazing and the machines are impeccable. They notify you the second anything happens with your order... from "we received it" to "we just installed your motherboard and inserted xxgb of memory", etc. Not to mention... the prices are unbeatable. I will never buy a computer from anyone else, ever again.

Not only was shipping free, but it was estimated at 6 days / UPS ground. I received my computer less than 24 hours from the initial shipping notice I received. I literally had the computer in hand before I even received a tracking number. All in all, the entire process from payment to delivery took about 4 business days... which is unheard of from anyone else.

I will never buy a Dell, an HP, an Alienware, or anything else for that matter. VM is the best quality, the best price and hands down, the best customer support around. If you have ever purchased one of the above mentioned machines, you know that you spend 3-4 hours clearing off all of that OEM crap like try aol and netzero and earthlink... not with VM. The only folder created on here is C:Windows. That, in itself, is reason enough to shop with VM.

Don't think twice. VM is the way to go."

"After buying my computer in January I meant to write a review but never got around to it. After they helped me out today, here's the review.

I looked around at all the custom builders you see but settled on Velocity because of all the great reviews here. I'd looked at Monarch, ABS, and all the others. I received my computer in the time specified but at first when I turned it on, I saw nothing on my monitor. I figured "serves me right for ordering from a no-name company". I called and a lady helped me fix the problem (although the system was very well-packed, the graphics card loosened during shipping). Things looked good.

I've now had it for 8 months and couldn't be happier. Great system, has always worked flawlesly. This week, it just seemed to die, it looked like the computer couldn't recognize the hard drives. I thought that there was a chance the hard drives were dead and all would be erased. I called for help and got the same lady as last time (she has an unmistakeable southern accent) and after 5 minutes in the BIOS I was up and running as though nothing had happened.

If I'd bought from Dell or HP or most others, I strongly doubt I'd be as happy with customer service. Whoever that lady is, she needs a raise b/c she knows what she's doing.

I would buy again from Velocity without hesitation.


edit 1/22/07:

I had another VM experience prompting me to update. Yesterday I tried to fix smething and I reset the BIOS to default. Not good, I screwed everything up.. Windows wouldn't start. I called VM and somehow got the same very pleasant lady I'd dealt with before. After 5 or 10 minutes, everything was up and running. At no time did she make mention that I'd bought the system a bit over 2 years ago. I have no idea when the warranty runs out. I remember calling Compaq a few years ago for a past computer after my warranty had expired and they wouldn't talk unless I ponied up $89.

I'm sold. Velocity Micro forever. I can't speak more highly about them."

"It has been two months and change since my first Velocity Micro desktop system was delivered. The period has equated to two uneventful months of computing; which is a very good thing.

From order to delivery, eighteen days elapsed. The ordering process at VM’s website was straightforward. A single phone call was placed to VM to verify that the system could be shipped in a RAID 1 configuration rather than the default configuration -- RAID 0 -- and there was no additional charge involved. (As you may have noticed, some manufacturers do charge for a switch from RAID 0 to RAID 1.). The order was placed.

Over the next few days, e-mails from the manufacturer arrived. These communications confirmed receipt of order, informed me that the process to fill the order had commenced, and kept me apprised of the state of the closing window for any last minute configuration changes that I might be considering.

Ultimately the system shipped, was delivered, and when unpacked appeared just the way one would want a new system to look after being bumped around the country on its journey to the end user. Everything that was supposed to be in the box was in the box. Once connected and powered up, the Windows XP authentication code prompt revealed the only glitch that prevents me from giving the build of this PC a perfect score: Windows XP Home had been installed rather than the ordered XP Professional, but curiously, the XP Pro disk had shipped with the system, and the matching authentication sticker for the XP Pro disk was stuck to the inside of the upper case door. A before sunlight phone call to VM started the correction process. After confirming that indeed XP Home had been installed in error, the VM rep apologized for the mistake and noted that such an installation error was a rare occurrence. The VM rep offered me a choice. Since the portfolio case contained the XP Professional disk, I could either (1) ship the system back to VM to have the effected OS change or (2) a VM tech would walk me through the de-installation of XP Home and installation of XP Pro as soon as one arrived for his work day. I opted for the second option, and the rep then informed that given the time of day, it would be a few minutes before the techs arrived. However, I could expect a call from a tech ASAP. Within thirty minutes the phone rang with a tech on the other end of the line. The process took a while to complete, but it was a complete success, and the Gamer’s Edge PCX system has performed flawlessly to date.

Without going into the particulars of the three hard drive system, for those who have read or heard others claim that the Western Digital WD740 Raptor hard drives are noisy characters, all I can say is that the two in this system’s case work quietly. Occasionally they can be heard when feasting on some data files, but generally the only audible sound is that of induction fan.

