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Which Vendors Do You Trust For PC Parts?
CaryTheSane writes "After six years, it's finally time for my old Pentium 4 to retire to web browsing duties, and I want a new gaming PC. I'd like to build my own this time, and I've scoped out most of the parts I want for a moderately high-end system. Which online vendors have you used before that you trust for parts? I've dealt with NewEgg, and I like them, but I live in Tennessee, a state in which they have a presence. Unfortunately, this means they have to hit me up for 9.5% sales tax. That really eats into my system build budget, so I'm looking for alternatives. I'd like to use the fewest number of vendors (preferably only one), so that all the parts arrive at the same time and I don't have one part's 30-day return policy run out while I'm waiting for parts from another vendor to show up. So, which reliable and economical parts vendors do you recommend?"
Conversely, are there any you'd recommend avoiding?
I like mwave.com myself I have been buying from them for over ten years now and never any problems.
Try http://www.resellerratings.com/
Seriously. I know the guys that run the local shops fairly well. The prices are good, and if you have problems and you're not an arse about it, quite often you'll get even better value on the returns. For example, I bought a 200G drive a few years ago, which failed after six months. "Sorry", they said, "We can't replace that. We don't do them any more. You'll have to take this 250G instead." I suppose they have to keep their customers sweet if they want to keep their windows intact.
Just so long as you're not bothered about what else might be getting shipped over from India in big heavy boxes full of little light computers, it's probably the best way to do it.
As a fellow Tennessean, I'd first like to point out that Neweeg is still a great choice. I order from them regularly because:
1) They are usually still nearly the cheapest
2) They ship quick
3) If it ships from their TN center, I have it the next day
4) Their customer service ROCKS
5) Their website is the best of any I've used.
If I don't use them, I will use either mwave, ZipZoomFly, or (if you don't mind open-box items) Tech For Less (just remember to leave a comment when ordering that you know wtf you are doing, else they will hold your order until they get ahold of you).
I've also used ProVantage a time or two, but really only when they had a good deal.
I second this motion. Tiger direct sucks ASS if ever your order gets screwed up. And it will, eventually.
How much is your time worth to you?
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
We charge this 15% restocking fee for all returns for refund to encourage customers to purchase products they intend to keep. We offer RMA Replacement without any restocking fee to support customers who have received a defective product.
Insulting? More like them keeping their costs down so they can run their business better and provide a better service overall. Think much?
I usually buy most of my parts from Trading Forums, such as Anandtech.com or Hardforum.com.
The prices offered are almost always below what a store offers. Plus, if you decide to go with people selling used instead of new (both are available), you can get it at only a fraction of the cost.
I've been dealing with people from those forums for a couple years now, and they've saved me hundreds of dollars.
Security is the only real issue, since people can rip each other off... but as long as you trade with people that have a good (high) reputation, then you're normally safe. Moreover, a lot of products are sold with transferable manufacturers warranties on them, so you can buy safely, knowing that you're covered for a bit. I have yet to be ripped off after quite a number of full computer builds.
- John
Did you notice the ASK SLASHDOT part of the title? It's not supposed to be news, it's supposed to be a question! I am not even asking you to RTFA, just read the damn title before you post!
Every city has at least one or two. The best are the crack in the wall places with a guy in the back surrounded by parts.
Some of the items you'll buy will be a great deal, others maybe not, and yeah, you'll have to pay tax. --But you won't pay for shipping, (which, if you're buying lots of goodies, will probably cost a fair bit, though probably not 10% of the cost of a well-equipped new machine).
But nothing is nicer than being able to run out on a gut-feeling of inspiration and pick up a stack of parts that same afternoon. Speaking as a geek, I have to say that walking out of a shop with an OEM hard drive packaged in nothing but an anti-static bag is one of the best feelings in the world. --I realized on one of those occasions why my girlfriend loved shopping for clothes so much, and it was with a bit of wistfulness that I recognized I only shopped for computer bits once every few years, whereas for her cruising the used-clothing stores was a weekly fix. Comfort shopping is silly, but it's also human, so when you do end up spending a whack of money, it's nice to jump in and get right into it.
