Gamers and Enthusiasts tired of LAMEGG, CRAPAZON, Etc starting our own Company.

[Mister Brandon]

Really looking for some feedback on what these vendors have done wrong so we can get it right.

Make this CLEAR: WE ARE NOT ADVERTISING.

We are simply looking for feedback on how to go about starting the company that us Gamers and Enthusiasts dream of. If you are like us, tired of searching, reading, re-reading, going back and forth between this build and that build, being confused, and generally not having anyone that you can TRUST to both tell you what components are good, and provide you with those components, then this company NEEDS your feedback.

So any thoughts and feedback from you guys would be appreciated.

1. First up, let's go ahead and lay it right out here, we want to be Sponsors, or Hardware Vendors on here. Where might we go for that?

2. We are thinking about how much we wish we could go somewhere that will have all the things we want like an Awesome CPU, and Awesome MoBo, and CPU Cooler, and Case, and all that stuff in one Combo Kit or Bundle (Can someone please explain the difference between a Combo Kit and a Bundle?) then buy only those in one stop, instead of from 5 different vendors. We all know what a total PIA that can be. With 1 out of 5 transactions on average going wrong, this is a must for us. Why nothing has been created before is beyond us. Would you guys love this as much as we would?

3. Being able to forgo the Mail-in rebates. I have worked in this industry long enough to know that Mail-ins are a farce. They take 4-6 weeks to process, and 1/3 have an issue. Would you guy pay a little more not to ever have to deal with Mail-ins? We would.

4. What are some of the GOOD things that online vendors do that you guys really like?

5. What are some of the BAD things ?

Please let us know and let's keep this thread a live. We have already started to launch our company and this IS happening. You guys have a chance to be on the ground floor of this, so we would suggest all of you at least pay some mind, and if you could please give us some of your time for thoughts and questions.

We have secured start-up capital, a location in Downtown San Diego, some awesome distribution contacts, and are building our team as we speak. So this IS happening. This is not some idea, or fantasy. Also, this is not MY first Rodeo and have several other start-ups that have been successful.

Thanks Guys, Brandon Meade out

 

[Mister Brandon]

This is more of a rant than anything, but really looking for some feedback on what these vendors have done wrong so we can get it right.

Make this CLEAR: WE ARE NOT ADVERTISING.

We are simply looking for feedback on how to go about starting the company that us Gamers and Enthusiasts dream of. If you are like us, tired of searching, reading, re-reading, going back and forth between this build and that build, being confused, and generally not having anyone that you can TRUST to both tell you what components are good, and provide you with those components, then this company NEEDS your feedback.

So any thoughts and feedback from you guys would be appreciated.

1. First up, let's go ahead and lay it right out here, we want to be Sponsors, or Hardware Vendors on here. Where might we go for that?

2. We are thinking about how much we wish we could go somewhere that will have all the things we want like an Awesome CPU, and Awesome MoBo, and CPU Cooler, and Case, and all that stuff in one Combo Kit or Bundle (Can someone please explain the difference between a Combo Kit and a Bundle?) then buy only those in one stop, instead of from 5 different vendors. We all know what a total PIA that can be. With 1 out of 5 transactions on average going wrong, this is a must for us. Why nothing has been created before is beyond us. Would you guys love this as much as we would?

3. Being able to forgo the Mail-in rebates. I have worked in this industry long enough to know that Mail-ins are a farce. They take 4-6 weeks to process, and 1/3 have an issue. Would you guy pay a little more not to ever have to deal with Mail-ins? We would.

4. What are some of the GOOD things that online vendors do that you guys really like?

5. What are some of the BAD things ?

Please let us know and let's keep this thread a live. We have already started to launch our company and this IS happening. You guys have a chance to be on the ground floor of this, so we would suggest all of you at least pay some mind, and if you could please give us some of your time for thoughts and questions.

