Ready to Ship
Curated configurations held in stock and dispatched fast. Professionally built, tested and backed by Aftershock PC — no configuration required.
Why Aftershock PC
Anyone can order the same parts at the same price. What you are actually choosing is who builds the machine, who tests it before it ships, and who picks up the phone two years later when something goes wrong. Four and a half thousand customers have rated us on exactly that. Here is what sits behind it.
4.9 STARS ON GOOGLEFrom more than 4,200 customer reviews
3-YEAR WARRANTYExtendable to 4 years
LIFETIME SUPPORTAustralia's largest PC service team
AWARD-WINNING BUILDERSBest Custom Desktop PC Brand 2020–2023
BUILT IN AUSTRALIAAssembled and tested to order
ON-SITE SERVICINGLess downtime — we come to you
The short version
Six things that are true of every machine we build, whether it is a one-litre office box or a six-GPU compute node.
4.9 on Google from over 4,200 customer reviews
Best Custom Desktop PC Brand 2020–2023
8 years of workstation builds — universities, studios and 150+ businesses
Specified for your software
We start from the applications you run, not from a parts list. The same budget builds a very different machine for a colourist than it does for a Revit user, and we build the right one.
We will tell you to buy less
If a smaller or cheaper machine covers the work, that is what we recommend. We do not quote a bigger system than the job supports — there is a whole page on this site that argues for the entry model.
Built to order in Melbourne
Hand-assembled one machine at a time by our Melbourne team, by people you can actually call. Nothing arrives in a sealed box off an overseas line with a sticker on it.
Checked, stressed and updated before it ships
A benchmark runs for ninety seconds; an export or a training run goes for hours, so we validate at sustained load. Firmware and drivers are brought current here, not left for you. Anything that throttles or faults is held back and corrected, and the machine is hand-foamed before it is packed.
Supported here, for as long as you own it
Full-system cover for three years, extendable to four — the whole machine, not a chain of component warranties you have to chase. On-site servicing available as an add-on. And support does not stop on the day the cover does.
Your specification is kept on file
Same board, same firmware, same drive. Machine twenty matches machine one, and a reorder next year matches both — which is the difference between a fleet and twenty computers.
From first conversation to year four
Buying the wrong workstation is an expensive mistake, and it is usually made at the start rather than the end. This is the order we do things in, and why.
- 01
Consultation
What software you run, what is slowing your team down, your budget range, your deadlines, and where you are headed. Also where the machine will actually live — a remote studio, a lab, a rack, a site office or a stage all change the build.
- 02
Configuration
We do not template this. The right processor for how your software threads, the right graphics card for your render or compute pipeline, the right storage layout for your project sizes. Right tool for the right job, every time.
- 03
Professional assembly
Hand-built by our Melbourne team, not picked off a warehouse shelf. Deliberate airflow planning, clean cable routing, components seated and routed correctly from the start. It shows up in thermals, in long-term reliability, and in how easy the machine is to service later.
- 04
Stress testing & validation
Thermals and stability validated under sustained load before dispatch, and firmware and drivers brought current. When it arrives it is already proven. No burn-in period, no surprises — ready to work from the first session.
- 05
Deployment
For teams, we coordinate consistent configurations, staged rollouts and deployment planning — so the whole team is set up correctly rather than one desk at a time. Units are asset-tagged and serial-listed against your register before they ship.
- 06
Ongoing support
Three years of full-system cover, extendable to four. Lifetime local support, remote diagnostics, on-site servicing as an add-on, and loan systems to keep you working while yours is being repaired.
How we specify a machine
Most workstation buyers are not hardware buyers. They are photographers, editors, architects, engineers and business owners whose real question is simply: will this reliably do the work I need it to do? Answering that starts with three questions, and none of them is about a component.
1 · What software do you run?
It is the single most useful thing you can tell us, because applications are held up by completely different things. DaVinci Resolve runs out of video memory. After Effects and Revit run out of single-core speed. Photoshop runs out of RAM. Premiere waits on decode. The same money spent four ways produces four different machines, and only one of them is right for you.
2 · How big is the work?
A 1080p social cut and an 8K RAW feature are the same job at different scales, and the scale is what decides the specification. Scene sizes, model sizes, dataset sizes, document sizes, camera and codec — these change the answer more than any benchmark result does.
3 · Where will it live?
