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Domain: tcwo.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to tcwo.com.
Comments · 30
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Re:Cue Cat
While I can understand wanting to help out businesses on-the-cheap, basing support on a RadioShack freebie that needs to be modified seems questionable. Especially when you can get a barcode scanner for much less than "$200-$500":
$79
$67
$58.98
$69.75
$82
$89.63
$89.99
While admittedly none of these are cheaper than a cue::cat (or however it was supposed to be spelled), they do afford you the luxury of not supporting a business decision on a third-party's freebie handout product, and not requiring any hacking. -
Re:Bad for users of alternative browsers?
If pop-up blocking is integrated into the browser that 90% of the web-surfing population is using, you can bet that they'll start figuring out how to get around it- or worse, figure out some more annoying method of advertising.
Already been done. Take a look at this site:
www.tcwo.com
See that annoying Fedex shipping thing that pops up? If you're right, we're going to be seeing more of that kind of stuff used for ads. -
My experience with failing Abit motherboards.
I can finally vent about my misery! This experience ought to be useful to anyone who is currently in the market for a motherboard. Simply put, don't buy Abit.
About 1.5 years ago, I purchased two motherboards from Abit. This one for an 800MHz Athlon system, and this board for a dual, 733MHz Coppermine system. Last semeter, my KA7 failed slowly over time. At first, I thought it was the power supply because it seemed all the capasitors around the power regulator were fried (they were encrusted with the carbon of some substance that appeared to boil out of them and burn). I replaced my power supply and motherboard. A few weeks ago, I started having interrupt failures on my VP6 (APIC errors on both CPUs). I replaced the motherboard with a Gigabyte GA-6VTXD (sorry for the shameless plug, but Gigabyte denies deep linking, and this is where I got the board - a great buy). Turns out the VP6 also had fried capasitors and I *know* the PS in my that dual proc box is solid (a well tested Antec). The only two Abit mobos I've ever purchased burned out their capasitors. The moral of this story? Don't buy Abit. While this problem is wide spread, Abit seems to have a particular affliction. -
Re:Buying on eBay is FollyFYI, I have no connection with Newegg other than as a customer. Thomson TWCO is very good as well.
The point I was trying to make was more that Ebay often is not a place to find bargains, using an etailer like NewEgg as reference to make the point.
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Processor
The only place to buy your processor is TCWO.COM a place in tampa. They have cheaper prices for processors than newegg.com, though, i recommend newegg for everything else. Definitly check out tcwo though, they have an 800 #, real friendly staff, return policy, and a store front (ive been there, they exist;)
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Re: Shopping spots
http://www.pricewatch.com is a good starting point, but http://www.newegg.com has really good prices for small stuff. For larger items that shops like to jack the price up on, http://www.tcwo.com is an unbeatable bargain- $6.95 ships anything up to 150 pounds.
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Re:Some sites to check out
I like Thompsons computer warehouse as well. Calling your CC company to add your shipping address to your Credit Card Bill To address will eliminate the delay for verification calls. I've ordered four processors from them in the past three months. Excellent shipping time. Excellent price and exactly as advertised. I prefer the OEM versions. But they sell Boxed as well. Can't vouch for the price on the Boxed as I've never bought one like that.
Another site I like is TC Computers now part of Insight.com. The memory from All Components has performed well for me. They also have better selection of accessories and addons. I like the ThermalTake heatsink cooling fans.
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my private research
A couple of other people suggested tcwo.com, and I tend to agree. After an extensive research done about a week ago, I came up with the following result for my needs. By the way, they don't charge for shipping or tax, so what you see is what you get. on their web site. In the end, when you factor shipping and fax into the equation, tcwo.com beats newegg.com on nearly every single price.
- CPU: Intel P4 2.26 533MHz FSB $279.00
- Case: Antec Perf. Plus1080 430W Beige $146.00
- MOBO: Asus P4B533E i845e DDR S/R/L/U2 (NIC integrated, FireWire integrated) $205.00
- HDD: Maxtor 80GB U133 7200 2MB version $117.00
- RAM: 512MB PC2700 333MHz $116.00
- Monitor: Hansol 19IN/18V 1600X1200 96KHZ 25MM 920D OSD MPRII DYNAFLAT $289.68. provantage.com
- GPU: Visiontek XTASY GeForce4 TI4600 AGP 128MB DDR (VIVO) $392.00
- Sound: Creative Labs Audigy X-Gamer 5.1 $89.00
- DVD: Samsung 16X DVD Retail $59.00
- CDRW: TDK VEloCD 40X/12X/48X EDIDE $133.95. compuplus.com
- Input Logitech Cordless Optical Mse/KB $79.00
- floppy: Beige 1.44 FDD $14.00
- Voice/Fax/Modem : USR v.90 56k voice/fax winmodem $24.00
- FireWire : integrated with MOBO
- NIC : integrated with MOBO
I couldn't find what I wanted for CDRW and monitor on tcwo.com. Also, GPUs are a lot cheaper (up to %50) on some other sites, such as www.essencompu.com and compuplus.com.
