I have been thinking of building my own computer and have been looking around for parts. this is not an HTPC, but just a desktop. The only place I have found that is good is computerpartsusa.com. Any others out there? I have been looking at their kit that sells for $859. Are there better deals out there for similar performance?
Ebay is an excellent place to get everything you need. You can get a very good barebones machine for about 300 dollars, then go from there and add in whatever video, memory, hard drive, cdrom drives, etc.... that you fancy.
when I built my computer a couple of weeks ago, I bought all of my stuff from Directron.com and Newegg.com they are both great dealers with LOW prices, I would highly recommend both of them. I also bought some parts at my local computer show (which is the last weekend of every month... they also have lots of DVDs [mostly porn ] and Video Games).
I have noticed that e-bay ususally does not have any better deals than pricewatch.com or shopping.yahoo.com. Sometimes e-bay is more expensive on average for things like hard drives and processors. If you dont have much experience assembleing computers I would recomend that you get a Motherboard/CPU/Heatsink already assembled. I'ts really easy to break the newer processors that have exposed silicon, when mounting the cooling fan.
My vote would be Newegg.com. They have a fantastic replacement/refund policy if something goes bad. Plus good selection and generally good prices. Other sites I've used to a lesser extent: kdcomputers.com tcwo.com mwave.com crucial.com (for RAM, obviously)
www.newegg.com Some of the best pricing unless you are a dealer with (as stated above) a good replacement/refund poilicy. www.Crucial.com has some of the best pricing around except for Rambus since they dont make it and they usually have free 2-day air shipping which makes them fast. www.mwave.com Usually just slightly more expensive then newegg but if newegg doesnt have it they usually will. KyleS
My favorite places are: www.a-pro.com for cases www.bunta.com for general hardware www.mushkin.com for RAM I think Bunta is a great company. They even let me exchange a motherboad six months after I bought it! I was totally impressed. You can also try www.buy.com. They've been nothing but good to me, though I have heard of some folks having problems. Be sure to checkout www.resellerratings.com before you buy from an unknown company, especially off pricewatch.
I buy between newegg or mwave also. Mwave usually wins w/me since they're in driving distance so I save on shipping. Certain items mwave didn't have and newegg did, so I went w/newegg.
My experience with: Newegg for components MWave for mobo combos and A-Pro for cases has proven to be excellent so far.
Newegg is great for receiving stuff quickly and at a good price (for most things), AND they have a good reputation. Got my fan and mb from there. They tend to overprice their CPUs, so best to get one off of Pricewatch. If you can catch a sale at Best Buy, often the prices will be similar to or even beat the best Pricewatch price on some hardware. More than once I've seen the Maxtor 40gig 7200rpm drive for I think $60 after rebate. I needed a hard drive at the time, so I looked on Pricewatch to compare, and no one was even within 20 dollars of the Best Buy price. Got a 56k modem there for five bucks, too, and sometimes they have mice, keyboards, and even ethernet cards for free after rebate. I wish I could remember where I got my case from. 9-bay, and was like $45 shipped. Some place in Texas. By far the best case for the money I saw anywhere. And I pretty much looked everywhere.
Newegg - And old standby; always has good prices and good selection. Their refurb section has really hot deals every once in a while. Dell - With 20% off specials, stackable coupons, and fair prices, Dell's website spits out a hot deal a few times a month. Frys - The best B&M for computer parts. Killer deals on CPU/motherboard combos, components, etc. Just keep your eyes peeled for the daily ads (and the big weekly one on Fridays).