A machine beside a microphone has a different cooling and acoustic brief to one in a machine room. A site office, a shared desk, a rack, a reception counter — each puts a real constraint on the build, and it is cheaper to know before we build than after you unbox it.
And then we say what it will not do
Every machine has a limit and we would rather you heard ours from us. If a level will need proxies on your footage, half-res debayer on a heavy grade, or more VRAM than your model needs, we say so before you buy — not in a support ticket six weeks later.
We specify to the requirement
Where a single-GPU workstation meets the workload, that is what we recommend. Where the entry model covers the role, we say so and suggest the difference goes on a second monitor or a longer warranty. We are not trying to sell you the top of the ladder — we are trying to have you back in four years.
How we build and test it
Every machine is assembled to order in Australia and validated before it is packed. Not powered on and boxed — loaded, held there, and measured.
Assembled one at a time, and checked as it goes. Cable routing, airflow path, thermal contact and drive layout are done by hand and checked, because those are the things that decide whether a machine is still quiet in year three.
Validated at sustained load, not in a burst. A twenty-minute export or an overnight render is a completely different test to a benchmark run, and it is the one that finds throttling.
Multi-GPU systems are tested with every card loaded. The thermal behaviour of several closely spaced cards cannot be predicted from a spec sheet, so it is measured instead.
Anything that faults in testing does not ship. It is held back and corrected. That is the whole point of testing before dispatch rather than after.
Applications are checked beyond installation. A timeline plays, a grade responds, an export completes. Plugin sets are checked separately, because they usually move the graphics card rather than the processor.
Firmware and drivers are brought current here. BIOS, chipset, graphics and storage firmware are up to date when the machine is packed, so the first thing you do with it is your work — not an afternoon of updates and reboots.
Every system is hand-foamed for transit. A workstation is heavy, and the graphics card is the heaviest thing hanging off the board. Each machine is packed by hand so it arrives in the condition it left in, anywhere in Australia.
The build is recorded. Board, firmware, drive and revision are kept on file, so a fleet stays a fleet and a reorder is not a lottery.
Standard parts, on purpose
We build on standard components in standard cases with standard power supplies. It is a quieter decision than it sounds, and it is worth money to you three years out.
It means the graphics card can be replaced without replacing the machine. It means a drive can be added rather than swapped. It means a failed part is a part, not a proprietary module on a six-week lead time. And it means the machine can be opened by any competent technician, not only by us.
A workstation should be upgraded once or twice before it is replaced. Ours are built so that is possible.
After it ships — the part most people find out about later
A workstation is a three-to-five year relationship, and most of it happens after the invoice. This is the part of the purchase that is hardest to compare on a product page, so here it is plainly.
Three years, parts and labour
Extendable to a fourth year at the time of purchase. Cover on the machine we built, not on a chain of separate component warranties you have to chase individually.
A workstation team, not a call centre
Monday to Friday 11am–7pm and Saturday 12–5pm AEST, answered in Australia by a team that has been building these for eight years. Written enquiries are usually answered within one business day.
On-site servicing, if you want it
Available as an add-on at purchase. Rather than packing the machine up and waiting while it travels both ways, a technician comes to you, diagnoses and repairs it where it sits — days of downtime become hours.
Support does not stop at the warranty
Remote support carries on after the cover ends. We would rather help you get another two years out of a machine than have you replace it in silence.
Reorders match
Your specification stays on file. Adding three seats next year gets you three of the same machine, not three that are nearly the same and behave differently under load.
Paying over time
Business customers can settle in instalments through Procuret rather than in full at purchase. Procuret assess and administer it in your organisation's name. It is the only finance facility we offer.
Loan systems while yours is out
A deadline does not pause because a machine did. Where a system has to go away for repair, a loan machine can keep the seat working in the meantime — because downtime is not always an option.
Remote diagnostics first
Most faults are identified and fixed without the machine going anywhere. One point of contact, direct accountability, and no automated queue between you and someone who can actually help.
Real people. Real expertise.
Every customer speaks directly with an experienced consultant who understands the hardware and the workloads it runs. For larger organisations, a dedicated account manager takes ownership of your deployment — your team, your budget cycle and your technology roadmap — so the right system is always the recommendation.
Two comparisons worth making
The first is what separates a workstation from a gaming PC with a big graphics card in it. The second is where we sit against the other two sensible ways to buy one.
Workstation hardware. Not a gaming PC.