*Dislaimer: I'm not affilicated in any way with tcwo.com, nor do I make any claim for accuracy of the prices listed above. Check them out yourself. That's why I linked them to actual price pages. -
my private research
A couple of other people suggested tcwo.com, and I tend to agree. After an extensive research done about a week ago, I came up with the following result for my needs. By the way, they don't charge for shipping or tax, so what you see is what you get. on their web site. In the end, when you factor shipping and fax into the equation, tcwo.com beats newegg.com on nearly every single price.
- CPU: Intel P4 2.26 533MHz FSB $279.00
- Case: Antec Perf. Plus1080 430W Beige $146.00
- MOBO: Asus P4B533E i845e DDR S/R/L/U2 (NIC integrated, FireWire integrated) $205.00
- HDD: Maxtor 80GB U133 7200 2MB version $117.00
- RAM: 512MB PC2700 333MHz $116.00
- Monitor: Hansol 19IN/18V 1600X1200 96KHZ 25MM 920D OSD MPRII DYNAFLAT $289.68. provantage.com
- GPU: Visiontek XTASY GeForce4 TI4600 AGP 128MB DDR (VIVO) $392.00
- Sound: Creative Labs Audigy X-Gamer 5.1 $89.00
- DVD: Samsung 16X DVD Retail $59.00
- CDRW: TDK VEloCD 40X/12X/48X EDIDE $133.95. compuplus.com
- Input Logitech Cordless Optical Mse/KB $79.00
- floppy: Beige 1.44 FDD $14.00
- Voice/Fax/Modem : USR v.90 56k voice/fax winmodem $24.00
- FireWire : integrated with MOBO
- NIC : integrated with MOBO
I couldn't find what I wanted for CDRW and monitor on tcwo.com. Also, GPUs are a lot cheaper (up to %50) on some other sites, such as www.essencompu.com and compuplus.com.
*Dislaimer: I'm not affilicated in any way with tcwo.com, nor do I make any claim for accuracy of the prices listed above. Check them out yourself. That's why I linked them to actual price pages. -
my private research
A couple of other people suggested tcwo.com, and I tend to agree. After an extensive research done about a week ago, I came up with the following result for my needs. By the way, they don't charge for shipping or tax, so what you see is what you get. on their web site. In the end, when you factor shipping and fax into the equation, tcwo.com beats newegg.com on nearly every single price.
- CPU: Intel P4 2.26 533MHz FSB $279.00
- Case: Antec Perf. Plus1080 430W Beige $146.00
- MOBO: Asus P4B533E i845e DDR S/R/L/U2 (NIC integrated, FireWire integrated) $205.00
- HDD: Maxtor 80GB U133 7200 2MB version $117.00
- RAM: 512MB PC2700 333MHz $116.00
- Monitor: Hansol 19IN/18V 1600X1200 96KHZ 25MM 920D OSD MPRII DYNAFLAT $289.68. provantage.com
- GPU: Visiontek XTASY GeForce4 TI4600 AGP 128MB DDR (VIVO) $392.00
- Sound: Creative Labs Audigy X-Gamer 5.1 $89.00
- DVD: Samsung 16X DVD Retail $59.00
- CDRW: TDK VEloCD 40X/12X/48X EDIDE $133.95. compuplus.com
- Input Logitech Cordless Optical Mse/KB $79.00
- floppy: Beige 1.44 FDD $14.00
- Voice/Fax/Modem : USR v.90 56k voice/fax winmodem $24.00
- FireWire : integrated with MOBO
- NIC : integrated with MOBO
I couldn't find what I wanted for CDRW and monitor on tcwo.com. Also, GPUs are a lot cheaper (up to %50) on some other sites, such as www.essencompu.com and compuplus.com.
*Dislaimer: I'm not affilicated in any way with tcwo.com, nor do I make any claim for accuracy of the prices listed above. Check them out yourself. That's why I linked them to actual price pages. -
my private research
A couple of other people suggested tcwo.com, and I tend to agree. After an extensive research done about a week ago, I came up with the following result for my needs. By the way, they don't charge for shipping or tax, so what you see is what you get. on their web site. In the end, when you factor shipping and fax into the equation, tcwo.com beats newegg.com on nearly every single price.
