monarchcomputer.com

Son_of_Thunder · Feb 7, 2005, 01:21 AM

has anyone heard anything about these guys from a trusted source? anybody bought anything from them? they have a fairly good street rep, but i'm not sure about them considering my ordeal with xpcgear.com (who also had a good street rep)

they have a vid card that i want, and it's cheaper than anywhere else by about 30 bucks.

ty

Frodo301 · Feb 7, 2005, 07:53 AM

I'm assuming you have already taken a look at resellerratings.com, just by looking there it looks to be an ok place to buy. Have you thought about checking Newegg? Considering you have already had bad luck with one online retailer is the $30.00 savings really worth a possibility of bad service/slow shipping/flakey return policy? Just my 2$.

BurL · Feb 7, 2005, 08:06 AM

Maonarchcomputers.com is in my opinion a good place to buy. I got my hard drives and memory from them with no hassles. I have had bad expieriences with xpcgear.com also so I would recommend to stay away from them. Newegg.com is the best in online buying though so give them a serious look.

***Zardon*** · Feb 7, 2005, 09:31 AM

What bad experiences did you have with xpcgear.com ?

Drakon · Feb 7, 2005, 11:05 AM

i bought my cpu (Athlon 64 3500+ 90nm) from them. I ordered it on fri morning (the order was processed and charged the same day), and it arrived on the next tues, cuz fedex doesn't deliver on saturdays. i believe it was free shipping too. anyways, the package arrived in a good condition and was boxed very well. it was my first purchase from them. i am satisfied...

check them out at Reseller-ratings

Also check out zipzoomfly.com. i ordered some parts from them. can't beat free 2nd day shipping...

redsolar · Feb 7, 2005, 11:17 AM

IMHO, monarchcomputer is one of the best kept PC market secrets. I've dealt with them on more than a few occasions. Probably the best prices on AMD products period, and service very good. I have been using newegg less and less due to their (often significantly) higher prices lately, and shipping costs.

Zipzoomfly is another great place that gets my vote above newegg.

OldBuzzard · Feb 7, 2005, 11:37 AM

Monarch Computers is the best kept secret of online retailers. They are great to do business with, and are more than competative with their prices, especially with AMD processors. They are quick to ship, and and do a good job of packaging.

I got all the 'goodies' (except the Koolance cooling blocks) for this system from them, and they were a pleasure to deal with. When ordering from online, I always check the web page for pricing, but place my order by phone. That way I get around the possibility that what I want is out of stock even tho the web page says it's in stock. When I called Koolance, I ended up talking to someone in another country, that seemed to have no clue as to what they were selling and was just looking at a monitor. With Monarch, I talked to someone in Atlanta. He had good 'computer smarts', and didn't try to BS me or 'over sell' me. After I placed my order, he PHYSICALLY checked the inventory and called me back to let me know that it was all there and would be shipping the afternoon. I got the packages 2 days later, even tho I only payed for standard shipping (of course it was only from Atlanta to Cincinnati which may have something to do with that). About 3 days later I got an email from them asking if I had recieved my 'goodies', and if there were any problems. All in all a VERY plesant transaction. They will definately get my business again.

Son_of_Thunder · Feb 7, 2005, 02:35 PM

ok, here's the deal...for this round, newegg is out. all of the things i'm buying they have, but are 20 dollars overpriced (x850xt for 540, dfi lanparty ultra-d for 165, and 90nm 3200+ for 225) so it's down to zippy and monarch. zippy has a bulk x850xt for 530 w/ a 1 year warranty that they provide. monarch has a x850xtpe for 500, but i can't find any warranty info. also monarch has the mobo for 150 vs zippy's 170, but it's out of stock.

for the proc i'm buying from zippy, it's a buck cheaper.

*edit*

monarch just raised the price of their dfi board, and it's still out of stock. looks like i'll be going w/ zippy for that as well.

edit #2

zardon, were you asking burl or myself about our bad experiences w/ xpcgear.com? if you were asking me then i'll lay out the story (i posted it somewhere...lemme go find the link...eh nope, can't find it)

anyways, i needed to RMA a x800xt that they sent me poorly packaged. it was ripped out of it's anti static bag (not through the actual opening, but the side of the bag) and was laying exposed in a bunch of packaging materials. i tried to use it but got horrible performance, random crashes and artifacts in windows. when i returned it they wouldn't respond to my emails for a month, then said it was working fine "with a few minor flaws" they even ran a test on one of their machines w/ it and said "...it got 8000 points in 3dmark03. We looked on the futuremark website, 8000 is the average performance for a x800xt."

they wouldn't send me a new one or refund my money, so i contacted my credit card company to cancel the payment, but because xpcgear had stalled for so long that wasn't an option. discover said they'd do an investigation and get back to us. i contacted xpcgear.com and told them this and they said something like, "well, if you drop the investigation we'll send you a new card." i said i would think about it and they said, "well, after more testing we found out that your card is infact a dud, we'll send you a new one as soon as you cancel the investigation."

then i said i wouldn't cancel it.

they got upset and told me that after even more testing the card was indeed just fine and dandy, and that as soon as the silly investigation was over they'd just send it back to me because they were sure i'd be satisfied w/ it.

2 months later the investigation ended and i have my 470 bucks back.

edit #3

they just jacked up the price on the x850xtpe, it's now 570 bucks, looks like i'm going w/ zippy.

pr0digal jenius · Feb 7, 2005, 03:21 PM

monarch is a nice place. Their brick/mortar location is about 45 minutes from where I live.

Son_of_Thunder · Feb 7, 2005, 06:41 PM

are they nice enough that if i called them they'd sell me the x850xtpe for what it was yesterday? i'm now considering agp again...pci-e is too expensive. the only thing that's really swaying me to pci-e is the beta tester position. i have more posts and have been around longer than almost anyone in that thread...so i feel that i could have a fairly good chance. i want to contact CM but i don't want to because he asked us not to