So, CompUSA no longer has physical stores...

[Eteocles]

Besides local shops, who carries a large variety of computer bits n parts in physical stores, in the US, like CompUSA did? I'm contemplating another total upgrade of my hardware just to start fresh(my main HD atm has been in use for years upon years...and my 2nd HD in there has been in use for over 8 years through multiple computer upgrades changes and even OS changes from 98se to XP pro..I have shit on there Creation dated pre-2k and it still works fine lol)

Best Buy? EB? I know CircuitCity had an okay selection of stuff but not quite as large as CompUSA had...I don't go shopping too often :p And I don't like shopping online, I'm too impatient to wait on deliveries and would rather take it home physically and get right to workin on it. :P

I'm most likely aiming for specs posted in other threads here...an 8800, I've already got an unused SATA drive, will be moving up to a quadcore processor(Need suggestions on a mobo/processor combo for non-overclocking and least-friction between them though; intel or AMD and what mobo brand/model works reliably with it) and probably jumping up to 4+ gb of ram(NO VISTA THOUGH >P); just gonna make a 2nd system from scratch pretty much just in case I need my old one or I literally 2-box later :p Plus my current case is old enough to be in middle school by now and I want something more awesome looking than the beige box of boredom.

[Kedash00]

i would highly advise ordering all the stuff from newegg.com it's gonna be half the cost for better equipment. That is if you know how to put a pc together, it's not real hard, just find the plug that fits the other end and plug it in lol.

I bought my first pc from circut city but never again, and as far as i know all they carry now days are officy computers, they dont have a big selection of gaming computers and if they do you are prolly lookin at spending 2 grand to get a decent one, but you can build the same pc without the monitor for 600 bucks if you order from newegg.com

Just my two cents though

[Bovidae]

I will go to Fry's Electronics ('http://shop1.outpost.com/ac/storelocator/index.jsp;jsessionid=VS8uTAuilsj9UXiUco6iEg**.node 1') if I need something TODAY or want to physically inspect something, but anything I can wait three days for is bought through Newegg.com

[Catamer]

CompUSA in Forida was taken over by Tiger Direct.
They still have the CompUSA name but I think they are improved over the old CompUSA.
newegg.com is a place I frequent if I'm doing online shopping, i have no complaints about them and I like their user comments about the products, very helpful to weed out stuff I should avoid.

[Eteocles]

Yeah I just don't like online shopping...like I said I wanna see it, inspect it and take it home to fuck with immediately, not wait on shipping lol; if I can't find anything local though I may have no choice =\

I'm not sure if there's a Fry's local...will look into it though, thanks :p And as for CircuitCity yeah I'd be buying parts not pre-builts...I don't trust prebuilts, I put 'em together myself, not too complicated and lets me get the best bang for my buck without a bunch of useless shit thrown in I'll never use lol

[Havelcek]

I order everything I can from newegg but I get large stuff like monitors from BestBuy to take advantage of much easier returning/warranty servicing.

[Xaedra]

I can only think of Circuit City, Best Buy, Staples, and Office Depot (Yes, both of the office supply stores sell computer parts, not a TON like Best Buy and CC, but a decent amount, here anyway).

Good luck!

[Polymorph]

Yeah, the buyout took place a few months ago. My vendor works for globalcomputers.com He said they bought out CompUSA and they would be phasing out all the stores except for a few larger locations. They changed the name of their site to compusa.com since so many people knew that site, but ended up going back to their original one for some apparent reason. I know globalcomputers.com and tigerdirect.com have the same web designers and use the same warehouses. I haven't exactly looked into if they are both owned by the same company, assuming so. Just looked and it seems tigerdirect and global computers are the same company.... At least that's what I gathered. The only difference is, tigerdirect is the retail consumer side where global computers is the commercial.

If my orders are in the warehouse I get them all within 3 days. So the wait isn't too terrible. Even though I can relate to the whole lay my hands on it before I buy it thing. It's like buying a car without ever driving it or seeing it. Feels weird on some products. hehe

[kllrwlf]

I will go to Fry's Electronics ('http://shop1.outpost.com/ac/storelocator/index.jsp;jsessionid=VS8uTAuilsj9UXiUco6iEg**.node 1') if I need something TODAY or want to physically inspect something, but anything I can wait three days for is bought through Newegg.com

Same here. Usually the Anaheim one.

[Nitro]

same as alot of other people I order from Newegg.com and if its an emergency and i need something now i will make a trip to Fry's Electronics.

[Stabface]

Same as most people, immediate purchases happen at Fry's and everything else comes from the internet.