- CPU: Intel P4 2.26 533MHz FSB $279.00
- Case: Antec Perf. Plus1080 430W Beige $146.00
- MOBO: Asus P4B533E i845e DDR S/R/L/U2 (NIC integrated, FireWire integrated) $205.00
- HDD: Maxtor 80GB U133 7200 2MB version $117.00
- RAM: 512MB PC2700 333MHz $116.00
- Monitor: Hansol 19IN/18V 1600X1200 96KHZ 25MM 920D OSD MPRII DYNAFLAT $289.68. provantage.com
- GPU: Visiontek XTASY GeForce4 TI4600 AGP 128MB DDR (VIVO) $392.00
- Sound: Creative Labs Audigy X-Gamer 5.1 $89.00
- DVD: Samsung 16X DVD Retail $59.00
- CDRW: TDK VEloCD 40X/12X/48X EDIDE $133.95. compuplus.com
- Input Logitech Cordless Optical Mse/KB $79.00
- floppy: Beige 1.44 FDD $14.00
- Voice/Fax/Modem : USR v.90 56k voice/fax winmodem $24.00
- FireWire : integrated with MOBO
- NIC : integrated with MOBO
I couldn't find what I wanted for CDRW and monitor on tcwo.com. Also, GPUs are a lot cheaper (up to %50) on some other sites, such as www.essencompu.com and compuplus.com.
*Dislaimer: I'm not affilicated in any way with tcwo.com, nor do I make any claim for accuracy of the prices listed above. Check them out yourself. That's why I linked them to actual price pages. -
my private research
A couple of other people suggested tcwo.com, and I tend to agree. After an extensive research done about a week ago, I came up with the following result for my needs. By the way, they don't charge for shipping or tax, so what you see is what you get. on their web site. In the end, when you factor shipping and fax into the equation, tcwo.com beats newegg.com on nearly every single price.
- CPU: Intel P4 2.26 533MHz FSB $279.00
- Case: Antec Perf. Plus1080 430W Beige $146.00
- MOBO: Asus P4B533E i845e DDR S/R/L/U2 (NIC integrated, FireWire integrated) $205.00
- HDD: Maxtor 80GB U133 7200 2MB version $117.00
- RAM: 512MB PC2700 333MHz $116.00
- Monitor: Hansol 19IN/18V 1600X1200 96KHZ 25MM 920D OSD MPRII DYNAFLAT $289.68. provantage.com
- GPU: Visiontek XTASY GeForce4 TI4600 AGP 128MB DDR (VIVO) $392.00
- Sound: Creative Labs Audigy X-Gamer 5.1 $89.00
- DVD: Samsung 16X DVD Retail $59.00
- CDRW: TDK VEloCD 40X/12X/48X EDIDE $133.95. compuplus.com
- Input Logitech Cordless Optical Mse/KB $79.00
- floppy: Beige 1.44 FDD $14.00
- Voice/Fax/Modem : USR v.90 56k voice/fax winmodem $24.00
- FireWire : integrated with MOBO
- NIC : integrated with MOBO
I couldn't find what I wanted for CDRW and monitor on tcwo.com. Also, GPUs are a lot cheaper (up to %50) on some other sites, such as www.essencompu.com and compuplus.com.
*Dislaimer: I'm not affilicated in any way with tcwo.com, nor do I make any claim for accuracy of the prices listed above. Check them out yourself. That's why I linked them to actual price pages. -
my private research
A couple of other people suggested tcwo.com, and I tend to agree. After an extensive research done about a week ago, I came up with the following result for my needs. By the way, they don't charge for shipping or tax, so what you see is what you get. on their web site. In the end, when you factor shipping and fax into the equation, tcwo.com beats newegg.com on nearly every single price.
- CPU: Intel P4 2.26 533MHz FSB $279.00
- Case: Antec Perf. Plus1080 430W Beige $146.00
- MOBO: Asus P4B533E i845e DDR S/R/L/U2 (NIC integrated, FireWire integrated) $205.00
- HDD: Maxtor 80GB U133 7200 2MB version $117.00
- RAM: 512MB PC2700 333MHz $116.00
- Monitor: Hansol 19IN/18V 1600X1200 96KHZ 25MM 920D OSD MPRII DYNAFLAT $289.68. provantage.com
- GPU: Visiontek XTASY GeForce4 TI4600 AGP 128MB DDR (VIVO) $392.00
- Sound: Creative Labs Audigy X-Gamer 5.1 $89.00
- DVD: Samsung 16X DVD Retail $59.00
- CDRW: TDK VEloCD 40X/12X/48X EDIDE $133.95. compuplus.com
- Input Logitech Cordless Optical Mse/KB $79.00
- floppy: Beige 1.44 FDD $14.00
- Voice/Fax/Modem : USR v.90 56k voice/fax winmodem $24.00
- FireWire : integrated with MOBO
- NIC : integrated with MOBO
I couldn't find what I wanted for CDRW and monitor on tcwo.com. Also, GPUs are a lot cheaper (up to %50) on some other sites, such as www.essencompu.com and compuplus.com.