We have secured start-up capital, a location in Downtown San Diego, some awesome distribution contacts, and are building our team as we speak. So this IS happening. This is not some idea, or fantasy. Also, this is not MY first Rodeo and have several other start-ups that have been successful.

Thanks Guys, Brandon Meade out

 

[Mister Brandon]

Some more. As you can see, we mean business. Luckily we have good friends and Intel, EVGA, Corsair, Razer, and BenQ. Oh and now LG too

 

[Mindrot]

Interesting. I've always wanted to do this. Never did because I'd hate to have to rely on forums for sales

 

[Aldakoopa]

Planning on getting any AMD?

 

[Culbrelai]

Nahhhhhhhhhhh, you don't need AMD, stick with nVidia.

Hope this goes well. What was the one company that scammed a lot of people and then went out of business? It was all over here, years ago. People remember it, Damn I don't remember.

Although, it isn't hard to be better than newegg =P

Now, tryin to beat Superbiiz, I'd like to see that.

 

[Mister Brandon]

Planning on getting any AMD?

This is a VERY good question. Simple answer; I am personally one of the largest UA dealers of AMD stuff through my endeavors on amazon and ebay and the like. However, do we really want to sell AMD? No. Why you ask? because they have atrocious Product Support. Horrible performance in Crossfire and even in single card use. Also, they have such a tremendously high rate-of-failure. This leads to nothing but problems on our end. However, people love cheap stuff and AMD is as cheap as it gets. We sell a LOT more AMD stuff than Nvidia. We sell a lot more AMD vs Intel as well. Go figure.

So in summary, yes we sure will. We also know some AMD execs and can get excellent pricing, and more importantly better service. Case in point, we ordered (10) A10-5800K APU's last week for a friend who is having us build some steambox's or whatever you want to call them. Two of them were bad. One wouldn't even boot. What the heck right? This would never be the case with Intel. So we figured we would simply RMA it and get some news ones shipped to us, even though it would cause delay's we are very understanding. Well boy we were wrong. AMD simply does not have the man-power to process all of the RMA's and such. Luckily, Chris knows someone in Product Support and simply texted his guy, who called down and got our RMA approved and actually got some new unit's out to us.

So hope that answers your question. One thing I can tell you is that I am VERY excited about XFX's AMD GPU's. Very exciting stuff there. I have a meeting with them next month and am I looking forward to that one. Also, we are pretty impressed with AMD APU technology. Good stuff for the money there.

 

[I.M.O.G.]

That example image is cherry picked to show bad crossfire performance for the 7970. That is the ONLY resolution where crossfire on 7970's doesn't double performance in Battlefield 3. Even more importantly, it depends on drivers, and where you read reviews at. Different games yield different results as well.

You can find similar results to those you posted for the 7970 here (so pcper isn't the only one that got results like that):
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/HD_7970_CrossFire/5.html

However you can also see crossfire scaling for the 7970 at Tom's, which also tested 5760x1080, and it shows good scaling at that setting as well as 2560x1600:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-680-sli-overclock-surround,3162-5.html

Bottom line: It is technically inaccurate to post an image like that and make a statement like "Horrible performance in Crossfire and even in single card use." The reviews are out there. The horrible crossfire performance statement only holds up for a SINGLE resolution in battlefield 3, and even then, depending on which reviews you look at. If you take a broad view, and weigh the results fairly... 7970's are more often than not very competitive, in performance and price.

 

[EarthDog]

NOt to mention I tested CFx across a couple of AMD cards here as well and didnt get those results. +1 to the above.

COngrats on your new business! GL!

EDIT: That link, IMOG was darn near from release day as well (the TPU link)... and like a lot of new releases, the drivers havent quite caught up yet. We have 3 reviews here which show GREAT scaling in BF3... granted, not at that res, but the point still remains. Im more than certain a CAP or beta resolved that issue in that AAA title pretty quick.

