Let me start off by saying i looked into all sorts of companies before I decided to give my $2400 to ABS. Quantex, Cybermax, and Axis Systems were a close second third, and forth respectively.
This is one monster of a computer. There was no real catagory listed that my computer fit under so I choose this one. I custom configured this one on their site, a fairly easy task if you know a bit about computers, and even if you don't I'm sure the preconfigured ones will run just as well.
Here is what I have:
Athlon 700
128meg DRAM
8x DVD-ROM
Shark case 300Watt
SoundBlaster Live! Value sound card
Matrox Millinium G400 Dual Head video card
TV tuner card with remote
19" API 1600x1200 .26dp monitor.
I ordered my computer two weeks before christmas. They said it would take three weeks to deliver and they were right on time with it within one day of the specified date, despite the christmas rush. It came in two very large well packed boxes, not too much chance for damage during shipping.
It was a very joyus moment unpacking this big box of individually wraped goodies, in fact it overshadowed christmas. I really think it took me longer to haul the large boxes down to my room that it did to unpack and setup. Setup was a breeze, addmitidly, I have done it several times in the past with different computers but all in all it was color coded and fairly self explainitory. However, there was no nice setup sheet, and while all the manuals for the individual components were nicly put in a large color coded binder with ziplock bags this may be a little daunting for new users. Especially the SoundBlaster Live! with it's many in's and out's.
Once it was setup it ran beautifully and has for the past two months. Not a real problem with anything. I did think that maybe my TV tuner was bad so I called tech support. I didn't have to wait on hold for very long and they called me back. Kind of nice since I was calling california from illinois. It turned out my cable connections was bad and it had nothing to do with the computer.
The 19" monitor is simply beautiful. I use if for everything and now hardly ever find myslef doing one thing at a time. kind of nice to be writing a paper and have a tv or vhs or DVD window opened in the corner. DVD playback is very crisp and quite nice, however every so often I did get a slight jerk, but this turned out ot be a problem with the Matrox DVD software and not the hardware at all. A quick download from the internet later and i was good to go. Games run wonderfully at 1280x1024 with 32bit color, the Matrox card is enough to handle all of today's games as well as office software.
Finishing notes, I did open up the case jsut to have a look inside and there is a LOT of room in there. more than enough for any upgrade I could ever want. This computer will last a long time and i highly recommed ABS to anyone looking for a new computer.





Recommended: Yes