All American Computers.. An Inside Look
- Thread starter Rob Williams
- Start date
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 said:
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.
D
DirtyHarry3033
Guest
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
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
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.
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.
U
Unregistered
Guest
AAC is closed ?
sign on the door says they are CLOSED as of December 8
sign on the door says they are CLOSED as of December 8
Rory Buszka
Partition Master
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.
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.
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.
Last edited:
If the site is down, it's not a good sign since it was hosted there. It's too bad. I hope Kyle finds himself in another job with less stress.
D
DirtyHarry3033
Guest
It's true...
Hate to say but it is true, AAC is dead I got my LXS on Aug 28th after a 6-month wait (nerve-wracking, let me tell you...) and had a couple of minor issues in late Nov. Tried to contact Kyle thru email, phone, etc with no luck. Web site wouldn't load, didn't know what to make of it.
Did a web search and found a post at XtremeSystems.org:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=125203
which I can't get to load now. Guess the mod did something to it, maybe at Kyle's request?
At any rate the thread was started in late Nov by an irate AAC customer who got his system without any memory, wanting to know who else had probs with AAC. He and Kyle made a number of posts back and forth, Kyle explained that AAC was forced to declare bankruptcy on Nov 1, and he sent the system out incomplete rather than allow it to be grabbed as an asset in the bankruptcy, and the guy maybe ending up with nothing at all.
It's a sad thing, but AAC is no more. Truly a shame, my LXS is a work of art, and I'd planned to sent it back middle of next year to get DX10 video cards installed, and maybe swap out my FX60 for the latest, greatest Core 2. Now I'll have to do it myself which will be a real b*tch since I have no experience with watercooled systems.
Guess I'm lucky at least, that I got one of the last LXS systems made.
Hate to say but it is true, AAC is dead
I got my LXS on Aug 28th after a 6-month wait (nerve-wracking, let me tell you...) and had a couple of minor issues in late Nov. Tried to contact Kyle thru email, phone, etc with no luck. Web site wouldn't load, didn't know what to make of it.Did a web search and found a post at XtremeSystems.org:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=125203
which I can't get to load now. Guess the mod did something to it, maybe at Kyle's request?
At any rate the thread was started in late Nov by an irate AAC customer who got his system without any memory, wanting to know who else had probs with AAC. He and Kyle made a number of posts back and forth, Kyle explained that AAC was forced to declare bankruptcy on Nov 1, and he sent the system out incomplete rather than allow it to be grabbed as an asset in the bankruptcy, and the guy maybe ending up with nothing at all.
It's a sad thing, but AAC is no more. Truly a shame, my LXS is a work of art, and I'd planned to sent it back middle of next year to get DX10 video cards installed, and maybe swap out my FX60 for the latest, greatest Core 2. Now I'll have to do it myself which will be a real b*tch since I have no experience with watercooled systems.
Guess I'm lucky at least, that I got one of the last LXS systems made.
It looks like they moved that thread to a forum only the mods can access. Not sure why though... when it had a clear answer as to why AAC is no more.
That really sucks. I didn't know Kyle personally, but I know how much time and effort he put into the company and his mods. It's too bad that all these other goliaths are quickly taking out the small guy.
As for your water cooling noob-ish-ness, that's what we are here for. Though I am also a noob, some people around here are not
Thanks for the update by the way.. it's good to know.
That really sucks. I didn't know Kyle personally, but I know how much time and effort he put into the company and his mods. It's too bad that all these other goliaths are quickly taking out the small guy.
As for your water cooling noob-ish-ness, that's what we are here for. Though I am also a noob, some people around here are not
Thanks for the update by the way.. it's good to know.
D
DirtyHarry3033
Guest
Yeah, it sucks and I hate it for Kyle. Never met him in person (though he invited me several times to come up for the grand tour) but I spent many hours on the phone with him during my 6-month build, and he's a really great guy.
Yeah the mods at Xtreme must have put that thread out of sight. It's still there or I'd get a "no thread specified" error. That don't make sense. The customer who started it was certainly right ill at Kyle but there was nothing in there last time I looked at it (Dec 6) that was offensive or objectionable in any way. No reason I can think of to put it out of sight.
As you say, they should have left it accessible so that former AAC customers could know what happened - if I hadn't found it before it was moved, I'd probably still be thinking that AAC was just ignoring me by not responding to my emails or messages. Eventually I'd figure it out, but only after getting major p*ssed off!
I don't think the "goliaths" took out AAC, there was a major debacle with C3 who manufactured his LXS chassis, they were taking 6 weeks IIRC, to deliver chassis that should have taken 2 weeks at most, and he was regularly having to reject 1/2 of the ones he got due to manufacturing defects. I know this both from conversations with him, and from his posts in that "missing" thread.
And then there was the problem with the unstable 7900GT cards which he had a LOT of orders for, 1st the supply problem and then having to go thru a half-dozen cards to find one that was actually usable. We talked a lot about that too.
Between the chassis problems and the vid card problems, I guess he lost so many orders and so much $$$ that he went under. He nearly lost mine several times, but I ended up sticking it out for which I'm grateful. I'd rather have a LiquidXS with no support, than no LiquidXS and say a Dell XPS with 24/7 support from India!
It's truly a shame AAC is gone because the man built kick-*ss systems. Hopefully he'll get his feet back under him in a year or 2 and have another go at building the best systems on the planet
Yeah the mods at Xtreme must have put that thread out of sight. It's still there or I'd get a "no thread specified" error. That don't make sense. The customer who started it was certainly right ill at Kyle but there was nothing in there last time I looked at it (Dec 6) that was offensive or objectionable in any way. No reason I can think of to put it out of sight.
As you say, they should have left it accessible so that former AAC customers could know what happened - if I hadn't found it before it was moved, I'd probably still be thinking that AAC was just ignoring me by not responding to my emails or messages. Eventually I'd figure it out, but only after getting major p*ssed off!
I don't think the "goliaths" took out AAC, there was a major debacle with C3 who manufactured his LXS chassis, they were taking 6 weeks IIRC, to deliver chassis that should have taken 2 weeks at most, and he was regularly having to reject 1/2 of the ones he got due to manufacturing defects. I know this both from conversations with him, and from his posts in that "missing" thread.
And then there was the problem with the unstable 7900GT cards which he had a LOT of orders for, 1st the supply problem and then having to go thru a half-dozen cards to find one that was actually usable. We talked a lot about that too.
Between the chassis problems and the vid card problems, I guess he lost so many orders and so much $$$ that he went under. He nearly lost mine several times, but I ended up sticking it out for which I'm grateful. I'd rather have a LiquidXS with no support, than no LiquidXS and say a Dell XPS with 24/7 support from India!
It's truly a shame AAC is gone because the man built kick-*ss systems. Hopefully he'll get his feet back under him in a year or 2 and have another go at building the best systems on the planet