Best Place To Buy New PC Tower?

[Chris Freeland]

Could I get some links to some web sites that have good buys on PC's and PC kits? I want to buy a new PC but do not need or want to purchase the whole package, I would like to save some $ buy re-using my monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, printer, and just buy a new tower or perhaps build one. The motherboard of my old Dell has died, but still has a perfectly good DVD/CD-RW combo drive and 2 hard drives (however the hard drives are small and I plan on replacing them and want to upgrade to newer processors etc.).

[MikeSoltis]

www.newegg.com is where I've been buying most of my PC stuff lately, they have cases, parts, and kits as well as systems. You may want to look at barebones kits there.

[Phil T]

Same with Tiger.

www.tigerdirect.com

My daughter bought her PC parts and her and her boyfriend built a pretty nice system (64bit AMD).

I bought a wireless keyboard and mouse from them. Fast shipping and no problems.

[Cholly]

I agree with Mike about Newegg. They're a great outfit to deal with. Let me issue a few words of warning. Building your own PC is not a cost saving venture, contrary to what most people think. Expect to pay at least $50 for a case (Aspire makes good inexpensive cases), $80 for a motherboard, $150 - $200 for a midrange processor, $120 for 512 MB of memory, at least $100 for a halfway decent graphics adapter, $90 for an OEM version of Windows XP, and $60 for an 80 GB hard drive. Add another $60 or more for an up-to-date DVD burner, and don't forget the shipping costs! You're looking at an expense of well over $600. The benefits: satisfaction of selecting the components you want, ability to upgrade in the future and the experience you gain from building the computer.
The downside: cost, and no tech support or warranty.
Compare this with a complete eMachines system currently sold at Wal-Mart for $592:
AMD Athlon64 3000+ processor, 512 MB of memory, 80 GB Hard drive, dual layer DVD burner, 8 in 1 media reader, 17" flat screen CRT monitor, speakers, etc. For another $100, you'd get an Athlon64 3200+ processor, 100 GB hard drive and 15" flat panel LCD monitor. Both systems have onboard ATI X200 PCI Express graphics, and a PCI express slot if you choose to upgrade to a better graphics card in the future.
You'll find other similar deals around. I'm wary of Dell, since they use custom cases and motherboards and provide little or no opportunity for future upgrades
I would certainly avoid systems with Celeron or 32 bit Sempron processors. The new 64 bit Sempron 3400+ processor, on the other hand, is very good. I prefer systems with AMD processors, as you can tell.

[DJ Rob]

I would recommend New Egg. I build and repair computers for a living now (of course DJing is still my night job) and I've gotten most of my parts from them. Never a problem and usually one of the cheapest.

You should keep an eye on Compusa's web site and see if a deal comes up that you can pick up in store. I've gotten some really good deals (90% off) because of their web site having stuff priced so low at times. They have honored in store all of their web pricing mistakes at the one here in Colorado. I got a computer case (tower) and a wireless-g pcmcia card for a total of $20 a couple of weeks ago from them.

[MikeSoltis]

Another note about building your own - right now I swear by AMD and swear at Intel in the CPU portion of your PC. IMHO and after using both, the AMD will give you more bang (speed) for the buck. Get you an Athlon 64 and you can't go wrong.

[JM Anthony]

I buy from new egg as well. I seriously doubt you'll save money rolling your own. Components for my HTPC ran close to $2K. If it were me, I'd check out Dell's outlet for a refurbished tower.

[ntexasdude]

I'm an AMD fan as well. More bang for the buck than Intel. Years ago it was cheaper to build your own but I tend to agree with the others that it's not so cost effective today unless you want a really special system with things like RAID or CPU overclocking capability.

Another thing to consider is that when buying one from a store you get an operating system. Not true if you buy a motherboard and your own hard drive and all that.

[Nick]

In '94 I bought a Compaq with a 80486 CPU. The first Pentiums had just hit the market, but were still very pricey. In '94. I paid almost $3,000 at retail for the machine and an HP 560 printer, plus tax. Then, it may have made some sense to "grow" your own if you had the expertise, which I didn't at the time.

Today, with decent machines under $500, including OS and some built-in software, building your own just to save a buck doesn't make sense. However, adding RAM does.

[Bogy]

