Best Way To Buy a Desktop Computer

Philo-Publius

Philo-Publius

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I have not bought a desktop in over 15 years. What is the best way to get one now? At a retailer like Best Buy or are there still companies now like Dell where you can custom order one online?
 
Order online but not from Dell.
 
The best way is to buy the parts and assemble it yourself. There is a thread dedicated to it here where you can get pretty good advice on how to get the most out of your budget. There are also a lot of tech forums where you can get good advice.

If you aren't comfortable with that, there are a lot of websites where you can customize one and order it. Often those kinds of websites will have deals on specific rigs that will be cheaper than having them make a custom one for you.
 
Due to the cryptocurrency mining craze, parts, especially GPU's, are expensive as fuck right now. Most cards these days are selling well over MSRP value. Pre built is actually a good option right now. I grabbed a pre built PC off an Amazon sale with a GTX 1060 in it for $650, which is pretty cheap these days. Best bet, IMO, is Amazon or New Egg. If you want to build yourself and get parts, I would look the prices up on Amazon or PC Parts Picker and then go to a store that does price matching. You'd be paying out the ass at a place like Best Buy. At least Fry's does price matching, not sure about Best Buy. Another place you could try is Costco. I would avoid Wal Mart as their pre built PCs are complete garbage in my experience.
 
Canned Tuna said:
The best way is to buy the parts and assemble it yourself. There is a thread dedicated to it here where you can get pretty good advice on how to get the most out of your budget. There are also a lot of tech forums where you can get good advice.

If you aren't comfortable with that, there are a lot of websites where you can customize one and order it. Often those kinds of websites will have deals on specific rigs that will be cheaper than having them make a custom one for you.
Click to expand...

This.

But, do note that if you want a gaming PC you might be better off buying one as opposed to building it. There is a graphics card shortage due to cryptocurrency mining, so good graphics cards are overpriced currently and will likely remain so for the foreseeable future.

A good place to get parts or a prebuilt PC, Micro Center, if you have one near you. They had an Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti for around $550 the other day. That's the cheapest I've seen one of those in a while.
 
Roxxo said:
This.

But, do note that if you want a gaming PC you might be better off buying one as opposed to building it. There is a graphics card shortage due to cryptocurrency mining, so good graphics cards are overpriced currently and will likely remain so for the foreseeable future.

A good place to get parts or a prebuilt PC, Micro Center, if you have one near you. They had an Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti for around $550 the other day. That's the cheapest I've seen one of those in a while.
Click to expand...
Yeah, this is a good point. I ended waiting a couple months for Newegg to get graphics cards in. The 6gb 1060s were running about $550 for months because they were only available from resellers. Places like Newegg sell them at an honest price, so they sell out within a a day of getting a batch in.
 
Canned Tuna said:
Yeah, this is a good point. I ended waiting a couple months for Newegg to get graphics cards in. The 6gb 1060s were running about $550 for months because they were only available from resellers. Places like Newegg sell them at an honest price, so they sell out within a a day of getting a batch in.
Click to expand...
Newegg has went the way of other retailers. Everybody is overpriced.
 
I've bought my last two off of ibuypower. I'm sure it's overpriced but I'm too lazy to research and put it together myself. It basically has pre-built Pcs and you customize it however you like.
 
Aquabot said:
Due to the cryptocurrency mining craze, parts, especially GPU's, are expensive as fuck right now. Most cards these days are selling well over MSRP value. Pre built is actually a good option right now. I grabbed a pre built PC off an Amazon sale with a GTX 1060 in it for $650, which is pretty cheap these days. Best bet, IMO, is Amazon or New Egg. If you want to build yourself and get parts, I would look the prices up on Amazon or PC Parts Picker and then go to a store that does price matching. You'd be paying out the ass at a place like Best Buy. At least Fry's does price matching, not sure about Best Buy. Another place you could try is Costco. I would avoid Wal Mart as their pre built PCs are complete garbage in my experience.
Click to expand...

There do not seem to be a ton of options on Amazon. Is Acer a reliable brand?

 
Roxxo said:
This.

But, do note that if you want a gaming PC you might be better off buying one as opposed to building it. There is a graphics card shortage due to cryptocurrency mining, so good graphics cards are overpriced currently and will likely remain so for the foreseeable future.

A good place to get parts or a prebuilt PC, Micro Center, if you have one near you. They had an Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti for around $550 the other day. That's the cheapest I've seen one of those in a while.
Click to expand...



How do you guys feel about a pc place like Fry's?


My current pc was custom built by them and I dig it. Not sure if they have a good reputation in the tech world tho


Maybe @Doughbelly or @Madmick would be helpful here too
 
fonzob1 said:
No thanks. I have a Mac Book already for my personal shit. I want something with Windows on it for work.
Click to expand...

Go to New Egg. You can even order them refurbished if you want to save a few dollars. Their search tools allow you to narrow down what you want.

I ordered a refurfurbed Dell hrough them for $200 it came with...

Windows 10 pro 64 bit
8 GB Ram
1TB HD
i5 Core 2.6 GhZ

There is no way you can find a laptop with those specs for that price. I've had it for abut 3 years now too.
https://www.newegg.com/Desktop-Computers/SubCategory/ID-10
 
Lionel Mandrake said:
Go to New Egg. You can even order them refurbished if you want to save a few dollars. Their search tools allow you to narrow down what you want.

I ordered a refurfurbed Dell hrough them for $200 it came with...

Windows 10 pro 64 bit
8 GB Ram
1TB HD
i5 Core 2.6 GhZ

There is no way you can find a laptop with those specs for that price. I've had it for abut 3 years now too.
https://www.newegg.com/Desktop-Computers/SubCategory/ID-10
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion. I browsed some of the options, and it looks like you're sacrificing gigs for the lower prices.
 
Why was this thread moved to the video game forum? This is for work, not games. lol
 
Lionel Mandrake said:
Go to New Egg. You can even order them refurbished if you want to save a few dollars. Their search tools allow you to narrow down what you want.

I ordered a refurfurbed Dell hrough them for $200 it came with...

Windows 10 pro 64 bit
8 GB Ram
1TB HD
i5 Core 2.6 GhZ

There is no way you can find a laptop with those specs for that price. I've had it for abut 3 years now too.
https://www.newegg.com/Desktop-Computers/SubCategory/ID-10
Click to expand...

You can get close:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Laptop-...473939?hash=item28537e3d13:g:kfUAAOSwL4hanv-Y
 
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