Ask HN: Where do you shop for PCs?
Where do you shop for PCs? I'm getting a non-mac for the first time in a while.
I use both https://pcpartpicker.com/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales/ to plan the build and find deals. I tend to stick with Newegg, Amazon, B&H, and Fry's for getting my parts.
There are a few in the SF Bay Area, and they have a much better selection of top-reviewed and hard-to-find components than Fry’s (especially for things like heatsinks and power supplies).
They also have a formidable selection of cables.
memtest86+ for the RAM.
bonnie++ and badblocks for the disk.
Finding defective parts early can save you a lot of time and money.
Dumpster diving.
No, seriously - if you go around various industrial business parks and whatnot, and don't rile the security guards too much, you'd be surprised at what you can find - and many times it's just sitting next to the dumpster, not in it. A lot of companies upgrade their machines, but either don't know what to do with their old machines, or don't want to take the time or energy (laziness) to recycle them properly or donate them (paperwork, ya know) - so to the dumpster they go!
Another option (though you typically have to pay something - but very little) are sales at hamfests. Find one in your area, spend a few dollars getting in to the fest, and bring with you a couple hundred bucks and see what you can buy. It may not net you the latest and greatest hardware, but you might find something worthwhile on occasion.
That, or you'll walk away with something you never expected to see or purchase (you'd be surprised at the stuff that shows up at these fests when old hams clean out their garage). TBH, I think it's an ecosystem of hams selling to other hams to keep the stuff around because they run out of storage - kinda a community distributed physical storage system...lol.
Shame they ruined it.
NVIDIA 2016+, SSD, ASUS, Probably ROG they have other models too. Depending on the screen size etc. anything from 1k - 1200$ will last a very long time. Grabbed a year old laptop for 750$ used (Should have waited for the cyber monday newegg sale)
Friend grabbed an ebay newegg special that was only on their ebay store. Not an ROG but still amazing for under 1k
I used to stay very up to date with system specs and prices, but I can't be bothered anymore. Now I'll generally rely upon "Build Guides", Reddit, and PC Part Picker.
I built my current desktop about 5 years ago, but the parts inside are about 1-3 years old. To start, I'll generally look up Build Guides from the previous year, or a couple "Budget Build"s from this year, enter all the parts into PC Part Picker and then mix and match until I find something that can handle what I need for under $600.
And then every year or so, I'll fire up the previous year's build guides or present year's "budget build" and see if there's anything worth upgrading to without spending too much.
Building your own can be a pain, but the annoyance is short-lived, and it's a hell of a lot less expensive. Just as well, I like to know what's in the box, so I can upgrade / tweak it as needed. As my needs change and I find I need my system to handle disk writes more efficiently, or need more memory, or if it's too loud, I can take care of all of that myself with a bit of googling and a couple hundred bucks.
Edit: I do not purchase pre-built machines. I like to build my own, so where I shop may not have the best deals for a pre-built pc.
R.I.P CompUSA and RadioShack.
The last one I built is a few years old but it's still running like a champ. A full part list can be found at https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/the-tools-i-use#computer-desk....
I also highly recommend Micro Center. I loved that store but occasionally the location near me (Santa Clara, CA) closed not too long ago and was replaced by a Wal-Mart.
The Dell and Lenovo Outlet in the US also have some great deals on refurbished laptops if you are interested.
Plenty of help available if you're interested in building your own(feel free to message me, even).
(Mine is rather bulky for a laptop, but I was intentionally looking for performance over size, they do seem to have other more slimline models available)
Lots of options, good sales, aftersales etc. - Build quality is great.
We get most of our laptops from either Costco or Lenovo, sometimes Microsoft.
For business... suck it up, buy a Dell workstation, and let the warranty do its work if needed.
https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales/
This group is dedicated to finding and getting good deals on hardware, and sometimes those deals can be insane if you play your cards right.
For instance, a few years ago I managed (using the instructions found on a thread there) to knock almost $200.00 off the cost of a particular Core i7 CPU. It took some interesting footwork. Basically, at the time you had to get a particular coupon from someone on Ebay for Staples, then you went to staples and ordered the CPU (which was on sale there with the coupon), then once you had it in your cart, they would do a price match via chat with a rep to what was available at another physical store (Microcenter? can't recall) - there was a couple of more steps involved, and depending on how you did the steps, you could get more or less off the price - so you had to play the steps right. In the end, I didn't get the best deal, but I came really close; it took me a few hours to do everything "just right", but the CPU at the time was well worth it; it turned a $300+ CPU into something costing just over $100.00, beating out even AMD's best mid-range offering at the time (IIRC, AMDs mid-range at the time was the 8350 or something like that).
I needed the CPU for a build I was doing for a Core V1 case, which is mini-itx - and AMD didn't make a mobo at the time that supported their better CPUs; you could only go with Intel. While the Mini-ITX Intel boards were cheap, you paid thru the nose for a decent CPU - so jumping thru the hoops was well worth it for me.
So - pick out the hardware you want or need, then see that sub-reddit for any deals on parts - also be sure to check out their related community sub-reddits, which can also help you out picking hardware, answering questions, etc.
One other note: If you're into Macs, consider building your PC hardware to support a hackintosh build; if you do it right, you can make the build in such a manner that you can swap out drives or dual-boot between Mac and Windows (or Linux, or whatever). One of the best resources is this:
Be sure to check out the "buyer's guide" to find out what hardware is best for supporting a hackintosh on a variety of budgets. A hackintosh isn't for everyone; they can be flakey at times (and don't expect support from Apple, either!) - but if you like that kind of adventure, building your machine for it will generally net you a pretty good general PC while allowing you to do the hackintosh thing.
This led me to Velocity Micro. Disclaimer: I'm a gamer.
- Sliding metal or clanking of metal on metal when working with the case
- Slight tapping of screw-driver getting it into tight spots
- Shunk of cards being seated into slots (depending)
- Click or snap of fitting other parts together
- Cursing when I cut myself, though this happens a lot less with modern cases
It also takes an investment of time that's worth the few hundred bucks (to me, anyhow) extra to pay someone else to do it. I'm still going to have to muck around with drivers and software anyway, and that takes more time than the hardware.
I certainly am not saying don't build your own, but I live in an apartment and it is very inconvenient to assemble when kiddo is asleep, and impossible when kiddo is awake (maybe when kiddo is a little older).
If you're a Mac person, Razer is going to push your buttons. Quality aluminum build. Lightweight. High end. Excellent quality displays. And a group of haters that will follow you around the web calling you a moron for suggesting/buying Razer... Just like with Apple :)
https://www.anandtech.com/show/12115/ncix-files-for-bankrupt...
Usually it is a Lenovo or Asus model, taken from local stores.
If you mean pre-built? Dell, I guess.....
New: build my own.
If I’m lazy I go to Frys to buy my parts.