Systems
If you are looking for more affordable, pre-built systems, visit our System page.
You'll Love Our Systems
Rick Smith has a passion for hardware. If you want a custom-built computer to perform exotic tasks, be sure to talk to him. He'll help you configure a system that will do everything you need, but not over-pay for specifications you don't need or can't utilize effectively.
We also have more prosaic systems for everyday use. If you are looking for a ready-made system, we recommend ACER desktops and laptops. We have had almost no service problems with ACER products. Rick and Toby both use their ACER laptops daily. Toby took his to China (kind of ironic if you think about it).
Rick and Toby have set up their own computers as demonstrations of modified computers, with lights, glowing wires, pictures, characters and assorted insanity. Toby is running Vista, while Rick is stuck with XP. This way we can support either platform.
Rick's computer is the green-light one, Toby's is red.
And, of course, if you want one of these for yourself, we'll be happy to oblige. Just give us your specs and we'll have you set up with the computer of your dreams in a flash.
Don't forget that the real advantage to a VCC computer, isn't that we use only top-of-the-line components, that we build cool computers or that we are passionate about what we do. The real benefit is that we are data-centric. What does that mean to you? Suppose you have a problem with Windows on a computer you purchased from MegaStore? They frequently format the hard drive, reinstall Windows and whatever software came with the computer and hand it back to you.
What happened to all your data? All gone. They will politely tell you, "We don't warranty data. It's up to you to keep adequate backups. So sorry."
We try to back up your hard drives as soon as we think there might be a problem requiring a reinstall of Windows. We restore your data whenever possible as part of our service. If we sell you a new computer, we'll transfer your old data over. For nearly all businesses and most personal users, the data is more important than the computer. We respect that. Sure, we'll tell you to back up your data, too. That's always important. But we'll do our best to keep you running no matter the state of your backups.
Warranty Warning
In an environment where everyone is trying to attain the lowest advertised price, keep a sharp eye on the warranty before you buy.
In particular, be very careful with purchases of computer systems under $500. The price is good, frequently the brand name is excellent, but the warranty terms (if you read them) will keep you awake at night. In order to keep the costs of new systems down, most of the major manufacturers now are selling systems with one year or less warranties and if you bring the computer in for repairs, the store you purchased it from will send it to the service center -- frequently in Asia. Read the fine print. How long are they allowed to keep your computer for warranty repairs? If it is 6 weeks or so, you can be pretty certain that the way they offer such attractive prices is that all warranty work is performed outside the US where labor rates are much cheaper. But for this to be a good purchase for you, you have to be willing to do without a computer for periods of 4-6 weeks. Is it worth it to you to spend a bit more to have a company that strives for one-day turnaround?
We have had several customers who had problems with name-brand computers still under warranty who elected to pay us to repair their systems rather than wait for their free repair from abroad. Naturally, they were kicking themselves because the systems ended up costing them more than if they'd purchased them from us to begin with.
We also had a customer who purchased a laptop from a major vendor with a reputation for excellent service. The laptop came with Microsoft Office XP. The customer needed some additional Office features not included with the default install, so he added them. At the end of the install, Windows told him to reboot -- but the computer never came back up. A call to support brought this chilling response: "Sorry, we don't warranty software. Not even software we bundled with the computer."
Naturally, you can buy systems with excellent warranties from these companies, but the price can be as much as double. Support costs money and in an environment where low price is the only thing most people look at, support is rapidly being abandoned as unaffordable. The problem is, can you afford to do without support?
As usual, prices and availability for items on this page are subject to change, but as rapidly as things change in this business that almost always means we'll be substituting something faster/bigger/better as it becomes available.
Restore Disk Alert
Most of the cheaper computers these days do not come with either a Windows disk or restore disk. When you first start them up, they ask you to insert a writable CD or DVD and make your own restore disk. Most people don't do it and therefore have no means of restoring their computers if the hard drive fails. Even if you do have a restore disk, all you can do is restore the computer to its original state -- wiping out all your data and installed programs in the process. If you have a real Windows disk you can perform a repair in the event of problems. It doesn't solve all problems, but is usually worth a try. At VCC our custom computers come with real Windows disks (imagine that!).
Incidentally, what tells you that you have a legitimate Windows system isn't the Windows disk. It's the Certificate of Authenticity (COA), which is the little sticker on the side or back of your computer with the bar code and the 25 character (5 groups of 5 characters each) code. If your hard drive dies and we have to reinstall Windows for you, we can easily provide you with a Windows disk in the event you lose yours, but there is nothing we can do if you lost the 25 character COA.
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