Where do you shop online for pc parts?

[mlchris2]

I moved from a metro area to another state and the city isnt that large. I had a great contact where I could get a great deal (at least what I thought was great) on pc parts.

I will have to do most of my shopping online now. I want to know where most of you shop online to get your parts?

I've got a few like tigerdirect.com, pcclub.com

thanks in advance

Mark C.
Network Admin - Digital Draw Network

 

[garebo]

Honestly, best to stay away from tigerdirect. They buy up overstock and stuff that others can sell and often this stuff is plagued with problems. They do lots of other tricks like that. In my opinion, they just cant be trusted and i know others here will back me up. Its not to say you cant buy one thing from them, but do watch their shipping fees as they are very very high. They are one of those who try to make up for low prices by charging high ship fees!

newegg, fry's, zipzoomfly are a few. I will post some more.
directron is another.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[garebo]

Actually, you want to start every search for parts at pricewatch. They will tell you where the lowest prices are.
But if you want a bunch of parts all at once it could be different, you may want to start at newegg or one of the others like that.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[garebo]

ecost - a real favorite of mine, same as newegg is.
mwave
overstock.com
axiontech
buy.com
cablemart
dealsonic
evertek
iocombo
ledshoppe
z-buy.com - not sure on this one
woot.com has one per day, it may or may not be a pc part. but last week they had 250 gig western dig hard drive for $55 shipped!

Here's a few more. Still, starting at pricewatch will get you all these stores. This is your shortcut, lol.



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[garebo]

here are some more. But i havent used some of them lately so you have to check them out yourself as some may not be there. Still, all or most are good places to shop online.
And if i have thrown in a Canadian site, please forgive, but i dont think i have.
I have probably 500 more but i wont bore you with them, lol.

techbargains
usbwholesale
computergeeks - a real fav of mine
computerguys - small parts!
thenerds.net
compubuzz
shop4tech - best for media
multiwavedirect
morestuff4less.com
flexdeals.net
compu-terra
samsclub - this is the discount store online
amazon.com
walmart - online - pc

for software
trustprice
I have more for software, like some academic, post if you want them.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[garebo]

One more thing. I dont happen to like Dell pc's but Dell sometimes has good sales on parts, software, memory, even server towers etc.


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[electronicsfreak]

I second that on newegg. I use newegg all the time there service and customer support rocks. Also heres another site that I didnt see in garebos list that I personally like.

http://www.pricewatch.com

 

[garebo]

electronicsfreak, I mentioned pricewatch in my second post, lol.
If i want a certain part i go there first. If i am going to get a bunch of parts i start first at newegg.
If i am just looking around i start at computergeeks.com and ecost. Ecost has some really great deals!!


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[electronicsfreak]

Woops i overlooked that one my bad lol. I seen the other list but I didnt see pricewatch. I thought it was kind of odd not seeing that up there lol. Now I know why I overlooked it. Anyways ignore my post lol.

 

[garebo]

Well, some people can be downright rude (wether they are right or wrong isnt the point), but you are NOT one of them, so i thought nothing of it, lol.

Also, mlchris2 can see that pricewatch.com is important when 2 people out of 2 point it out!

there are plenty more sites, too, but i think it would be overkill for me to go on, lol.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[electronicsfreak]

Yeah pricewatch is good although I still agree with you on newegg. I go there first, if they dont have what im looking for then I look elsewhere. There usually cheap anyways but even if they are more expensive for some odd reason customer service is more important to me than price. Also yeah I think anymore sites would be overkill for pricewatch itself contains most of them so what site you havent named on there im sure he will come across and im sure one of those sites will contain what hes looking for lol.

 

[garebo]

Very good point on the customer service!