There are other advantages when you buy from a local, private vendor. If you change your mind about a part, or if a stick of memory is faulty or whatever, you can always go back and hash it out with the owner. Either he'll tell you what you did wrong, or replace the part, and he'll nearly always remember you. A human connection is great; you don't have to fill out impersonal forms and take a number or stay on hold or any of that lousy nonsense. You've got a guy right there who wants to help you, partly because he doesn't want to have to give your money back and partly because he's also a geek who instinctively wants stuff to work right. And sometimes you'll meet a really cool person where it's fun just to chat and trade opinions and such; more than once I've gone into a shop with a well-considered shopping list only to have the guy behind the counter say, "Oh, we don't have that mother board, but check it out! We do have this one; it works great and it costs less than the one on your list, plus it has this extra feature which is really cool! The manufacturer just put out the next model, so they're trying to sell off their previous one, which is why it's such a great deal." I've picked up some awesome hardware that way. So I'd say it's well worth the extra expense (if it even adds up to that much when you take shipping into account, and any unexpected in-house deals or whatever), to buy from small vendors.
I will say, however, that buying on-line does generate a sort of Christmas day feeling, where you get to wait in eager anticipation for stuff to arrive, plus you get to build exactly the system you want because you can be really specific about the parts. But I prefer the more adventurous side of going out to find parts yourself. I think it might satisfy some kind of latent hunter/gatherer gene inside us all.
By far, however, the absolute worst way to spend money on computer parts is to go to a big, corporate, well-lit box store where the guys have little name tags and same-color shirts. Ugh! --I mean, that's fine for laptops and big screens and such, but for hard drives and mother boards and video cards and bags of little screws? What a waste of an experience! I'd rather use an abacus than build a computer from parts obtained in a damned box store. Not to mention that it's nearly always a LOT more expensive that way. Nobody can beat them on price for big items which they order by the shipping palate, but for smaller parts. . , there's simply too many to choose from, so they stream-line their stock and charge you up the wazoo for them. And anyway box stores, you know, have no soul.
Anyway, I hope everything works out for. Enjoy!
-FL
Here's how it works. In the US there is no federal sales tax. Sales tax is set and collected by the individual states themselves, and possibly some additional local tax on top of that. That results in a problem when you order online across state lines. Do you pay tax in the state the warehouse is in, in the state the customer is in, maybe both? The answer is, if the company you're ordering from is in your home state, they can collect tax. If the company you're ordering from is out of state, they don't charge tax, and you are supposed to declare that purchase on your tax return and pay a "use tax."
Of course nobody actually does that and most states don't get any of that use tax because people are effectively cheating on their taxes. Some states are getting more riled up about collecting tax than others, but most just don't care. Personally I think the government gets more than enough of my money anyway.
... once you know, you newegg.
Start with items with lots of reviews, read the most critical first. 4. profit.
Imagine if you weren't allowed to use roads because a bus company complained about your driving 3 times. --skunkpussy
I too have used TigerDirect for at least 6 years now, my only complaint being that Customer Support has lovely, incomprehendible accents, and don't know very much about their products. That's the standard these days for tech support though, isn't it?
Though, in the last year I've switched to ZipZoomFly, mostly for the reason that their search engine is the most detailed around. It's much, much easier to find the part you're after. TigerDirect and ZipZoomFly are often neck and neck and rather competitive in regards to pricing.
Of course I can't comment on shadiness as I've never had to return anything to either of them. I took care of a faulty motherboard directly through MSI, but that's irrelevant (but included for your viewing pleasure). I also avoid mail-in-rebates and refurbished parts like the plague.
I love UMART - umart.net.au (now ijk.com.au after a recent rebrand).
Their site is a tad ordinary, but they are everything you want in a vendor, they are CHEAP (not necessarily the super cheapest, but close enough to the mark not to matter), they will NEVER fork you over on refunds, go the extra distance to find that weird douverlacky and are prompt with their service.
I've used them extensively (about $100k for heaps of orders) both personally and professionally. They will sell you the bits, make suggestions if they don't quite work (like the mobo or ram is off), make the box for you if you're tight on time/skills - and do tidy work on it too (cables all neat, things tucked away, stickers put on, little touches)......
What I like is that they don't mind overclockers. I've pushed gear a bit too hard occasionally and they don't give you any shit about it.
They do a great job and I recommend them very highly. I'm not an employee or shill if you're thinking that, just a very highly satisfied multi time customer (and work admin/buyer/CTO)
Just bought a new quantum computer, but I'm uncertain how it works.
As far as I know, the memory business is a giant scam. The high priced stuff like Kingston and some others have the least defects- thus are prime binned for a higher price, and the cheap stuff causes problems as soon as it is installed as it was sorted into bins that were under-spec. Memtest86 has consistently proven this to me.
You still have to pay Use Tax even if you buy something out of state.
http://www.tennessee.gov/revenue/tntaxes/usetax.htm
So, just buy from Newegg and make your life easier..
You left out the single most important component of all: the PSU.
I saw a video once of two PSU's, one generic and one a reputable brand. Both were rated 500 watts. When the current was raised to 300, the generic burst into flames. They cut off the test at around 650: the brand name PSU was still plugging away.
