Forge a PC
I was looking around for a custom PC builder. Narrowed down my choices to AVADirect and Ironside.
After talking to their sales department, I ended up going with Ironside Computers. The one HUGE reason for this is their customer service. They were able to answer all my questions about the parts they are using for your custom build (More on this a bit later) to even generally talking about PC technology.
I chose the "Forge a PC" option. Basically this is a custom build where you get to pick the parts that go into the PC, this is the way to go if you are familiar with PC parts and know what you would like to get. They also have prebuilt custom options, where you just click on it to add it to their shopping cart and check out. Useful for those that are unfamiliar with PC parts, but want a quality built PC. Just for reference, these are the parts I picked for my PC:
Case: Raidmax Vortex V5 × 1
Case Fan: 1 Apevia 120mm × 1 (Mine happened to come with two, more on this later)
Wiring: Professional Wiring - Cables will be organized to achieve maximum airflow × 1
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4GHz (Hexa Core) × 1
CPU Cooler: AMD Wraith Heatsink × 1 (Came with the CPU)
Thermal Compound: Standard Thermal Compound × 1
Motherboard: MSI B450M Pro VDH-Plus × 1
Memory: 16GB (2x 8GB)
SSD: Gigabyte 120GB SSD
Grahpics Card Zotac Geforce GTX 1650 4GB OC × 1
Power Supply: Thermaltake Smart 700W 80 Plus Bronze × 1
Audio: Realtek Intergrated Audio x1
Standard Onboard Ethernet (No Wi-fi) × 1
Life-time U.S. Based Technical Support × 1
Warranty: Standard 5 Years Labor and 3 Years Parts × 1
The other reason I went with ironside is their warranty and lifetime tech support (as stated above).
I had ordered my PC on July 4th, when they had a 10% off sale (Saved $76 on my PC, which is a considerable amount). They told me it would take up to ten days before the PC was assembled, but it took them twelve days (from order to shipping). It was fine with me, as they were busy with all the July 4th orders.
Order was shipped on July 16th and arrived on July 19th. They packaged the PC EXTREMELY well. The box that the box with my PC came in had foam padding on the inside of the box and when I unpacked the PC from the box that my case came it, it had foam on the inside, to prevent the interior components from getting damaged.
After unpacking the PC, I immediately noticed, the case had two fans (One rear, exhaust and one on top, intake) in it, which I was not expecting, since I had asked for one (exhaust). I opened the case to move the top fan to the front and the first thing I noticed, was their cable management. Their cable management was excellent, they had ran the cables in such a way as to not impede airflow, especially from the front of the case. While I had the case open, I moved the top fan to the front with no issues.
Since I got this PC on a Saturday and I did not have anyway of plugging in my monitor, as it has a VGA connector, I had to buy a VGA to displayport adapter. As soon as it was delivered on Sunday, I went to pick it up, then went home and finally started to setup my PC.
After setting up my PC (Transferred a 160GB hard drive from my old PC into the new one, subject to upgrade eventually), I powered it on for the first time. It booted into my hard drive, which was fine, because I did not have windows installed on the SSD yet.
So proceed to power on the PC, which turned on and everything was working right out of the box, no DOA parts. It first booted into my 160GB hard drive where I had my previous windows 10 install. since I had not installed windows on the SSD.
Next I proceeded to install windows 10, via the flash drive ironside had included (You can download windows 10 setup files for free from microsoft's site) and installed windows 10 to the SSD, after which I booted into the SSD and windows was quick to startup.
After windows had finished setup, I proceeded to update windows and all drivers/software and reformatted the 160GB hard drive (Which is being used for games/storage and once again, will be upgraded eventually).
In conclusion, my overall experience with Ironside Computers was excellent, from inital contact with the sales department all the way to my PC being shipped.
If I could give this company twenty stars, I would. Would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone that is looking for a custom built or prebuilt custom PC.
Morgan D.
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7-22-19