*Dislaimer: I'm not affilicated in any way with tcwo.com, nor do I make any claim for accuracy of the prices listed above. Check them out yourself. That's why I linked them to actual price pages. -
my private research
A couple of other people suggested tcwo.com, and I tend to agree. After an extensive research done about a week ago, I came up with the following result for my needs. By the way, they don't charge for shipping or tax, so what you see is what you get. on their web site. In the end, when you factor shipping and fax into the equation, tcwo.com beats newegg.com on nearly every single price.
- CPU: Intel P4 2.26 533MHz FSB $279.00
- Case: Antec Perf. Plus1080 430W Beige $146.00
- MOBO: Asus P4B533E i845e DDR S/R/L/U2 (NIC integrated, FireWire integrated) $205.00
- HDD: Maxtor 80GB U133 7200 2MB version $117.00
- RAM: 512MB PC2700 333MHz $116.00
- Monitor: Hansol 19IN/18V 1600X1200 96KHZ 25MM 920D OSD MPRII DYNAFLAT $289.68. provantage.com
- GPU: Visiontek XTASY GeForce4 TI4600 AGP 128MB DDR (VIVO) $392.00
- Sound: Creative Labs Audigy X-Gamer 5.1 $89.00
- DVD: Samsung 16X DVD Retail $59.00
- CDRW: TDK VEloCD 40X/12X/48X EDIDE $133.95. compuplus.com
- Input Logitech Cordless Optical Mse/KB $79.00
- floppy: Beige 1.44 FDD $14.00
- Voice/Fax/Modem : USR v.90 56k voice/fax winmodem $24.00
- FireWire : integrated with MOBO
- NIC : integrated with MOBO
I couldn't find what I wanted for CDRW and monitor on tcwo.com. Also, GPUs are a lot cheaper (up to %50) on some other sites, such as www.essencompu.com and compuplus.com.
*Dislaimer: I'm not affilicated in any way with tcwo.com, nor do I make any claim for accuracy of the prices listed above. Check them out yourself. That's why I linked them to actual price pages. -
my private research
A couple of other people suggested tcwo.com, and I tend to agree. After an extensive research done about a week ago, I came up with the following result for my needs. By the way, they don't charge for shipping or tax, so what you see is what you get. on their web site. In the end, when you factor shipping and fax into the equation, tcwo.com beats newegg.com on nearly every single price.
- CPU: Intel P4 2.26 533MHz FSB $279.00
- Case: Antec Perf. Plus1080 430W Beige $146.00
- MOBO: Asus P4B533E i845e DDR S/R/L/U2 (NIC integrated, FireWire integrated) $205.00
- HDD: Maxtor 80GB U133 7200 2MB version $117.00
- RAM: 512MB PC2700 333MHz $116.00
- Monitor: Hansol 19IN/18V 1600X1200 96KHZ 25MM 920D OSD MPRII DYNAFLAT $289.68. provantage.com
- GPU: Visiontek XTASY GeForce4 TI4600 AGP 128MB DDR (VIVO) $392.00
- Sound: Creative Labs Audigy X-Gamer 5.1 $89.00
- DVD: Samsung 16X DVD Retail $59.00
- CDRW: TDK VEloCD 40X/12X/48X EDIDE $133.95. compuplus.com
- Input Logitech Cordless Optical Mse/KB $79.00
- floppy: Beige 1.44 FDD $14.00
- Voice/Fax/Modem : USR v.90 56k voice/fax winmodem $24.00
- FireWire : integrated with MOBO
- NIC : integrated with MOBO
I couldn't find what I wanted for CDRW and monitor on tcwo.com. Also, GPUs are a lot cheaper (up to %50) on some other sites, such as www.essencompu.com and compuplus.com.
*Dislaimer: I'm not affilicated in any way with tcwo.com, nor do I make any claim for accuracy of the prices listed above. Check them out yourself. That's why I linked them to actual price pages. -
my private research
A couple of other people suggested tcwo.com, and I tend to agree. After an extensive research done about a week ago, I came up with the following result for my needs. By the way, they don't charge for shipping or tax, so what you see is what you get. on their web site. In the end, when you factor shipping and fax into the equation, tcwo.com beats newegg.com on nearly every single price.
- CPU: Intel P4 2.26 533MHz FSB $279.00
- Case: Antec Perf. Plus1080 430W Beige $146.00
- MOBO: Asus P4B533E i845e DDR S/R/L/U2 (NIC integrated, FireWire integrated) $205.00
- HDD: Maxtor 80GB U133 7200 2MB version $117.00
- RAM: 512MB PC2700 333MHz $116.00
- Monitor: Hansol 19IN/18V 1600X1200 96KHZ 25MM 920D OSD MPRII DYNAFLAT $289.68. provantage.com
- GPU: Visiontek XTASY GeForce4 TI4600 AGP 128MB DDR (VIVO) $392.00
- Sound: Creative Labs Audigy X-Gamer 5.1 $89.00
- DVD: Samsung 16X DVD Retail $59.00
- CDRW: TDK VEloCD 40X/12X/48X EDIDE $133.95. compuplus.com
- Input Logitech Cordless Optical Mse/KB $79.00
- floppy: Beige 1.44 FDD $14.00
- Voice/Fax/Modem : USR v.90 56k voice/fax winmodem $24.00
- FireWire : integrated with MOBO
- NIC : integrated with MOBO
I couldn't find what I wanted for CDRW and monitor on tcwo.com. Also, GPUs are a lot cheaper (up to %50) on some other sites, such as www.essencompu.com and compuplus.com.
