Überclok Ion: Midrange Overclocking, with a Warranty

Website Layout and Ordering

First off, when looking for the webpage, it's helpful to know the URL, www.uberclok.com. Searching by company name doesn't show their site in the top 10 hits, and it's even more likely users will misspell the name as "uberclock" and get hits for a software utility. Once at the webpage, we find a fairly clean and straightforward layout, with generally good information. There are currently two models, the Ion and the Reaktor. The Ion was "designed" to run up to 1680x1050, while the Reaktor model is recommended for anything above that.

Clicking on "Buy" will direct you to a separate website with the ordering options. Configuration options are available for each model, but the options are limited compared to some other vendors that offer vast arrays of choices. In general, we agree with Überclok's approach of providing only a few quality choices for each item. This avoids confusing the average gaming consumer, who likely is relying on the PC vendor's opinion of what is "the best" considering they are skipping the DIY option. We also appreciate their honesty on several of the options, particularly the Killer NIC ("Cost conscious? You don't need a Killer NIC.") and antivirus solution (AVG Free is recommended). One thing we disliked is that you cannot view shipping and handling charges until after creating a profile.

Summing up the website layout and content:

Pros

• Quality component choices
  
• Simplified ordering options and honest explanations of choices
  
• Reasonable OS and hardware upgrade pricing
  
• Dual-boot options

Cons

• Cannot view "final" cost with shipping and handling without creating a profile
  
• Portions of the ordering page seem very new (i.e. About our Site in the Help area is presently blank)

Support

As mentioned previously, Überclok warranties their systems for three years parts and labor. Should a component fail, Überclok covers shipping both ways, which is a nice addition. If the consumer wants to ship the entire system for diagnosis or repair, they must pay for shipping, but Überclok will pay for return shipping. This is slightly unfortunate, but reasonable for a smaller vendor. They also offer a 30-day money back guarantee if the buyer is not satisfied, excluding shipping and handling fees. This is a great option for peace of mind.

The Support page definitely has a personal small-company feel, which could be viewed as a plus or a minus. A quote from the Customer Support page:

"Speak to an actual human being! Our hours are 9-5 Central Time, Monday - Friday. We also answer the phones whenever we are putting in extra hours (which is all the time!), so go ahead and try us evenings and weekends too."

The number is toll-free but as noted above is not 24 hours, unless the guys at the office happen to be hopped up on Red Bull.

Now that we're acquainted with the company, how do their systems perform?