My husband and I are both ready to throw our Alienware Notebooks in the trash. Well, okay, maybe off to eBay, but we’re sick to death of these overpriced crashing* machines that we rarely get to use because they’re always back at Alienware HQ being “fixed” again.
After some researching (and some handy coincidental threads going on right now here in IMHO and one in Cafe Society), we’ve decided we will build our own computers again. It’s been a wile since either of us has built one, but they’re not complicated, and by the sounds of it, it’s only gotten easier as the years have gone by. They’re virtually idiot-proof, it seems.
Anyway, all the stores my husband used to go to buy his parts have disappeared. I don’t know the names of the old stores, since I’ve only been here a couple of years… I know there was one place in Southcenter he used to love. I guess that doesn’t help. Where do you recommend we buy computer parts?
If it helps, we just want to build a couple of desktops - and we both want gaming machines. Give me fast, give me powerful, give me lots and lots of fans so that my computer could lift off if it wanted to! MWAHAHA! Or, okay, maybe liquid cooling is okay. But it fills me with power, and fills mine enemies with a sense of dread when they hear my jet powered computer being turned on! MWAHAHA! I kid. Just show me to the parts.
I don’t know what to call it - the computers will suddenly lock up, power down… and then no amount of prompting can make them come back on again. We’re neither of us new to computers, so after we try everything, we call customer service, tell them what happened and what we did to try to fix the problem, they walk us through it, realise that it’s just not coming back to life, tell us to ship the computer back to them, they “fix” it, it returns to us a month later with a note attached saying they installed a new motherboard, then shortly after, crashes again in the same manner. We don’t even have time to put questionable programs on the damn things - the only thing I have installed on mine is EQII. They know this. It still dies. Over. And over. And over… .
If you do your research, you should be able to determine what parts you need/want, and it’s not like you get a much better idea about the qualities of a motherboard or a CPU by looking at the packaging in a store.
Newegg is widely considered one of the better hardware suppliers around, with decent prices, fast delivery, and good return policies.
Ohhh, thank you, that’s going into my bookmarks. That’s a great idea. It’s been a long time since we built anything and I never even thought of that. :smack: Duh, me.
I know the husband would still like to know of some local stores, as he likes to shop around and see things himself, and talk to live people face to face - sometimes the clerks, sometimes other customers, too. But I’m showing him this link, as well. Me, I’d just as soon buy everything off the net.
I have at least three major chains I can visit within a half-hour, but I still tend to buy parts online. The selections and the prices are better online, sometimes the prices are better even after including shipping costs. And you want to do good searches on the parts for any common problems (that lots of people have) anyway–so online ordering just seems obvious to me.
…It doesn’t hurt to look in any local walk-in stores right before ordering of course, as there might be a good deal or maybe a part that is tough to get through other channels, -but even these you can often hear about online before you can find them yourself. One example I remember is some time back when Frye’s had a black version of a Antec desktop case that normally only came in silver, that seemed to be difficult to get from anywhere else. Most Frye’s stores seemed to have at least two or three sitting on their shelves.
…And of course I am in Illinois, and Frye’s is in California. Which didn’t help me none. But you do want to be aware of these things if you can be.
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If you know what parts you want, you can find all sorts of stores, with better prices than newegg, at pricewatch. Also, outpost, which the online site of Fry’s Electronics, has good sales. I got a 300gb hard drive for $80 last week. Either way, start seaching at pricewatch to see what you want.
You don’t need to worry about Outpost or other online stores if you don’t want to. There’s a Fry’s in Renton. They have 1-page ads in Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday papers and a 4-page ad in Friday’s.
IME, Fry’s is very competitive with even Newegg, Monarch Computers, et cetera when it comes to CPU*, case, power supply (after rebate) and some video card prices and not very competitive for RAM or smaller items like cables and fans. (Hard drive prices usually come down to whomever has the best price after rebate for the week.) As with all things, YMMV.
That said, most of their CPU deals are bundles w/ cheapie mobos. They will, however, occasionally bundle their better CPUs (the higher-clocked AMD X2s, generally) with quality Asus or Abit mobos. If you’re patient enough, this may be your best bet.