 

[MattNo5ss]

That graph isn't typical FPS testing and data. That's a graph with the "small frames" excluded, and CFX apparently has more of these "small frames" than SLI. So, when those small frames are excluded, it makes the gap between SLI and CFX much larger. These "small frames" were detected by a hardware video capture card that sees frames as the viewer sees them on the screen. This is why other sites don't have these results, they are recorded and filtered differently.

The straight FPS numbers captured by software includes those "small frames" and it's what the majority of sites use for comparison data. The software captured FPS numbers are below from the same article...

...they have atrocious Product Support. Horrible performance in Crossfire and even in single card use. Also, they have such a tremendously high rate-of-failure.

CFX vs SLI issues can be debated, but the single graph you posted is not the entire picture. There is much more to look at and consider before deciding which is best for an individual.

You do realize that the graph you posted shows the HD7970 doing better than the GTX680 in single card performance right?

Tremendously high failure rate based on what? If it was really as high as you let on, I would think there would be many more reports all over the place.

 

[Aldakoopa]

Not too sure I'd buy from you with your attitude towards AMD... just sayin'.

 

[Mister Brandon]

You guys are missing the point. Selling AMD = more hassles. More returns. More headaches. More customers calling to complain about this or that. Also, AMD DOES have higher failure rates across the board. That is a fact. If you were on the inside like we all were or perhaps even attended CES or Computex you would most likely know this. AMD has far less staff in the Product Support departments which leads to epic-long wait times for trouble shooting and tech support and RMA's. And yet even with all those problems we will continue to sell AMD because that is what we want as a Community, or Cohorts if you will. That is all I am trying to say. Can we please get back on topic.

Not too sure I'd buy from you with your attitude towards AMD... just sayin'.

No offense sir, but if you would choose to shop somewhere else that is up to you. By all means. Sorry you feel that way, but you really shouldn't take things so personal.

Also, I personally build hundreds of PC's a year sometimes 3 or 4 a day. Please do not talk to me like you are more experienced than I, because you are not. And a lot of these builds are AMD builds because people are cheap, that will always be the case. I for one believe in spending more to get more. And in the case of Intel and Nvidia right now that is true. I know this because I have a lot of experience with both. And because I am no dummy who is bound by some weird brand loyalty.

 

[Culbrelai]

Gotta second that microstuttering.

AMD did microstutter on the same game a nVidia card did not. (ATI 5770 and GTX 580m)

Still, since you AMD fanboys love your cheap crap we'll give it to you

That.

I assume you're gonna have a website and ship places if you wanna compete with NewEgg and Amazon, rite?

I like where this is goin already.

 

[EarthDog]

You guys are missing the point. AMD is the WORST company to deal with. Period. High failure rates mean HORRIBLE losses in time, customer satisfaction, RMA's, shipping costs, Etc, micro-stuttering, tearing, lame-frames, EVERYWHERE, and on every game. Still, since you AMD fanboys love your cheap crap we'll give it to you. And we'll give you the best price on it. But let's keep it real. I have WAY more experience than you guys but I'll let you rant on with your AMD pride. Let's keep this on topic please. My point was that we do not want to sell AMD because it is not the best, but it just so happens that people LOVE cheap crap. So we WILL sell it. We are not here to knit-pick this so get BACK ON TOPIC. Thanks.

Any chance you can post some 3rd party information on their 'high failure' rates?

Your blanket statements without anything backing it up are really....disappointing at best. I would like to know if you they do have higher failure rates so perhaps I wont buy them in the future. So far, nothing you have posted leads me to do anything but ask more questions.

 

[Mister Brandon]

Any chance you can post some 3rd party information on their 'high failure' rates?

Your blanket statements without anything backing it up are really....disappointing at best. I would like to know if you they do have higher failure rates so perhaps I wont buy them in the future. So far, nothing you have posted leads me to do anything but ask more questions.

