Do you know any good PC builder?

[Andre S. Veteran]

For my next PC I'm thinking of buying it pre-made by professionals. I'm semi-competent at assembling PCs, but I don't make them very tidy, silent, or robust. I live in Montreal, Quebec, so the closer to that the better. My next PC should first and foremost be silent - I shouldn't hear it at all when idle, and only slightly so when under load; it should also be a capable gaming machine and a powerful workstation for programming and video rendering. These are conflicting requirements but I'm ready to put some serious money in it, i.e. 2-3K$ if necessary. I won't buy before Haswell is out, but I'm starting to look around.

So far I was looking at Puget Systems, they build SPCR certified PCs and their Serenity looks like exactly what I'm looking for (minus the Haswell, but that will come in due time). The only problem is they're really far away, i.e. 5000kms, so communication and shipping with them will be difficult. Any other suggestions?

[Beyond Godlike]

Ive had really good results with NCIX. Im in Canada as well. They shipped it to me as they dont have a local store. They built me a gaming PC and i only had to put in the videocard(i assume they didnt want to install that cause of the weight of it and while shipping would jiggle). They made it very clean and and the system is going strong three years later. IF you tell em on the phone what you want, theyll not only find some good aprts, but also when ordering by phone they tend to find you alot of sales that arent on their site. In my experience with them, ive ordered a desktop, 3 laptops, and a bunch of parts, and in 50% of those cases theyve find me deals that expired sometimes 3 weeks prior and still given me the discount.

I also like Memory express, their price matching is awesome! They do online/local(dont think they have a quebec location), but they are really good.

[Denis W. Veteran]

Can't vouch for NCIX building PCs but can confidently vouch for them as a retailer. They have three local shops in the Toronto area, two of which I frequent, and by casually looking inside some of their custom-built PCs the cabling job was just fine.

[Andre S. Veteran]

Yeah I've bought parts at NCIX before, but all their PCs look like fairly generic gaming machines. I have some very specific requirements (see op) and I'm not sure they're the most competent to satisfy them.

[+Mirumir Subscriber¹]

FutureShop!

haha I'm j/k

http://www.canadacomputers.com/ is the best!

Not only do they have the best prices to begin with, but all of their employees are also truly knowledgeable and professional.

Each of their stores should have a service department that can assemble a PC for you. So, just buy want you need, tell a sales rep that you want a silent system and what not, and proceed from there.

[Andre S. Veteran]

http://www.canadacomputers.com/ is the best!

That's interesting, they have a new branch in Montreal so I could pick up the computer myself.

[tim_s]

<<< this dude is pretty awesome.

I am kidding.

[TokiToki]

Puget Serenity is very similar to what I have built myself, and I can vouch for its silence.

I have the Antec P182 case, which has 2 front fans, 1 top, and 1 rear.

I also have an Asus motherboard with Q-Fan support. This one is the most important as it controls all the fans in the computer and keeps it silent on idle.

My GPU is the Nvidia GTX 560 Ti (Overclocked + Overvolted) which I personally replaced the fan with the Arctic Accelero fan. The stock fan sounded like an airpane taking off :| . I absolutely cannot hear the aftermarket GPU fans on load and the load temps are very low. In fact, the noisiest part of the computer are the case fans which are virtually inaudible.

Hope this helps you in your quest for silence!