*Dislaimer: I'm not affilicated in any way with tcwo.com, nor do I make any claim for accuracy of the prices listed above. Check them out yourself. That's why I linked them to actual price pages. -
my private research
A couple of other people suggested tcwo.com, and I tend to agree. After an extensive research done about a week ago, I came up with the following result for my needs. By the way, they don't charge for shipping or tax, so what you see is what you get. on their web site. In the end, when you factor shipping and fax into the equation, tcwo.com beats newegg.com on nearly every single price.
- CPU: Intel P4 2.26 533MHz FSB $279.00
- Case: Antec Perf. Plus1080 430W Beige $146.00
- MOBO: Asus P4B533E i845e DDR S/R/L/U2 (NIC integrated, FireWire integrated) $205.00
- HDD: Maxtor 80GB U133 7200 2MB version $117.00
- RAM: 512MB PC2700 333MHz $116.00
- Monitor: Hansol 19IN/18V 1600X1200 96KHZ 25MM 920D OSD MPRII DYNAFLAT $289.68. provantage.com
- GPU: Visiontek XTASY GeForce4 TI4600 AGP 128MB DDR (VIVO) $392.00
- Sound: Creative Labs Audigy X-Gamer 5.1 $89.00
- DVD: Samsung 16X DVD Retail $59.00
- CDRW: TDK VEloCD 40X/12X/48X EDIDE $133.95. compuplus.com
- Input Logitech Cordless Optical Mse/KB $79.00
- floppy: Beige 1.44 FDD $14.00
- Voice/Fax/Modem : USR v.90 56k voice/fax winmodem $24.00
- FireWire : integrated with MOBO
- NIC : integrated with MOBO
I couldn't find what I wanted for CDRW and monitor on tcwo.com. Also, GPUs are a lot cheaper (up to %50) on some other sites, such as www.essencompu.com and compuplus.com.
*Dislaimer: I'm not affilicated in any way with tcwo.com, nor do I make any claim for accuracy of the prices listed above. Check them out yourself. That's why I linked them to actual price pages. -
my private research
A couple of other people suggested tcwo.com, and I tend to agree. After an extensive research done about a week ago, I came up with the following result for my needs. By the way, they don't charge for shipping or tax, so what you see is what you get. on their web site. In the end, when you factor shipping and fax into the equation, tcwo.com beats newegg.com on nearly every single price.
- CPU: Intel P4 2.26 533MHz FSB $279.00
- Case: Antec Perf. Plus1080 430W Beige $146.00
- MOBO: Asus P4B533E i845e DDR S/R/L/U2 (NIC integrated, FireWire integrated) $205.00
- HDD: Maxtor 80GB U133 7200 2MB version $117.00
- RAM: 512MB PC2700 333MHz $116.00
- Monitor: Hansol 19IN/18V 1600X1200 96KHZ 25MM 920D OSD MPRII DYNAFLAT $289.68. provantage.com
- GPU: Visiontek XTASY GeForce4 TI4600 AGP 128MB DDR (VIVO) $392.00
- Sound: Creative Labs Audigy X-Gamer 5.1 $89.00
- DVD: Samsung 16X DVD Retail $59.00
- CDRW: TDK VEloCD 40X/12X/48X EDIDE $133.95. compuplus.com
- Input Logitech Cordless Optical Mse/KB $79.00
- floppy: Beige 1.44 FDD $14.00
- Voice/Fax/Modem : USR v.90 56k voice/fax winmodem $24.00
- FireWire : integrated with MOBO
- NIC : integrated with MOBO
I couldn't find what I wanted for CDRW and monitor on tcwo.com. Also, GPUs are a lot cheaper (up to %50) on some other sites, such as www.essencompu.com and compuplus.com.
*Dislaimer: I'm not affilicated in any way with tcwo.com, nor do I make any claim for accuracy of the prices listed above. Check them out yourself. That's why I linked them to actual price pages. -
my private research
A couple of other people suggested tcwo.com, and I tend to agree. After an extensive research done about a week ago, I came up with the following result for my needs. By the way, they don't charge for shipping or tax, so what you see is what you get. on their web site. In the end, when you factor shipping and fax into the equation, tcwo.com beats newegg.com on nearly every single price.