If I need something within a few days I generally check prices at a few places online and buy where it's cheapest... amazon, newegg, buy.com, outpost.com, etc. Also check the various hot deals sites and forums like Anandtech, HardOCP, ArsTechnica, etc. sometimes you can snag something super cheap. It doesn't seem woot has much computer hardware these days but sometimes there's a gem, I snagged a really cheap Razer sound card a few months back for a friend.

Also, overstock.com actually has some pretty good prices on hardware a few generations old. If you're looking to build a non-gaming box for example, you can find some stuff on there if you look. But alot of it is overpriced so you have to sift.

[Tamu]

I just finished building a new system with all components ordered off Newegg. Delivery time was less than a week, I had no problems with any of my items, and I paid less than I would have if I had gone to Fry's. Another good thing about Newegg is that you can read reviews for items you are looking to purchase. There are good tips on which components work well together and others that don't. So even if you don't decide to purchase from Newegg, at least check some of the reviews and pricing. Just my 2c. :)

[JD50]

Yeah I just don't like online shopping...like I said I wanna see it, inspect it and take it home to fuck with immediately, not wait on shipping lol; if I can't find anything local though I may have no choice =\

I'm not sure if there's a Fry's local...will look into it though, thanks :p And as for CircuitCity yeah I'd be buying parts not pre-builts...I don't trust prebuilts, I put 'em together myself, not too complicated and lets me get the best bang for my buck without a bunch of useless shit thrown in I'll never use lol

Like other's have said, you are going to pay double if you try and buy your parts at CC or BB. You are certainly not getting the best bang for your buck by shopping at Circuit City, Best Buy, or even CompUSA, when buying parts for a PC. Of course there is the occasional good deal, but generally you are gonna get ripped off.

You could even buy everything off of Newegg, choose next day shipping, and still save money, if you are that concerned with getting it NOW. Also, don't forget that Best Buy and Circuit City have absolutely no selection when it comes to computer parts. The only other store that I can think of is Microcenter, even they are usually a little overpriced. I'm like you, I'd rather go to a store and pick it up myself, but when it comes to building a PC you really don't have a choice.

[Eteocles]

Yeah I was hoping that wasn't the case...Gurb(I think) pointed out that that tigerdirect site's running a special on 8800/quad/mobo combo I may get...the waiting will be hard though :p

[JD50]

Yeah I was hoping that wasn't the case...Gurb(I think) pointed out that that tigerdirect site's running a special on 8800/quad/mobo combo I may get...the waiting will be hard though :p

Just choose next day delivery, you'll still be saving a ton of money compared to what you'd spend at a big box store.

[kllrwlf]

Luckily I'm in California, so I usually get 70% of my stuff from NewEgg the following business day. 30% is 3 days later because it's coming from their other warehouse.

[Eteocles]

So I went n checked out tigerdirect per gurb's suggestion...couldn't find the "combo" deal he mentioned(gurb if you read this, PM the link to the deal to me on IRC :P I'll read when I get home), I did however check out individual bits n pieces n prices...so far it looks like I'm aiming for:

Q6600 Processor
XFX nForce 680i LT SLI Motherboard
OCZ SLI-Ready Dual Channel 4096MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Memory(2 sticks of 2gb; little worried how this might pan out vs 4sticks of 1gb, anyone know if it matters for xp 32bit?)
EVGA GeForce 8800 GT Video Card - 512MB DDR3, PCI Express 2.0
700w or 750w PSU
Mid-tower Case, unsure of model yet

Anything wrong about the chosen brands/setup, or anything I forgot? And yeah, once I get home I intend to check newegg for better deals price-wise on the same parts

[Havelcek]

I would definitely get 2x2gb sticks...that way you can easily throw in another pair later to get you up to 8gb. RAM is so cheap right now.

[Eteocles]

Yeah that 2x2gb package is a piddly $105; that's what I freakin paid for 2x 1gb last year lol so yeah nice deal

Edit: And for anyone curious, the setup above, minus Case, avgs out to about $650 off tigerdirect's prices, with $30 rebate on the card; slightly more than I paid for my current system last year and by faaaaaaaaaaaaar much better power-wise and SHOULD be able to 5box once set up

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Eteo, that list looks fine. I've no experience with that mobo but it looks about $40-50 cheaper than the Gigabyte X38-DS4, though the rest looks spot on. FYI, the Cooler Master "Centurion" case is an excellent one IMO @ $45. Plenty of bays and interior room for a good aftermarket heatsink.

[Crayonbox]

My 2 online choices are Newegg.com and Tigerdirect.com
Between those 2 sites you can find just about everything you need.