Could I get some links to some web sites that have good buys on PC's and PC kits? I want to buy a new PC but do not need or want to purchase the whole package, I would like to save some $ buy re-using my monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, printer, and just buy a new tower or perhaps build one. The motherboard of my old Dell has died, but still has a perfectly good DVD/CD-RW combo drive and 2 hard drives (however the hard drives are small and I plan on replacing them and want to upgrade to newer processors etc.).
Chris, I've done what you are contemplating a number of times, save the best parts and upgrade some major components. But really, how much do you think you are really going to save? For the first time in years, last year I finally bought 3 new computers, rather than try to upgrade. I was at a point where what I had was not worth the upgrades, and as I added up the cost of the parts, I couldn't afford to put them together myself, even with the few parts I could reuse. I did just buy the towers, which came with keyboards and mice, but even those have been replaced with each of our preferences. The keyboard/mouse that they come with are not a big deal. The components that run up the pricetag are the case, motherboard, processor, memory, video card and hard drive. Seldom these days can you reuse memory from your old box. And of course as you noted, hard drives keep getting bigger, and now power supplies and motherboards are coming equipped for SATA drives, not ATA. I kept the old drives, bought an external usb case and use them for added storage. Check it out, but I couldn't buy the parts I needed for what I could buy the boxes all put together. Personally, I got 3 HPs, and we have two more here at church. I haven't had any problems with them. Installed PCIe cards in two of them without a problem and a sound card in my son's, plus I put an upgraded CPU cooler in his. I haven't noticed any problem with proprietary setups in doing any of this. And personally, I still like Intel. The processor that I am very impressed with is the Pentium M. I have a 1.8 PM in my Toshiba laptop, and it is fast and runs cool. Combined with the nVidia video card it compares favorably with my Prescott P4 3.2 and an nVidia PCIe 6800GT. Right now the choice of motherboards is limited, but that will be quickly changing. If you decide to go the build it yourself route, consider one of the PM MBs, and if you do decide to buy a tower, if you don't want it right now they will be coming soon.

[ntexasdude]

I always had fun building computers. I used to lay everything out on a towel on the kitchen table. My wife and kids and anybody who else came by always thought I was some kind of computer genuis. The reality is anyone who can assemble a chair or a computer hutch can build a PC. It does take some technical expertise to understand all the hardware specs but not to put them together.

That being said some people just like to do it. Like certain types of guys who soup up their cars or build their own furniture. But to answer Chris' original question newegg, tigerdirect and the brick and mortar Fry's stores are the best places I've seen. Be careful what you buy at tigerdirect, they sell lots of last year's stuff.

The $592 eMachine Cholly mentioned sounds incredible.

[djlong]

When we got hit by what seemed to be a lightning-strike-induced EMP (lights didn't flicker but all my CRTs needed SERIOUS degaussing) we lost all non-laptop computers to various ailments.

I had to immediately fix my wife's computer as she was using it to plan the running of a 200-person SCA event. No data was lost, but the power supply was gonzo.

Once I found out that I couldn't have her computer repaired within the day (too many PCs were fried and the repair shops were overloaded), I started looking at bare bones boxes that I could buy and throw in some additional parts myself to get her up and running.

I ended up spending $1000 on an HP Media Center PC with a dual-core Pentium.

Had I bought all the pieces that I was originally thinking of, I was looking at $600-$700. For the extra few hundred dollars, I saved HOURS of assembly and Windows Install time, to say nothing of saving all the time to download Win XP SP2 (about 80MB last time I had to do it) and I got a lot of features that would NOT have been in any 'beige box' I would have built.

I still have a home-built computer made with parts from everywhere (which comes back from the repair shop today - blown motherboard) that is 'for fun' but for things that need to be done NOW.. Well, it's just easier to go buy it..

[Jacob S]

Seeing how Dell has a $299 computer even if you had to pay $100 shipping your still getting the monitor plus your getting a free printer, I dont see why one wouldnt get one of these seeing how computers are constantly changing. I would hold out and get the new stuff coming down the pike which is much more powerful if you can afford it. Its always good to wait for a while for prices to come down.

[Bogy]

Seeing how Dell has a $299 computer even if you had to pay $100 shipping your still getting the monitor plus your getting a free printer, I dont see why one wouldnt get one of these seeing how computers are constantly changing. I would hold out and get the new stuff coming down the pike which is much more powerful if you can afford it. Its always good to wait for a while for prices to come down.
Of course if you keep waiting for the prices on the new stuff to come down you will never buy anything. Cause there is always something new you just HAVE to have. :lol:

[Chris Freeland]

Chris, I've done what you are contemplating a number of times, save the best parts and upgrade some major components. But really, how much do you think you are really going to save? For the first time in years, last year I finally bought 3 new computers, rather than try to upgrade. I was at a point where what I had was not worth the upgrades, and as I added up the cost of the parts, I couldn't afford to put them together myself, even with the few parts I could reuse. I did just buy the towers, which came with keyboards and mice, but even those have been replaced with each of our preferences. The keyboard/mouse that they come with are not a big deal. The components that run up the pricetag are the case, motherboard, processor, memory, video card and hard drive. Seldom these days can you reuse memory from your old box. And of course as you noted, hard drives keep getting bigger, and now power supplies and motherboards are coming equipped for SATA drives, not ATA. I kept the old drives, bought an external usb case and use them for added storage. Check it out, but I couldn't buy the parts I needed for what I could buy the boxes all put together. Personally, I got 3 HPs, and we have two more here at church. I haven't had any problems with them. Installed PCIe cards in two of them without a problem and a sound card in my son's, plus I put an upgraded CPU cooler in his. I haven't noticed any problem with proprietary setups in doing any of this. And personally, I still like Intel. The processor that I am very impressed with is the Pentium M. I have a 1.8 PM in my Toshiba laptop, and it is fast and runs cool. Combined with the nVidia video card it compares favorably with my Prescott P4 3.2 and an nVidia PCIe 6800GT. Right now the choice of motherboards is limited, but that will be quickly changing. If you decide to go the build it yourself route, consider one of the PM MBs, and if you do decide to buy a tower, if you don't want it right now they will be coming soon.