- CPU: Intel P4 2.26 533MHz FSB $279.00
- Case: Antec Perf. Plus1080 430W Beige $146.00
- MOBO: Asus P4B533E i845e DDR S/R/L/U2 (NIC integrated, FireWire integrated) $205.00
- HDD: Maxtor 80GB U133 7200 2MB version $117.00
- RAM: 512MB PC2700 333MHz $116.00
- Monitor: Hansol 19IN/18V 1600X1200 96KHZ 25MM 920D OSD MPRII DYNAFLAT $289.68. provantage.com
- GPU: Visiontek XTASY GeForce4 TI4600 AGP 128MB DDR (VIVO) $392.00
- Sound: Creative Labs Audigy X-Gamer 5.1 $89.00
- DVD: Samsung 16X DVD Retail $59.00
- CDRW: TDK VEloCD 40X/12X/48X EDIDE $133.95. compuplus.com
- Input Logitech Cordless Optical Mse/KB $79.00
- floppy: Beige 1.44 FDD $14.00
- Voice/Fax/Modem : USR v.90 56k voice/fax winmodem $24.00
- FireWire : integrated with MOBO
- NIC : integrated with MOBO
I couldn't find what I wanted for CDRW and monitor on tcwo.com. Also, GPUs are a lot cheaper (up to %50) on some other sites, such as www.essencompu.com and compuplus.com.
*Dislaimer: I'm not affilicated in any way with tcwo.com, nor do I make any claim for accuracy of the prices listed above. Check them out yourself. That's why I linked them to actual price pages. -
my private research
A couple of other people suggested tcwo.com, and I tend to agree. After an extensive research done about a week ago, I came up with the following result for my needs. By the way, they don't charge for shipping or tax, so what you see is what you get. on their web site. In the end, when you factor shipping and fax into the equation, tcwo.com beats newegg.com on nearly every single price.
- CPU: Intel P4 2.26 533MHz FSB $279.00
- Case: Antec Perf. Plus1080 430W Beige $146.00
- MOBO: Asus P4B533E i845e DDR S/R/L/U2 (NIC integrated, FireWire integrated) $205.00
- HDD: Maxtor 80GB U133 7200 2MB version $117.00
- RAM: 512MB PC2700 333MHz $116.00
- Monitor: Hansol 19IN/18V 1600X1200 96KHZ 25MM 920D OSD MPRII DYNAFLAT $289.68. provantage.com
- GPU: Visiontek XTASY GeForce4 TI4600 AGP 128MB DDR (VIVO) $392.00
- Sound: Creative Labs Audigy X-Gamer 5.1 $89.00
- DVD: Samsung 16X DVD Retail $59.00
- CDRW: TDK VEloCD 40X/12X/48X EDIDE $133.95. compuplus.com
- Input Logitech Cordless Optical Mse/KB $79.00
- floppy: Beige 1.44 FDD $14.00
- Voice/Fax/Modem : USR v.90 56k voice/fax winmodem $24.00
- FireWire : integrated with MOBO
- NIC : integrated with MOBO
I couldn't find what I wanted for CDRW and monitor on tcwo.com. Also, GPUs are a lot cheaper (up to %50) on some other sites, such as www.essencompu.com and compuplus.com.
*Dislaimer: I'm not affilicated in any way with tcwo.com, nor do I make any claim for accuracy of the prices listed above. Check them out yourself. That's why I linked them to actual price pages. -
Thompson Computer Warehouse
TCWO is where I purchased my parts last time I did an upgrade (about 3 months ago). They had really good prices and great web/phone support. I had a problem with my order and emailed them (I put only 256MB RAM instead of 512MB) and they got right back to me and fixed it.
I had a problem with Tiger Direct about a year ago. While their prices are allright their service is terrible. Phone support is nonexistant unless you want to be on hold and then told to call back later when Mr. X is in and their products seem to be a bit diffrent than what they give. Heck, one time they didn't even send me the product!!! -
Just Finished Gathering Parts...Hi, I just finished gathering the parts for a system myself (Haven't put it all together yet, though.)
Here are a few recommendations:
Price Grabber. Think Price Watch without so much sleaze. Plus, they offer peer merchant reviews!
Googlegear. They have good service and many of their items have free FedEx 2nd day shipping!
TCWO. They are a good place to buy CPUs.
Hope this helps you out.
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Some sites to check outThese are the sites I order from: they all have very good prices, and carry just about everything. If you look on pricewatch, you may find individual parts cheaper, but you wont find all the parts you want at the best deals from a single vendor.
- Thompsons computer warehouse -> they always contact me to verify my information, which delays ordering slightly, but they have great deals.
- Pc Progress - this site used to be butt ugly, but has gotten better. Regardless, they have great deals.
- Access Micro - they dont have the lowest prices, but they carry Everything.
- Directron - good selection and good prices.
