It’s been awhile since I looked into building a PC, so I’m not sure what some of the better stores may be, or which may have swapped hands/changed approaches and aren’t as reliable as they once were.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions/advice!
Try using pcpartpicker.com. You can do your build on the site and it will list the best deals for the components you choose. As a bonus it will check to see if there are some glaring incompatibilities at the same time.
As a bonus it will check to see if there are some glaring incompatibilities at the same time.
I’d heard of the site but for some reason I’d forgotten this part. I’ll definitely use it for that at a minimum (and maybe for sourcing parts as well depending!), as I have a habit of missing some tiny detail that happens to relate to compatibility.
Watching this thread. I’ve been LOST ever since Fry’s fell apart. :(
Microcenter is great, especially for nerds. Sucks if one isn’t close, but they ship.
I really wish that there wasn’t just the one in Tustin for the entire state of California. The Bay Area would seem like a no-brainer for a Micro Center but no such luck.
that sucks. there is one 20 min from me, the the second is roughly 45 min. east coast baby!
My best buys were always at fry’s.
And if you wanted delicious fries, your best buy was not at Best Buy but rather Five Guys Burgers and Fries.
Newegg, Amazon, BestBuy. Every so often one or the other will come out with a great price on a component. I keep my ear to the ground on Slickdeals and /r/buildapcsales and cherry pick anything that sounds good.
Can I have some of those negative downvotes?
spoiler
Bizarre.
Microcenter is my 1st priority, I’ve heard of Fry’s on the west Coast.
After that, Newegg
Newegg has really gone downhill since 2016.
I can still get great shipping times if I get stuff that’s “shipped by Newegg” but the selection is incredibly limited.
Yeah that’s fair and they aren’t my first choice but I trust them to be reliable. If they have what I need then I know I can buy the product and receive it.
Yeah, they used to be the only place I shopped for parts, until the change in ownership tanked the quality of their listings and customer service.
Fry’s is dead. They do not exist anymore in any real capacity. https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2021/2/24/22298616/frys-electronics-going-out-of-business
What pissed me off the most about that: they just closed the stores without any “going out of world sale”
That being said, when i last visited Fry’s, about 6 months before they shut down, there was nothing worth buying. They were putting gamer chairs™ everywhere, because they had an overstock. Printer paper, ink cartridges, canned air dusters and gamer chairs on every isle.
I built a computer last year. Parts were sourced from Newegg, microcenter, and Amazon.
I did this exact same combo. PCpartspicker helped find best deal for each component between the three.
B&H in New York has some pretty good inventory, usually. I’ve bought a lot of stuff from them through the years.
I cheat and drive to Microcenter. It’s about an hour south and worth it.
They sell online and I’d try that if I lived too far away to drive.
Memory express and Canada computers
Depends on my laziness. I just bought parts for my new rig on Newegg. I was going to do microcenter, but they didn’t have everything I wanted.
Microcenter, Newegg, Scamazon. In that order.
Depends on what you want. Newegg, eBay, Amazon, Jawa.gg, Liquidation.com, Shopgoodwill.com, FB Marketplace, Craigslist, Garage sales, Auctions
I get computer parts from all these sources.
Since Fry’s closed only Amazon and Newegg remain as primary part sources, both of which are shitty companies. Closest Microcenter is ~500 miles away.
Probably not for everyone, but Facebook marketplace with local pickup is really good for some parts. YMMV
I was planning on buying an RX 6700XT from Newegg for $450ish, but instead managed to get a 6600 (non XT) for $80. I then found a 6700XT a month later for $300, bought it, and gave the 6600 to my cousin’s kid.
I also bought a shitbox I turned into a Plex server for $75.
Mostly Amazon, myself.
If one wants an occasional old gizmo that’s no longer made, eBay can be helpful.
Specifically for cables – which aren’t that pricy relative to other items people buy, and are often marked up a lot by retailers – I’ve gone to Monoprice for quite some years. Useful if getting a bunch of cables.
Canada Computers and sometimes Memory Express.
