All American Computers.. An Inside Look

[Rob Williams]

"The entire time we talked, he emphasized the uniqueness of each and every PC build in the AAC shops. Kyle takes great pride in the fact that his PC’s offer many things that you cannot find anywhere else."

Discuss Gregs article here!

[Greg King]

Me wants a LiquidXS!

[madmat]

Does AAC offer a LiquidXS in anything but an acrylic chassis? I like acrylic but it's just not as hardy as metal for lan gaming.

[Greg King]

That is something that I can ask, and I am sure they can accomodate most any request but I dont think anyone will have to worry about these LiquidXS cases. They are extremely robusy and well made. With the size of the cases though, you would be getting into a lot of weight if you went with any metal.

[madmat]

Well, the TJ07 for instance...it's nearly the same size, has more than enough room for all the WC gear and tips the scales at around 10lbs. Alloy cases aren't nearly as heavy as their SECC counterparts.

[Jakal]

Awesome to see an hometown business like that be recognized world wide. Says something about their products. Pretty sweet of them to let you in for a look, Greg. Hope they're around for a good long time.

[Greg King]

Originally Posted by madmat

Well, the TJ07 for instance...it's nearly the same size, has more than enough room for all the WC gear and tips the scales at around 10lbs. Alloy cases aren't nearly as heavy as their SECC counterparts.

The acrylic case is a selling feature for them. They put a lot of time and effort working with their case manufacturer to get a case that everyone is happy with. It's also difficult to laser etch steel or aluminum, at least to do it and get the same effect. Like I said earlier though, I am sure they would accomodate any reasonable request but for me, the acrylic is the way to go.

I've got one of these bad boys on order, an LXS with FX-60, DFI Lanparty mb, 7900GTX SLI, 2gb Corsair PC4000 Platinum, XP Pro. Spent an hour on the phone tonight with Kyle, and my system has finally made it to build Hopefully in a couple weeks I'll be able to put my Dimension 8250 to work as a doorstop

I haven't got my hands on the product yet of course so I can't speak about how it performs, but I'll tell you what, Kyle and AAC are FANTASTIC when it comes to customer relations and support.

My system has been on order for a while due to supply issues out of AAC's control, and whenever I call for a progress report, I speak to Kyle personally and he'll fill me in down to the nth detail as to what's going on, and what he's trying to do to get the matter resolved. None of the "brush-off" you'd expect from someone like Dell (I ordered, then cancelled an XPS 600 before I bought the LXS - it was delayed for inexplicable reasons, and no matter who I talked to, all I got was "Your order is delayed"... no explanation. Well jeez, I already knew that. Got p*ssed off and cancelled it!)

OTOH, Kyle will take as much time as you want, to explain the situation to you, and what he's doing about it. (Would Michael Dell waste one minute of his time talking to you???) I'm sure that tech support in event of an issue would be at least as good, if not better.

If this LXS performs even half as well as the support AAC has given me, I'll be a happy camper

[Greg King]

I guarentee that you will not be disappointed in the performance of your PC. To put it bluntly, Kyle knows his shit. I know there are many other builders that know what they are doing too but Kyle takes his time and will talk with you. He works under no assumptions that any customer knows what they are talking about, yet does not judge them should they actually -not- know what they are talking about. He is a down to earth dude who loves to build PCs. Very badass PCs might I add.

I will actually be making the trip back out to AAC this wednesday to spend some more time with the computers and will let Kyle know that you appreciate what he is doing. I am sure he will be happy to hear it.

Thank you for stopping by and letting us know how you feel. Participation is a wonderful thing.

[Greg King]

Needless bump!

sign on the door says they are CLOSED as of December 8

[Greg King]

I haven't talked to Kyle in about a month but will call him tomorrow and see how things are and whats up with AAC. Thanks for the update.

[Rory Buszka]

The problem in the enthusiast market (which is incredibly competitive since anyone can get the parts off the shelf) is that there's virtually no money in it. If one takes a look at the car audio market (where subwoofers are built-to-spec by large build houses and sold by small cottage-industry companies), they'll likely notice a similar trend -- if your product is not the most sought-after piece of hardware, and if the enthusiasts don't have plenty of money to spend, your company won't last very long. While it's sad to think that a company that takes pride in its hand-built enthusiast product can't be profitable enough in this day and age to stay afloat, I can't exactly say I'm blown out of the water with surprise.

[Greg King]

I would have to call this, the Wal-Mart effect.

Kyle would advertise product X at price Y. If anyone went online to Newegg, they would see that they could save 5 dollars and buy the same product. Not taking into account that if they had went with the local brick and mortar store, they would have paid a bit more but would have had the product that very same day. There were also the problems with vendors not sending AAC relaible products.

Say they sell a 5000 dollar PC. The money is sent and the system is built but upon stress testing, one peice of the puzzle fails. The weakest link is RMA'd and upon reciving the new peice, the problem persists. So now you have the customer who has laid out an ungodly amount of money for a computer that they are having to wait 4, 5 or 6 months for. Frustration builds and the money is refunded however, Kyle is stuck with the rest of the system and has to eat the cost. While not fair, it's business.

There are many reasons for somethign like this to happen and unfortunately, there is rarely enough time to play the point the finger game. The sad thing is, like you said, a company who in my honest opinion, put more time into their custom builds than anyone out there, goes under. It's a sad situation indeed.

[Greg King]

I must add, I will call AAC on Monday and see if I can't find out whats going on. They might not be closed down for good but with the site being down, I can't imagine it not being the worst.