- DV Direct - Hard to navigate (click on 'Manufacturer focus at the bottom of the page to find products easily), and they look like they specialize in video hardware, but in actually they carry some high quality PC parts, such as 3ware IDE raid controllers, you'll be hard pressed to find elsewhere.
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tcwo.com also
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Thompson's Computer Warehouse
I found Thompson's Computer Warehouse Outlet when I was living (without a car) in the country and looking for an alternative to the (extremely sleazy) local computer retailer. If you're not looking for bleeding-edge hardware, they're great. And they don't require customers to set up accounts.
Two drawbacks- They don't carry real modems (I had to buy an external one locally) and they don't carry printers or printer supplies.
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What's the point of overclocking ?The cost of the Koolance system is between 200$ and 260$. The only (PC mass-produced) processor more expensive than that is PIV 2GHz
Since overclocking can only give you a 10-20% performance increase (best-case scenario), I think it's more about adrenaline than performance. If so, using a koolance water-based system is like bungie jumping with a parachute.
The Raven
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Ah, Taxes.... The Bane Of The Teen GeekParts are exspensive. Making about a hundred bucks a week working at CompUSA(people want four year degrees for data entry here- morons) money means quite a bit to me.
But even with an employee discount, the parts I need are still cheaper from places out of state, such as TCWO.
Mostly, (and here comes my point) because If I buy something from a company that is online, but officially in the state of New York, I still have to pay the taxes on it. Fortunately, most of the sites that I would order from are out of state, just because of the large degree of taxes that new york state levies.
To quote someone who I cannot remember on slashdot-
"Will the last geek to leave america please turn slashdot off?" -
My quiet case project : it's an answer ... sort of
Well, it seem these days, most of the power user just care to get something like 200fps in Quake III. Why ? Beat's me ! I'm not on a quest to get the ultimate frame rate, I just want my box to be quiet as possibly can be.
To help you understand my take on the subject, here is the background
My PC has the following components :- A OEM case
- A 235W OEM power supply
- ASUS P3B-F
- Intel Pentium II rated 400Mhz @ 400Mhz
- A cheap OEM SECC2 Heat-Sink made of aluminum
- A 128MB CAS2 no-name DIMM
- Two 32MB CAS3 Samsung DIMM slowing down my memory timing, but preventing the appearance of the all mighty evil SwaP
- A ATI All-In-Wonder Rage128 16MB
- A Creative SoundBlaster Live! Value
- A Realtek 8139 Ethernet NIC
- My beloved USR 56Kbps ISA Real Modem. Sorry but to me a component that uses CPU power to do it's processing instead of taking the load off is not worthy of being in my computer. Not to mention the M$ Win part...
- A Creative 48x CD-ROM drive. It's the loudest damned thing in my computer when it's spinning
- A Quantum Fireball AS PLUS 40GB (7200RPM) in a removable tray
- A Quantum Fireball CX1 10GB (5400RPM) mounted inside the case
- Of course the stupid old 1.44 MB floppy drive only used for booting Tomsbrt in case of emergency
Soon to be
- A Adaptec 2940UW
- A Diamond Monster 3D II for Glide games
It turn out that the Quantum Fireball AS makes less noise than the Quantum Fireball CX1. I still have to figure it out
I use my PC for
- Running Linux and learning as much as time allows me (Jez I had so much time when I was a student... Think of all the time I wasted in High-School running the evil W monster)
- Doing some gaming i.e. : Diablo II, Unreal, UT, Undying (Although that thing is going to cost me a new box)
- Spending numerous nights filling my brain @ Slashdot, Tomshardware, Anandtech, Arstechnica, StorageReview, Developper.Intel.com, and most importantly, hounding the web for all the case manufacturers and their take at a quiet box.
As I'm writing this post, that is probably going to be the base documentation for my Silent Case Project, you're guessing that my sleepless night of browsing have not yielded the desired result.
I've check out many options such as water cooling, moving the PC to the closet, returning to the forest where a PC is pretty far from your everyday quest for survival. None of them suits me.
The objective of my project is to build a case that meets the following criteria
- A silent as possible
- Accessible
- Provides sufficient ventilation to maintain all the components running within thermal specs
- Be light enough to be easily transportable (Let's not forget the Lan parties
To attain those goals I have to
- Read all I can about noise, sound, aerodynamics, PC specs
- Find suitable materials : A case is not just a protection against unwanted fingers and dust ; it must provide EMI shielding, proper grounding, resist to impacts, and fit into my conception of the king of object you want in your bedroom (If you were thinking about plywood and a box of rusted leftover nails, forget it)
- Find the tools or the companies or individuals with the means to work the materials I choose to build the casing
For the sound isolation I was thinking about some kind of foam. Mineral lint would be affective but that takes too much space and it's not the kind of thing I want beside my bed. Form the casing itself, metal is almost inevitable if you want EMI shielding and grounding. And as for you who wonder why I have not mentioned water cooling yet, the greatest source of noise is not my CPU cooler and your just moving the problem out of the case (Nice ; you have water heating up but unless your reservoir is like a bathtub or something you will have to transfer the heat for the water to the air).
