Aria PC BTO

[Middenrat]

these guys at Aria are well-priced and quick on delivery with peripherals and hardware, but if you search about on their webby you'll notice a Build-To-Order service, which I decided to take a punt on for my triennial PC purchase.
The website layout is simple and guides you through a construction offering only compatible components from quite a limited range. This was good enough for me as it reflected my shallow knowledge of the market and helped keep it affordable without making me feel as if I was compromising on quality. Overclockers UK could learn from this.
My budget is always the same and Moore's Law always delivers, so this is my tastiest PC yet. The combination of Windows Vista + my first widescreen panel + 4GB RAM + 10kRPM HD + nVidia 8800GTS 512 + a zippy Core2 Duo all wrapped up in an Antec 9000 with groovy blue LEDs just blows me away, I could have thrown higher specs in but it's a diminishing advantage curve, so it came in under my £1000 limit inc delivery.
All software and drivers do the business smoothly and quickly. The onboard sound with the Asus P5K is not as rich as the Creative Audigy of my last PC but the interface is much simpler and the settings stay 'set', instaed of wandering all over the place depending upon applications and Windows interference. Um, speaking of which... I never saw so much idle activity as on this OS! First imressions are of unnecessary command queries popping up all the time and HD going like the clappers over not much, but you can get it running more XP-like with a little tweaking. Don't allow the Power Saving options to kick you into Sleep Mode cos your HD will be busy for the next 10 minutes when you come back, masses of CPU activity too. You're quicker just turning the bugger Off and booting up again to resume your session.
TMN never looked so good as with this GPU, PC3 and everything high returns 153fps. I'm going to install TMU for a look at the (graphically) superior environments, it actually ran faster than Nations on my old PC . The LG 22" Widescreen display is 2ms and 5000:1, which can be harsh on the eye, but this sweetie looks great straight out of the box and no messing about with the drivers, Plug n Play does it just fine.
The BTO service costs £35, which is well-spent in my case. Aria came in right on time with the delivery too: 8-10 days lead time for the build then courier by City Link with all that parcel tracking fun.
Now here is an important piece of added value by clicking through Aria's banner ad on this website and all the way to purchase, shoreforums and MadLaps benefit from a nice whack of commission. In the instance I'm reviewing here that is equivalent to circa SIX MONTHS server subs in N.E. Other gaming clan nuff said.
I have no hesitation in recommending Aria PC. I'm convinced it's a major contribution to road safety.
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Skin by Baino

[mad]

lol thanks mid, I'm sure road safety will sleep well in their beds tonight knowing your championing the cause