You'll note I didn't specify the brand, and that's because it doesn't really matter. Any PSU whose manufacturer is willing to physically put their name on is going to be worlds better than the chinsy shit most people buy without thinking.
It's not even really about the flame-bursting, although that's always a concern. Shitty PSU's tend to skimp on the little expensive internal bits that cut down on AC oscillations and line noise. Very bad for components.
If that doesn't convince you, then consider that the extra heat the generic, shitty, half-pound ones generate has to come from somewhere: wasted electricity. A decent PSU runs cooler because it's more efficient. A good, high quality PSU will generally be above 80% efficient; generic ones are usually around 60%. Excess heat in the case aside, that's a big chunk off your power bill.
Get a sixty dollar power supply; my last power supply lasted me seven years without a hiccup, and I only replaced it because I wanted SATA and PCI-E hookups.
You'll save fifty bucks in electricity in that time quite easily, and it's a lot less likely to fry your components with excess heat or line noise.
But no doubt you HAVE heard of it, when ordering a product from another country.
Indeed I have. However, in Sweden, when I order things from "overseas", I still have to pay the Swedish sales tax on the imported goods. A lot of people forget this when they order things from the US. Everything looks much cheaper when you browse an american webstore, because we have a whooping 25% sales tax added to everything. There are of course a few nice companies that will write "gift" with a value of $0 on the customs declaration, but that's not really how it's supposed to work.
The fact that you are supposed to pay your own state sales tax even in the US make everything make sense to me though, and I completely understand that people are cheating with this and doesn't pay. Personally I'm a socialist and support our high taxes in Sweden, but I make sure to never miss out an opportunity to withhold as much taxes I can get away with.. Has more to do with personal greed than with any political ideology. :)
c++;
...and I feel your pain when it comes to paying tax on items ordered online. I have built several systems through the years, and I, like you, am building another one now to replace my old P4. After you have done your research and decided what you want, here are some places to compare prices which will not charge you tax when shipped to TN:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Home.jsp
http://www.directron.com/
http://www.ewiz.com/index.php
For specialty items, like heat sinks, I sometimes buy here:
http://www.frozencpu.com/index.html?id=wdw9Exum
Above all though, compare prices using these useful sites, for you may find the same part elsewhere even cheaper:
http://www.pricewatch.com/
http://www.google.com/products
Newegg is great for comparing parts and reading detailed specs/reviews, but the tax and shipping generally lead to the parts being more expensive than if they were ordered elsewhere.
"This is America... where the will of the few outweigh the outrage of the many..." - Unknown
I really cannot say enough good things about newegg.com.
I have been using them since 2001; my order history with newegg.com is over 20 pages long (at least) and I have ordered well over 200k worth of items from them. In all that time I have never had a problem. We're talking hundreds of orders. I have been through every conceivable situation - I have had to return things for refund or exchange, I have had to call them once and that call was handled very well.
Here are the general reasons why i think newegg.com is awesome:
1. Price (their prices will be as good or better than most other vendors, online or brick and mortar).
2. Shipping cost and shipping time: They have a lot of free shipping, and even when you are paying the prices are excellent - they generally ship things the same day you order, if not then then by the next days, always.
3. Stock, selection, and the technology behind their store and website - They have their own super high tech system for processing orders. I have seen video of how it works and it is very impressive - THey generally never make errors, their website is always up to date with what is and isn't in stock. I have never ordered something from them only to get a notice that it isn't in stock. It just doesn't happen becuse their site seems to be updated in real time.
4. Customer product reviews - you can get a great idea about particular products you may not know anything about by reading the customer reviews.
All in all I just can't think of any other retailer which I have dealt with that has their act more together than newegg and that has consistently flawless. I order personal stuff, I order stuff for the IT dept that I run, I order gifts and things for family and friends.
Don't just take my word for it - check out www.resellerratings.com for unbiased ratings of newegg.com and most other online stores. You will find that newegg consistently is on the top of their list of tens of thousands of stores. Generally with a score just below a perfect 10.
Discrimination hasn't got a thing to do with it.
Please read up on the Dormant Commerce Clause. Burdening interstate commerce unfairly has everything to do with it.
based on a purchase I made in another state.
But you didn't make the purchase in another state. You made it right from home. Had you actually made the purchase out of state, you would have been obligated to pay that state's sales tax and would owe nothing to your home state. But you didn't pay tax in either state with your online purchase, when your purchase, had it been made in person in either state, would have been taxable.
Either is quite obviously illegal on the face of it.
Then you should have no trouble finding a case agreeing with you. Since, however, there is no such case, you're quite obviously incorrect.