I think if I had taken all the money I've spent with Newegg and used it to purchase their stock I'd be a majority shareholder by now.

So yes, I recommend them also.

However in this case I went with my local mom and pop computer store because they had all the parts I needed on hand for at close to the same price as Newegg and they warranty the entire system themselves which makes long term support a bit easier. Plus it's a funky old store with lots-o-weird stuff and it's just fun to visit.

That alone is worth paying a small premium!

And I have had great experience with New Egg as well.

Yeah, and then there are people like me who are very afraid to open up a cpu/tower/container to even dust the motherboard for fear of dislodging something. When I took the Dell 8200 for a RAM upgrade and the guy opened the case, he was shocked it was running with all the dust/cat hair that was in there. There were dust bunnies the size of armadillos in there!

So I will order from Dell or Mac or whomever for a ready out of the box when the time comes.

I build systems to order for a reasonable price, too :)

They claim they have low prices but they can be MORE expensive if you haven't done your research on the exact product you're buying. And if you need help from anyone there, forget it. They don't know what they're doing. You'll be lucky if they can point you to the correct quadrant of the store where your item will be located.

One morning I tried to buy a gift certificate at the register there along with other merchandise. The guy didn't know how to do it, kept having to go back and forth, kept asking for other people, etc. etc. I was literally standing there for 20+ minutes, as he'd bring my check card back and then ask for it again, saying the transaction had to be voided and redone, verifying my address and phone #, etc. etc. Long story short, I was so happy to get out of there I didn't realize that he still had my card when I left.

I realized this in the evening, called the store, no live person could pick up the phone, and by the time I would have arrived there it would be closed.

Went the next day. Group of people standing around, chatting behind the register counter (this is the Burbank store, by the airport, btw). I stand there, looking at them. They look at me, and keep talking. I keep standing there, finally saying "excuse me?". One of the girls makes an audible "ugggghhhhh" noise and walks over, asking "what do you want?". (Obviously, doing work interrupted her 8-hour break shift). I tell her I left my card there and needed it back. Another "ugggggggghhhh".

She looks around, comes back with the card. Says that they called my bank to cancel the card. Say WHAT?

Yes, that's right, they had my address and telephone number, they couldn't be bothered to call ME to say that I left my card there, but they called my bank and cut off my card. I pointed this out to the lady and she launches into a tirade against me about how I need to be more careful and about how dumb I was, ending in a real loud "fu** you" from me, storming out of there.

All she had to do was say "sorry for the inconvenience".

My dad had massive problems there getting them to honor a warranty he purchased on a defective television until he literally caused a scene and started screaming at them (and my dad is NOT the type to cause a scene).

More on topic, I had a Fry's bought-and-assembled computer. It was the type of computer where I had great components, but they never EVER EVER worked all at the same time. Like, you could get the floppy drive to work, but then the DVD drive would go out. You'd get the DVD drive to work, and the CD-R would die. You'd install anything software-wise and hold your breath that each DirectX update (or ANY program software, even games) wouldn't completely fry your computer, or render components of the computer inoperable. This is the computer that I literally had to kick sometimes to get it to work. I wouldn't wish that piece of crap on anyone, except maybe Nadelberg.

At least with Dell, there's a 95% chance the parts they've assembled are compatible. I had one problem with a burner once, and they sent me a new one (only one call to India that time). I lost my windows xp disc, and they sent me a new one. Besides that, no problems at all.

Out of curiosity, for those of you who dust the inside of electronics -- is there a product that's good to use? Do we just bust out a dustbuster, open up the CPU, and go to town?

Name a store where that isn't true. In any industry. If you're buying a variety of items, you will always get a better deal if you shop around and find the individual stores that specialize in each individual component. I know what Fry's is good for, I go there for that.

See rule #1

Yeah, those are crap.

Safest bet is compressed air.

Fair enough :) It's just that I usually find that Fry's DOESN'T have the lowest prices, when all is said and done.

But doesn't that just blow the dust around instead of actually removing it? Plus I'm always afraid that those things will produce moisture which will get on the circuitry.

So here we are with specs for the Son (or possibly daughter) of The PC with no name:

(Note you non-geeks might want to back out of this thread at this point...)


Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 CPU

4GB of DDR2-800 SDRAM

20x Samsung DVD Burner

2 - 750GB Segate barracuba SATA drives w/32mb cache

Asus EN8500GT PCI-Express viedo card

XP-Pro

and it all fits in a nice small/quite Shuttle PC barebones w/ Intel G33 + ICH9DH chipset