You can PM me or email me and we'll get to it when we have time. This is not the thread for it. Sorry sir. Also, you could always do what we did and start a freaking company and build hundreds of PC's and get the experience yourself

 

[EarthDog]

You can PM me or email me and we'll get to it when we have time. This is not the thread for it. Sorry sir. Also, you could always do what we did and start a freaking company and build hundreds of PC's and get the experience yourself

Been there.. done that..with both INtel and AMD and Nvidia.. bailed on it...my experience does not remotely reflect yours with AMD.

Have fun!

If I was you however, I would support your assertions in public. Helps rebuild the image that seems to have taken a hit. Good thing you arent selling here.

 

[briansun1]

I have a 7870 and frankly I have had NO probelms with it. Also befor this computer I was runing on a AMD cpu also NO problem that one is still runing. also I have seen no other reputible website claim that Amd flat out sucks. so what you are talking about... also you have no information to back up your claimes.

 

[briansun1]

So hope that answers your question. One thing I can tell you is that I am VERY excited about XFX's AMD GPU's. Very exciting stuff there. I have a meeting with them next month and am I looking forward to that one. Also, we are pretty impressed with AMD APU technology. Good stuff for the money there.

wait so you say that amd suck then go on to say that you are "VERY excited about XFX's AMD GPU's" ?? wtf...

 

[MattNo5ss]

You guys are missing the point. AMD is the WORST company to deal with. Period.

This is an opinion based on a personal experience. Period.

High failure rates mean HORRIBLE losses in time, customer satisfaction, RMA's, shipping costs, Etc,

Yes, higher failure rates would mean that, but do you have proof that AMD has "much" higher failure rates than Intel or NVIDIA?

micro-stuttering, tearing, lame-frames, EVERYWHERE, and on every game.

Both AMD and NVIDIA can have these issues to some extent in multi-GPU setups. NVIDIA even has Adaptive VSync, which is meant to help remove stutter and tearing to smooth out FPS. Therefore, NVIDIA is admitting there is some stutter and tearing to be addressed.

Still, since you AMD fanboys love your cheap crap we'll give it to you. And we'll give you the best price on it. But let's keep it real. I have WAY more experience than you guys but I'll let you rant on with your AMD pride. Let's keep this on topic please. My point was that we do not want to sell AMD because it is not the best, but it just so happens that people LOVE cheap crap. So we WILL sell it. We are not here to knit-pick this so get BACK ON TOPIC. Thanks.

No need to go assuming and accusing people of being fanboys. Personally, I have never owned an AMD CPU or used an AMD GPU in any of my everyday PCs. I've only used AMD GPUs for testing and benching.

Also, your arrogance precludes you. You assume you have more experience than anyone else without knowing the background of others. There are people around who have decades of experience in the PC field. Not only that, but someone who doesn't have as much experience, but has really done their research could easily be in the right. Assumptions are never good, and it's always worth considering someone else's point of view.

What I don't like is people claiming their opinions are facts. So yes, let's be real. AMD and NVIDIA both have their pros and cons which have to be weighed against a client's requirements before the best decision can be made.

However, you seem to blindly disregard any information that contradicts what you believe to be true. Like I mentioned before, your OWN graph shows the HD7970 beating the GTX680 in the single GPU tests at 2560x1440, yet you still say the GTX680 is better for single GPU? That makes no sense... The fact is that the HD7970 is better than the GTX680 when running a high resolution on a single GPU. The reason behind that? The HD7970 has a higher memory bus width and more vRAM.

 

[I.M.O.G.]

EDIT: That link, IMOG was darn near from release day as well (the TPU link)... and like a lot of new releases, the drivers havent quite caught up yet. We have 3 reviews here which show GREAT scaling in BF3... granted, not at that res, but the point still remains. Im more than certain a CAP or beta resolved that issue in that AAA title pretty quick.

Ya, I was going to pull from our own reviews, but they focus on the 1920x1080 resolution.