Also if you have one near you, Frys Electronics is like the adult's version of Toys'R'Us. I remember the first time I went there, I ran through the store running through aisles looking at all the goodies with big eyes and drooling all over the place. My heaven. :P

[Eteocles]

I lol'd, Crayon, and ty Don...a nice cheap case with plenty of room is exactly what I'm after :p I'm more tempted to buy a non-OEM processor though so it comes with the necessary heatsink stuff rather than bother with an aftermarket one...I don't like fooling with thermal paste and the like more than I have to lol(Yes, I'm a pansy about screwing with the inner workings of the comp; it's my baby and my main source of entertainment so I try to be very careful and not overdo it ;p)

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Fair enough. :P It might work OK at 3.0GHz but it just may end up being a bit louder than you'd like. Can always back off the timings a bit to get temps/noise back to levels you like.

[Eteocles]

So I took the suggestions here and with assistance of a model-savvy friend I put together a decent system via Newegg consisting of:
Cooler-Master Centurion 5 Black/Blue PC case
2x 2gb G-Skill DDR2 800mhz ram
SATA-based DVD-RW(Since I'll lose my CD-RW in the process of mobo changes, being IDE based and the 1 IDE cable going to be eaten by my 2 existing IDE HDs)
XFX 8800 GT very slightly overclocked vs the EVGA version(by about 40mhz clock speed) same specs otherwise
Some $100 mobo that was cheaper than the 680i I found at tigerdirect but just as good if not better, forgot name atm lol
Intel Q6600 quad-core
PSU, 650w I think, but it's not a cheapo brand 650w, may've been OCX or some other reliable one with enough SATA connections to run everything(the cheapos only had 2 SATA attachments and I'm gonna need at least 3)

However, having "built" the spec a couple days ago...I hesitated away from buying it...until my "Economic Stimulus" check thinger came in this morning, so it looks alot less like a giant stab in the wallet. Total came to $901.01(All Retail, no OEMs) for the setup, with tax/shipping and a Rush Priority on the Shipping so it goes out TODAY, I should be set up by Tuesday at worst >D

Thanks to everyone to helped out and suggested things, both in this thread and in others so I knew what specifics to aim for as a multiboxing system =)

[Zzyzxx71]

I quench my purchasing thirst lately at tigerdirect. They have some really nice package deals. My currently machine is 90% TD stuff, and the rest is just recycled equipment.

[Eteocles]

Aye TD is nice and has some good package deals but with some digging and instant newegg savings I ended up spending $100 less at Newegg for MORE parts than I did at TD lol

[Eteocles]

So my Case arrived Tuesday and the rest arrived yesterday...spent 4ish hours putting it all together, transplanted my old HD over to serve as the boot drive(Too lazy to fuck with a new windows/sp install) and formatting my shiny new SATA drive and it works great =D The DVD-ROM I ordered however was IDE so unfortunately I'm down a HD atm, as the mobo only has 1 IDE plug and all IDE cables have 2 attach spots...2 HDs + 1 DVD-RW = someone gotta go. And I needed the DVD-RW to install my drivers from CD so the choice wasn't all that tough =\

Noticed a huge change running 5 WoWs already, getting max fps permanently on main and even turned maxfpsbk back up to 20 without any loss to fps on front window; will have to test it by logging my Boomkins in tonight in Shatt or IF and seeing how well they run in a city setting but so far I'm quite content with the upgrades :p Much quieter than my old case too despite having like 6 or 7 fans running. Alot more awesome looking too :p

Thanks to all who helped out in the thread =D

[Majo]

My suggestions:

Newegg.com ('http://www.newegg.com') - Hands down the best parts supplier I've dealt with. Great prices and in terms of timeliness the cheapest shipping has always arrived 1-2 days after I ordered it.

Microcenter ('http://www.microcenter.com/') - If you're lucky enough to have on in your area, they offer great deals and selection on pc hardware, but not nearly the quality issues that Fry's has.

Fry's Electronics ('http://www.outpost.com') (click here for current deals ('http://www.frys-electronics-ads.com'))- They offer great deals and huge selections. The problem I have with them is a HUGE difference in quality when I buy components here. As an IT consultant, there was a point where I was building a PC about every month for a client -- when using Fry's for the parts, I had about a 20% failure rate. That's horrible. In my opinion it's partially due to the fact that (at least at both in my area) when you return an item, it's often re-sealed and put right back on the shelf. The only reason I built several systems off parts from Fry's was because this client was ripping me off, so I was penny pinching to pull a better margin (immoral, i know. bad majo. they deserved it, though). I would never build a system I'd plan to rely on from Fry's parts.

PC Club ('http://www.pcclub.com/') - They don't always have the greatest prices, but alot of system builders I know prefer to get their local parts from these guys when they don't order from Newegg.