That about as far as I am. If you have any idea that might help me, please fell free to send me some bits forming ASCII characters at Prozzaks@operamail.com
To finish up, here is a list of thing that might help people wanting to achieve similar goals
- http://www.formfactors.org/ You should be able to find all the documents regarding the ATX form factor and thermal design guides. A must if you want to build a quiet PC.
- http://developer.intel.com/ Intel has contributed a great deal to the ATX definition ; here you will find many relevant documents including thermal design guides for all Intel processors.
- Etract from my favorite's :
Hardware\cases PC CASE
Fong Kai
PowerOn
Enlight Corporation
dir.yahoo Enclosures Manufacturers
procase
YY Computer
Psi
IN WIN
Amtrade
American Suntek
Addtronics
A-Top Technology, Inc
Nikao
Palo Alto Products
Antec
Lian-Li
amaquest
Koolance
Quietpc
PC Power & Cooling
Hardware\Heat Sinks ALPHA
Cooler Master
AVC
ekl
GlobalWIN
globefan
RDJD
Foxconn
Spring Spread
Sanyo Denki
TITAN
TaiSol
ChipCoolers
Orb a
ElanVital
Hardware\Info\Form Factor Platform Development Support
SSI
WTX
Hardware\Info\Standards Fibre Channel Industry Association
PCI SIG
RAB
serialata
SPEC
Hardware\Info\Storage RAID.edu
Hardware\Info\Cours CS 252 - Graduate Computer Architecture
Hardware\Info The PC Guide!
Hardware Bible
FullOn3D
developer.intel.com
HwB The Hardware Book
United Overclockers
Ars Technica
Tech-Junkie
HardwarePub
Webopedia
Illustrated Guide to the PC Hardware
SysOpt
2CPU
Ace's Hardware
Technical Support - RaidHelp v1.0 - Free RAID Technology Guide
Computer Architecture
OPENCORES.ORG
TechFest
MidWest Micro Support
Hardware\Resalers GeekTek!
Micro-Bytes
ALCO
ABC Micro
2CoolTek
Plycon Computers
TCWO
ABC Micro - Lprix
Case Outlet
The Chip Merchant, Inc
Cimsys
OrdiGros
ALIENWARE
SHENTECH
FireStorm
Hyper Microsystems
TWEAKBOX
Hardware\Reviews Tom's Hardware Guide
Sharky Extreme
StorageReview
HardOCP
AnandTech
SystemLogic
x-bit labs
Active-Hardware
FiringSquad
SocketA
Overclockers Australia
HEXUS
dansdata
SysReview
Hardware\Manufacturers AMD
ASUS
Belkin
MassMultiples
Promise
StarTech
VIA Technologies, Inc
ABIT Computer Corp
Comcase
Micron Semiconductor
ECS
Hardware Freeboxen
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Re:Good heatsink
Yeah, I heard good things about Orb and I got myself one.
Most of what I've heard about them has been not-so-good...mostly along the lines of "looks impressive, but doesn't get the job done." They don't appear to have much surface area to them, which is a Bad Thing (TM) for a heatsink.
I bought this heatsink to go with my 1.0-GHz Athlon...it's cheap, but it gets the job done fairly well AFAICT (no lockups, and the heatsink only gets warm, not hot). The thermal pad at the bottom was removed and the appropriate amount of Arctic Silver II was scraped across the top of the die. There's no thermal monitoring on the motherboard (a Biostar M7MIA), so I can't provide numbers for comparison, but I suspect that mine is running much cooler than yours.
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Re:And why not?Those sound like lowball prices from the bottom-feeders that Pricewatch tends to attract. I'm not saying that you can't find good deals through companies on Pricewatch (I use it for pricing, but only in combination with ResellerRatings), but you probably don't want to buy from the absolute cheapest vendor you find. This will end up driving the cost of the configuration you quoted past $300, possibly by a considerable amount.
As an example, consider my recent hardware upgrade. I looked up the parts I bought where I bought them, and then checked Pricewatch for the absolute lowest prices on the same items. For a 1.0-GHz Athlon (200-MHz FSB), Biostar M7MIA, and IBM Deskstar 75GXP 30GB (I bought the 45GB model, but it was no longer listed), the place where I bought them has those items at $425. The cheapest prices on Pricewatch for the same items added up to $390. That's not much of a difference, but that's only for three components (I bought the DDR memory for the motherboard from another vendor and used the other parts that I already had). Factor in the other bits that you need for a complete system and the disparity can only increase.
In any case, with the quantities Microsoft will be buying, I'm reasonably sure they can get better prices than you or I can get. They're also not likely to charge themselves the "Windows tax" (otherwise known as "license fee") that they charge other computer makers.