On a spec sheet the two can look almost identical. In professional use the difference is significant, and it shows up exactly when reliability matters most.
Workstation-class hardware
A gaming PC builder
Workstation-class hardware
Professional GPU options with certified ISV drivers — tested and validated against the software your team depends on: AutoCAD, SolidWorks, Maya, DaVinci Resolve and more.
A gaming PC builder
Consumer graphics tuned for frame rates, not certified for professional software — which can mean instability, visual errors or crashes in production.
Workstation-class hardware
ECC memory options that detect and correct data errors in real time — which matters when a project file, a simulation or a training set cannot afford silent corruption.
A gaming PC builder
Standard memory with no error correction. A corruption event mid-project or mid-training-run has no safeguard behind it.
Workstation-class hardware
Platforms engineered for sustained continuous load, not peak performance followed by thermal throttling ten minutes in.
A gaming PC builder
Optimised for short bursts rather than the sustained throughput a long render, simulation or compute session actually asks for.
Workstation-class hardware
Built and tested by people who work on professional workloads all day, rather than benchmark scores.
A gaming PC builder
Support experienced in gaming hardware rather than professional workflows, ISV certification or fleet deployment.
Workstation-class hardware
Long-term platform stability and component availability, so a repeat order in eighteen months is still the same machine.
A gaming PC builder
Consumer product cycles — parts discontinued faster, which makes a consistent team deployment harder to hold together over time.
We specialise in high-performance and professional workstations rather than gaming PCs adapted for work. That focus is the reason organisations with no tolerance for downtime come to us.
And the three ways to buy one
We are only one of them. Here is where each is strongest, so you can decide whether we are actually the right answer for you.
| What is being compared | AftershockConfigured & built to order | Off-the-shelf retailBoxed, on a shelf | Build it yourselfParts list, your bench |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who choosesthe partsAnd on what basis | We do, from the software you run and the size of your files | Chosen to hit a price point, before anyone knew what you do | You do, which is ideal if you enjoy the research and have the time |
| Tested before it reaches youUnder real load | Assembled and stress-tested to order; failures are corrected before dispatch | Factory QA on a production line, at volume | Your first render is the test |
| WarrantyWhat it covers | Three years parts and labour on the whole machine, extendable to four | Typically one to three years, terms vary by brand | Each component separately, chased individually |
| Who you callWhen something is wrong | Australia's largest PC service team, on Australian hours; on-site for business | A call centre, often offshore | Yourself, then the component manufacturer |
| Upgrade pathThree years out | Standard parts and standard cases — open it and change the card | Often proprietary boards, coolers and power supplies | Entirely yours, and the main reason to do it this way |
| Buying for a teamTen seats, or a hundred | One recorded specification, asset-tagged, quoted for procurement, reorders match | Stock changes between orders without notice | Practical for two or three; painful past that |
| Best whenBe honest with yourself | The machine has to earn money and you would rather be doing your work than researching parts | The budget is fixed, the workload is light and speed of purchase matters most | You know exactly what you want and building it is part of the enjoyment |
Who we build for
Motorsport teams, fire services, universities, museums and film studios — alongside more than 150 businesses and a great many individual professionals whose machine is the business.
Three of them, in their own words
Different fields, one requirement: it cannot drop a frame, and it cannot fall over overnight.
Volumetric film production
Dreamscreen Australia
Our Hyperfocus workstation powers Dreamscreen’s 12 × 4.5m LED virtual production stage at their 950m² Epping studio — one of Australia’s most advanced filmmaking environments. Rendering immersive virtual sets in real time demands hardware that never drops a frame.
Hyperfocus
Team Technology Sponsor
Brad Jones Racing
As the principal technology partner to BJR, our workstations and laptops power the entire team — engineers in the garage, driver sim systems, and real-time telemetry analysis in the pits on race day. Where performance and reliability matter most.
Workstations & laptops
Firefighting simulators
CFA Victoria
We partnered with the Country Fire Authority to power their state-of-the-art aircraft firefighting simulators — giving crews the tools to train for the critical, high-pressure moments of flying difficult firefighting aircraft before they ever need to do it for real.
Simulation systems
The questions people actually ask
Buy Now
Custom Workstations
Start with the machine built for your software, then change what you like. We build, test and optimise it before it leaves us.
Talk to an Expert
Tell us the work, the software and how many seats. We'll come back with a spec and a price — written enquiries answered within one business day.
