I'm a 36 year old logger and father of 3. My wife and I decided to treat me to a powerful computer for playing video games. I shopped around at local big box stores and on the internet, and educated myself until I knew what CPU, GPU, Ghz, Mhz, Mbps, fps, refresh rate, SSD, PCI-E, motherboard, AMD and Nvidia all mean. To my amazement, I found that I could get the parts and performance I wanted in a computer, from Odyssey Computers, for about 30-40% less money than from either big box retailers or from those online stores like Dell or NCIX. As well, because Odyssey basically custom builds each computer by hand, I was able to have them add, omit, or substitute certain parts so that I got uncompromised high performance(read: RAW POWER) without paying for bells and whistles I neither wanted nor needed. Everyone at Odyssey amazed me with their depth and breadth of knowledge about computers, and was very patient with me and my endless questions.(I probably took up 3 hours of staff time by the time I was ready to purchase). You would think a small local store would be high priced and slow, but you'd be wrong. I was wrong, very wrong. No computer store I've seen holds a candle to Odyssey. If you're looking for a cheap budget computer: Odyssey's economy computers have superior parts for the same price as big box stores. If you're looking for superior performance in a computer: Let Odyssey's staff over-deliver. Tell them what you want the computer for, and enjoy either a lower price, better quality parts, or higher performance than their competitors. There really is nobody else who compares. I spent weeks researching before I parted with nearly $2,000 of hard earned cash, and I assure you my $1700 gaming rig would have cost at minimum $2100 but more likely $2300-$2400 had I bought anywhere else. My wife and I were in a big box store just yesterday(May 20, 2012) and I just shook my head while the salesman showed us computers, because I know computers and I know what I can get at Odyssey for that price. I always shop around before every purchase, but Odyssey always wins hands down.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $1,700.00
- What could this company do to improve their services?
- lol, they could be a little more aggressive, and try to talk people into buying higher-performance parts. i'm kidding. they won't try to talk you into spending money you don't need to.
- Any advice to offer fellow homeowners facing a similar project?
- yes, i would advise my fellow computer buyers to ask Odyssey how much extra money it would cost to upgrade your CPU, graphics card, and RAM and how much of a performance difference it would make. I think an extra $100 could gain you an extra 20-40% performance if spent wisely.