Things that stuck in my mind about the purchasing experience with Velocity Micro were (1) whoever answered the phone was helpful (no shuffling around to “meet” the entire staff), (2) there were no statements made to me that I recognized as erroneous or examples of being uninformed of a particular technology, (3) the system arrived free of all the crap that many manufacturers dump onto the desktop screen, (4) the one instance of “I’ll have the tech call you when he arrives” resulted in a call received sooner than I expected to receive the call, and (5) the customer support is LIVE 24/7 with an actual person (That’s unusual for a relatively small manufacturer.).

The overall experience with VM has been excellent. Other manufacturers considered were Overdrive PC, Falcon Northwest, and Voodoo who all seem afflicted by the overpricing hardware “bug”. They do make excellent systems, but it was illogical to pay more to get less when individual component quality was virtually identical. A number of other companies’ offerings (ABS, Alienware, etc.,) were researched, but they were significantly less attractive for one or more reasons that included unavailability of specific hardware. Velocity Micro had the right hardware in the configuration that I needed, and the price even after configuring the system into the $3200 range, was palatable all things considered.

I am very satisfied with Velocity Micro’s product, and at this point will certainly look at VM again when it’s time to purchase another PC.
"

"After a terrible experience with Dell I decided to try something new with my next computer. After doing Web research I decided that VL was the company for me:
* Assembly, sales and tech support in the United States
* Use of quality retail parts
* Excellent user experiences (including this site)
* The most reasonable prices and lowest total cost for a boutique computer. Alienware, Falcon and Voodoo start at prices that are just too high if you are not a LAN party, hardcome gamer PC gamer.


Both the phone sales and email service were excellent, staffed by people who actually treated me as a customer rather than a sack of money.

One thing that bothered me is that they wanted $230 for a Geforce 6600GT. The identical model was $175 on New Egg. I realize that there is a mark-up for installation but I thought that was steep. Given that I have an Xbox, I am using the motherboard graphics and will pick up a card in the future. VL's loss.

The process was quick and everything went very smoothly. So far (~six weeks) everything is great! Only issue, this 3.0g P4 is loud. Much louder than my last 2.0g P4.

Overall, I highly recommend VL."

"Buying from Velocity Micro was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

I wanted to buy a good gaming machine without paying an insane price. VM’s Gamer’s Edge 1000, with a few additions, fit the bill exactly – a basic high-end machine, with enough ‘headroom’ for upgrades, that the system won’t be obsolete in year or two. It was the best-priced system I could find that had the ASUS nforce4 SLI mb.

Just to share the decision process I went thru, I considered and investigated the following companies:

1) Falcon NW and VoodooPC were just out of my price range
2) Alienware – had too many bad reviews, I couldn’t understand their customer rep when talking to her, and waiting 12 to 24 weeks for a rebate is way too long
3) WidowPC and ABS had reasonably priced systems, but their mbs were older/AGP slotted
4) The final three were VM, Polywell, and Puget. Polywell and Puget Systems had comparably priced systems as VM, and, in fact, they had more ‘configurability’ than VM. However, I couldn’t find out enough about Polywell’ customer service & tech support, and when I added the cost of a 3-year warranty, VM was cheaper than Puget.

The order process:
1) Wednesday 7/6 – placed order online. VM called me back saying there was a small hitch to my credit card order, which was taken care of quickly. Received emails over the following days as my order status changed.
2) Wednesday 7/13 – received emails from VM stating my system was completed and shipped!

The conclusion and some complaints:
1) I know I shouldn’t complain about free shipping, but I’m going to anyway. I finally received my pc late in the evening of 7/19. Wasn’t VM’s fault, and the delivery date was accurate, but I wasted an entire day waiting around.
2) Unfortunately, the system was not perfect out of the box/startup. The dvd drive’s ide cable had come loose, so I wound up opening the machine to reattach it. Quibbling. Other than that miniscule flaw, the system was well-built, all the manuals and spare parts neatly packed and organized
3) As far as performance – I really feel that I got more than my money’s worth. I can only hope this machine operates as well over time

Finally, one insight I’d like to share as I was comparison shopping for my new pc. VM had one of the lowest-priced extended warranties out there, and many larger and ‘troubled’ companies were much more expensive in this regard. I’ve always felt that if a company has high quality controls during assembly/manufacturing, they can afford to spend less in warranties and replacements. Just my two cents"

"I have had a very satisfactory experience with Velocity Micro. My AMD FX-55 SLI based system is an all out balls-to-the-wall monster! After one phone call on the day I got it to figure one or two configuration questions, I was up and running in no time and haven't had to call again. The person who answered my call was knowledgable, polite, came on the phone with virtually no wait time and spoke in clear, beautiful English.
Shipping, with numerous e-mail updates to keep me posted on status was prompt and absolutely no headachs.
The price and quality of components is excellent: ASUS mb; Mushkin ram; Zalman heat sink; Western Digital etc... Also, the web site and the "configure your own pc" worksheet is nicely layed out and easy to use.

Overall, I've had a very pleasent experience with Velocity Micro and would definitely buy from them again. If you gamers out there could only see what lock-on, IL2, and battlefield 2 demo look like on my system you'd freak out. I highly recomment Velocity Micro!

Sincerely,

S. Romano"