Although i shop a good deal of these stores because sometimes they have parts, like computerguys and computergeeks, that i cant find elsewhere, i prefer to stay with newegg if i am getting a new mobo\ram\cpu all in one as their customer support is very good. And customer support is very important unless you know exactly what you want and you are very certain about it.
Also, newegg has a few sections, like the mobo section where you can get a discount on returned goods. They test them to make sure they are working but the box is opened so they sell it at 25% off usually.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[garebo]

Another point i forgot.
You can have a lot of these sites notify you via email when they have a sale on.
Dell, ecost, directron, computergeeks, and many more have that feature.
There are others like this, they tell you when there are good deals going and where to get the mfgr rebate forms and such, but here is only one of them:

resellerratings.com


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[kmcferrin]

My two cents:

I shop almost exclusively at NewEgg. I have found that their prices are usually the lowest (or very close to it) around for any given item. But more importantly, their customer service and support is one of the best in the business. They also have a huge selection, and the amount of detail that you can find on each individual item is fairly extensive. Plus you can also read reviews of each component from other customers who have bought it.

Other places will sometimes have a lower price, but for me the piece of mind is worth paying a couple of dollars more.

One thing to watch out for with all online vendors, many of them will advertise a price in a price-search engine (like pricewatch.com) that is lower than their listed web price. Usually you have to call them to get that lower price, and IMHO that's a hassle for saving a couple bucks.

The other thing to watch out for is shipping costs. Some vendors will advertise a lower price on the product, but then charge a higher price for shipping than their competitors to make up the difference. In the end the total cost ends up being the same or higher. Again, these sorts of "tricks" tend to be more prevalent in those companies who advertise price-search engines.

 

[garebo]

I agree with everything you said, newegg is my first stop when i want a mobo\cpu\ram setup and for the reasons you mentioned.

About the shipping, thats what i mentioned about tigerdirect, but they arent the only ones. Buy.com used to do that, i think they smartened up.

I mentioned resellerratings for getting good deals and mfgr rebates and such, but i forgot the main reason and that is that they have trading records for all the online stores. You can see who has a good reputation and who doesnt. Worth a look, thats for sure. Of course, as in all places on the net, you have to sometimes take what you hear with a grain of salt, it depends not only on the persons honesty and integrity, but also on their knowledge.
You see people complaining about a bad mobo when in fact they didnt move the bios jumper over or some other silly thing that is in the manual. So you have to look at the big picture, not on one persons review.

I didnt realize how much we have to know, but look at all the info and advice we need to shop on the net, lol.




Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[xit]

Zipzoomfly, Newegg, Directron, and Amamax along with Gearxs in that order usually, as I have ordered from all over the years, so far they are all respectable.

xit

 

[Frank4d]

There is a Fry's Electronics down the street from where I work (less than a mile). If I can't find what I want there then I order from

http://newegg.com.

 

[RICHINMINN]

Another website that I haven't seen anyone mention yet is chiefvalue.com. Their prices are usually near the lowest around, and they have a great selection. I like their selection process where you can select one or more criteria for whatever it is you're shopping for. For example, if you're looking for a motherboard, you can narrow your search by selecting from the following criteria:
Intel or AMD
Brand
Price range
Socket type
CPU type
Chipset
Number of memory slots
Speed of memory
Maximum memory supported
AGP slots available
PCI Express x16 slots available
IDE drive channels
IDE RAID support
IDE additional channels
IDE RAID additional channels
SATA drive channels
SATA RAID support
SATA additional channels
SATA RAID additional channels
Onboard video
Onboard video chipset
Audio channels
Max LAN speed
Form factor

As you can see, you can really narrow in on the exact board that you need for your specific purposes. And they carry virtually every brand around, so the choices can sometimes be mind-boggling. If you're looking for a motherboard to use with an Athlon 64 (socket 939) CPU, with 4 SATA channels and SATA RAID capabilities, a PCI Express x16 slot, and 6-channel audio, this will show just the ones that fit your requirements. (There are two of them: an ECS board for $75.99 and a Foxconn board for $74.49.)

A lot of their items (including many motherboards, CPUs, and memory) have free shipping, which definitely helps.

I've been buying from them for over 2 years now, and have always been satisfied. Sometimes you can find an item for a dollar or two less at Newegg.com, but if I'm buying all the parts to build a complete system, I've always come out ahead at chiefvalue.com. Check'em out.

Rich (in Minn.)