Yes, actually this is more what I had in mind, just buying a fully equipped tower with out the monitor or printer typically bundled with systoms today. I have thought about a bare bones or rolling my own from scratch just for the experience and the fun of it, but I will likely just go the new systom rout because like you guys have all pointed out, it will cost me more to upgrade or build from scratch then just getting a new systom.

That $299 Dell system that has bean advertised a lot lately is very tempting and I have always liked Dell. However that $299 Dell uses a Celeron processor that no one seams to like, I have even thumbed my knows at the Celeron my self but have forgotten why, can someone refresh my memory as to what is wrong with the Celeron processor?

[Bogy]

Yes, actually this is more what I had in mind, just buying a fully equipped tower with out the monitor or printer typically bundled with systoms today. I have thought about a bare bones or rolling my own from scratch just for the experience and the fun of it, but I will likely just go the new systom rout because like you guys have all pointed out, it will cost me more to upgrade or build from scratch then just getting a new systom.

That $299 Dell system that has bean advertised a lot lately is very tempting and I have always liked Dell. However that $299 Dell uses a Celeron processor that no one seams to like, I have even thumbed my knows at the Celeron my self but have forgotten why, can someone refresh my memory as to what is wrong with the Celeron processor?
Before all those AMD fans jump in to tell you, there is nothing really wrong with the Celeron. They got a bad name in the beginning because they had no L2 cache. That really hurt performance. However, then Intel added an L2 cache that was a quarter as big as the Pentiums, BUT while the cache on a Pentium runs at only half speed, the cache on a Celeron runs at full speed, so the performance is very similar.

[Chris Freeland]

Thanks Bogy.

[Cholly]

Yes, actually this is more what I had in mind, just buying a fully equipped tower with out the monitor or printer typically bundled with systoms today. I have thought about a bare bones or rolling my own from scratch just for the experience and the fun of it, but I will likely just go the new systom rout because like you guys have all pointed out, it will cost me more to upgrade or build from scratch then just getting a new systom.

That $299 Dell system that has bean advertised a lot lately is very tempting and I have always liked Dell. However that $299 Dell uses a Celeron processor that no one seams to like, I have even thumbed my knows at the Celeron my self but have forgotten why, can someone refresh my memory as to what is wrong with the Celeron processor?
It's slow, compared to other processors. Also, bear in mind that the $299 Dell will not be upgradeable at a future time, has a small power supplyand doesn't have a DVD burner. As I said before, Dell uses proprietary motherboards and power supplies which give no room for upgrades. Also, low priced systems such as this have onboard graphics which rob system memory, and in addition, there will be no AGP or PCI Express slot should you choose to upgrade your graphics.
I'm sure you'd like to have your system last quite a while. That's why I suggested the two Athlon65 based EMachines computers from Wal-Mart. Both have 512 Megs of memory, 80-100 Gigabyte hard drives, PCI express card slots should you want to upgrade your graphics from the onboard PCI Express ATI X200 graphics, dual-layer DVD burners, and 8 in ia card readers. Granted, they come with monitors and keyboards, but you could always peddle them (although if you don't have a flat screen CRT monitor, you might want to use the one that comes with the computer).

Am I bashing Dell? Not really. They make really good computers. However, you have to be very careful when buying the low end computers for the reason I cited above. by the time you get that $299 computer loaded with a decent sized hard drive , more memory and a DVD burner, you'll be up to over $400.

[ntexasdude]

Dell's didn't used to be so proprietary. They are reverting to the way Compac was years ago. Not basing their designs on the OpenPC standard nearly did them in. People got mad when they discovered they had to buy their memory upgrades from Compac for 3 times the price because nothing else fit. Cholly makes an excellent point about expandability.

I was going to type my diatribe on the Celeron but Cholly and Bogy covered it. My advice...don't buy one. AMD blows Intel out of the water in the price/performance department.

Here at work we ordered a Visioneer scanner from Dell on a Friday afternoon and it was sitting on my desk by Monday morning. Can't get much faster than that. :)

[marko]

If you already have a hard drive, dvd player/burner, and most importantly I think, an operating system, then doing a bare bones or build it yourself system should save you some money. I have been fortunate and have always had an operating system to use, so I have always built my own computers, although it has been 2 years since I last did that.

[SimpleSimon]

Note that many of the Dell systems DO use standard parts - I've serviced plenty of them that were a pleasure to work on.

[RandallA]

Dell systems are very easy to work with. I've supported Dell, HP and Compaq computers and Dell machines are the best to work with when it comes to support. Dell support is extremely helpful and if you need a part replaced, they ship the same day.

With that said, the performance is not that great for multimedia use. I prefer building my own machine so I can customize it with the parts I want. You don't really save much money but you're using the parts you want. The best place to buy computer parts for me is Newegg.