Building a pc. Where to buy

[Wallabing]

Dont buy from brick or mortar stores. Use PC hound to find and buy all parts from Amazon.

[Yugo]

frys/newegg/amazon. I just built a machine yesturday for about $800 16gbram/750w power/r380asus video card and cant recall the CPU but it was decent.

[Thrashard340]

Fry's for walk in. Amazon and Newegg for Internet. Basically, echoing what was said above. But this is as simple as it gets.

[Quiet]

Check out CyberPowerPC.

They are based in SoCal.

So, if you are in SoCal, instead of paying to have it shipped, you can choose to pick it up at their facility.


Friends and I have used them to build our gaming PCs.
Top notch work, have heard no complaints about them.

[baih777]

go online to Frys and Microcenter first and see if they have your parts. they don't carry all the motherboards and cpu's. I use to buy my cases at Microcenter. bigger selection. then what ever you cant find order from Newegg.

get everything at once at one store. good luck.

[Hoop]

PCPartpicker is the way to go.

Frys will match those prices but it has to be the same exact item.

[ArmedCMT]

PCPartpicker is the way to go.

Frys will match those prices but it has to be the same exact item.

^^^^This! Itll let you know if the parts you want to use are compatible and list the online prices.

I have a friend who builds my pc's for me, he picked the parts there and just sent me a link so i could order them. It was super easy.

[roger1022]

If you are willing to drive then try Microcenter. They usually have motherboard/CPU combo deals.

If you want the online route, then take a look at PCPartPicker

[Joezamboni]

I've always done a bit of research beforehand regarding issues of compatibility and long term quality to avoid things like hard drives being dead on arrival, if a motherboard will fit in a certain case, or ram that doesn't agree with certain motherboards, etc.

With that knowledge I've managed to buy nearly everything online without an issue. I did see a hard drive that had a high dead on arrival rate but good long term durability once so I bought it in store. Paid off as the first one I bought died in two days and its replacement lasted until I retired the computer.

I've also found in the negative most reviews for components in newegg that you can get an idea of real life incompatibilities (e.g. this power supply was the right form factor for this case but it wouldn't fit).

[Frisco3Gun]

Not always a great idea to buy parts all at once. Also, much better deals online these days.

[followingc]

Sorry, Quiet, but my experience with them was less than stellar. I purchased a high end PC from them last year. I received it with the CPU cooler busted off the CPU (the graphite mounting ears were overtorqued, which broke them off). Furthermore, instead of the internal card reader I selected, they substituted a crappy external card reader without asking me. Finally, the software bundle featured with the package was "not available" and they would not substitute anything in its stead.

Customer service was poor and getting a replacement CPU cooler took over two weeks to receive. CS did speak English but apparently comprehension skills are no longer a prerequisite for employment.

I got a great price but I was without a working computer for 6 weeks after ordering.

Check out CyberPowerPC.

They are based in SoCal.

So, if you are in SoCal, instead of paying to have it shipped, you can choose to pick it up at their facility.


Friends and I have used them to build our gaming PCs.
Top notch work, have heard no complaints about them.

[the86d]

Newegg.com, reference their combos...
No REAL reason to go somewhere else.

[TATER313]

I agree with the newegg.com recommendation

[Exile Machine]

I build PCs from parts sourced out of Newegg and Amazon. You can pretty much ignore reviews for PC hardware on Amazon, esp the 1-stars because they're usually posted by some knucklehead who doesn't know a bit from a byte, but I trust the reviews on Newegg a bit more. The key is to research the heck out of any combo first before buying, and in the case of motherboards and graphics cards that means physical measurements as well as online reviews and video reviews.

I'm due for a completely new build sometime in 2017. Recently upgraded my old machine so it'll last until then. Can't wait. I relish a good PC build. But then I'm an electrical engineer so I relish things like building antennas and microwave amplifiers from scratch as well.

-Mark

[lurchnp81]

Always had good luck with Newegg and tiger direct