Best Place For Components?

[RafterManFMJ]

Hi - I'm pricing out a computor, and have currently looked at NewEgg and ZipZoomFly - any other sites that cater to hombuilders, with good prices, that you've had good experiences with?

Tentative Build

(Ignore the 19" Monitor, going with the 22")

Going to ZipZoomFly, I've noticed that I can get the:

Patriot Memory -- $70 less
Antec 650 PSU -- $40 less

Most else is either the same or a bit more. I like the Free Shipping of ZZF, (Yes, I realize TANSTAAFL) - this sometimes makes their products cheaper.

Any other sites I should be looking at?

Comments on the build? Idea is future upgradeability, when Vista and Vista-based DX10 games come out or what not; I figure in about a year I can upgrade the GPU, OverClock the C2D (watercool, if necessary) and have a couple more years of life out of it.

Then theres the upgrade path to Intel's Quad Cores in the future as well.

Opinions on the 22" SamSung? Have a 19" CRT now, and am worried about ghosting/blurring in FPS...

GPU is kinda lame, but expect to upgrade in about 8-12 months so it should get me by.

Advice appreciated!

 

[crusher]

xoxide have some good gadgets for your pc regarding cooling and modding but a quiet expensive if you compare the prices and the shipping vs sites like newegg or zipzoomfly.

 

[enforcerfx]

Hi - I'm pricing out a computor, and have currently looked at NewEgg and ZipZoomFly - any other sites that cater to hombuilders, with good prices, that you've had good experiences with?

Tentative Build

(Ignore the 19" Monitor, going with the 22")

Going to ZipZoomFly, I've noticed that I can get the:

Patriot Memory -- $70 less
Antec 650 PSU -- $40 less

Most else is either the same or a bit more. I like the Free Shipping of ZZF, (Yes, I realize TANSTAAFL) - this sometimes makes their products cheaper.

Any other sites I should be looking at?

Comments on the build? Idea is future upgradeability, when Vista and Vista-based DX10 games come out or what not; I figure in about a year I can upgrade the GPU, OverClock the C2D (watercool, if necessary) and have a couple more years of life out of it.

Then theres the upgrade path to Intel's Quad Cores in the future as well.

Opinions on the 22" SamSung? Have a 19" CRT now, and am worried about ghosting/blurring in FPS...

GPU is kinda lame, but expect to upgrade in about 8-12 months so it should get me by.

Advice appreciated!

Nice setup for 2000. Zipzoomfly is very reliable. The more you can save, the better. Do you have windows already? About the monitor, i have the smaller version of it (Samsung Syncmaster 204B 5ms 20' 1600x1200) I would go for it, goes well with the x1900xt. If you want some fancy modded gadgets, try xoxide.com like crusher said. If you want a good watercooling base for the future, try dangerden.com Good Luck

 

[clue69less]

Comments on the build? Idea is future upgradeability, when Vista and Vista-based DX10 games come out or what not; I figure in about a year I can upgrade the GPU, OverClock the C2D (watercool, if necessary) and have a couple more years of life out of it.

Since you're willing to pop for a fairly expensive power supply, I recommend going beyond what Antec has to offer. Look at the mushkin 650, the OCZ 700 and the Seasonic 650.

 

[RafterManFMJ]

Hi - I'm pricing out a computor, and have currently looked at NewEgg and ZipZoomFly - any other sites that cater to hombuilders, with good prices, that you've had good experiences with?

Tentative Build

(Ignore the 19" Monitor, going with the 22")

Going to ZipZoomFly, I've noticed that I can get the:

Patriot Memory -- $70 less
Antec 650 PSU -- $40 less

Most else is either the same or a bit more. I like the Free Shipping of ZZF, (Yes, I realize TANSTAAFL) - this sometimes makes their products cheaper.

Any other sites I should be looking at?

Comments on the build? Idea is future upgradeability, when Vista and Vista-based DX10 games come out or what not; I figure in about a year I can upgrade the GPU, OverClock the C2D (watercool, if necessary) and have a couple more years of life out of it.

Then theres the upgrade path to Intel's Quad Cores in the future as well.

Opinions on the 22" SamSung? Have a 19" CRT now, and am worried about ghosting/blurring in FPS...

GPU is kinda lame, but expect to upgrade in about 8-12 months so it should get me by.

Advice appreciated!

Nice setup for 2000. Zipzoomfly is very reliable. The more you can save, the better. Do you have windows already? About the monitor, i have the smaller version of it (Samsung Syncmaster 204B 5ms 20' 1600x1200) I would go for it, goes well with the x1900xt. If you want some fancy modded gadgets, try xoxide.com like crusher said. If you want a good watercooling base for the future, try dangerden.com Good Luck

Thanks for the advice - but why recommend the smaller Monitor? Eventually, the GPU will be upgraded and will be more powerful (8-12 months till new GPU)...or is there another reason? Thanks!

 

[godman]

i think hes talking about the resolution, i believe 1600x1200 is more standardised than 1680x1050. the games dont have to cut off bits of the screen to make then fit on the sccreen (or it wont fill up the screen even etc)

 

[RafterManFMJ]

i think hes talking about the resolution, i believe 1600x1200 is more standardised than 1680x1050. the games dont have to cut off bits of the screen to make then fit on the sccreen (or it wont fill up the screen even etc)

Aha! Thanks

 

[AddictiveHerring]

I used to shop around all the time but I have since decided to stick exclusively to newegg, they almost always have the lowest price when factoring in shipping, the time and money they have saved me is what brings me back, if you stick with newegg and establish a rapport you will not regret it. If I ever have a problem I call them and it is cleared up in moments. They have payed to shit things back and waived restocking fee EVERYTIME I have asked. They also offer great OEM deals and combo packages, If you end up spending a measly 10 dollars more buy exclusively shopping at newegg you will not regret it, because if something goes wrong they will help you out.

 

[Mondoman]

Both NewEgg and ZZF are top-notch; as you've noticed, sometimes very similar (or the same) items are priced very differently between the two, so just go with the cheaper one.
Here are other sites to check:
www.outpost.com Owned/run by Fry's, they have weekly specials. Although often not as low in general as NE or ZZF, sometimes you can get much better deals on certain items here (I found 20-25% cheaper prices on some RAM and some hard drives here within the past few months).
www.buy.com Harder to browse, but also often have cheaper prices on certain items.
www.ncix.com Usually not as low as NE or ZZF, but like Outpost sometimes has exceptionally low prices on certain items, or carries items the others don't.
www.pcconnection.com Similar comments as for Ncix, but long-known for super customer service. Both PCC and Outpost have warehouses at the Ohio logistics hub of DHL, and so can ship out many items for next-day delivery even if you order as late as midnight Eastern time.

 

[RafterManFMJ]

I used to shop around all the time but I have since decided to stick exclusively to newegg, they almost always have the lowest price when factoring in shipping, the time and money they have saved me is what brings me back, if you stick with newegg and establish a rapport you will not regret it. If I ever have a problem I call them and it is cleared up in moments. They have payed to **** things back and waived restocking fee EVERYTIME I have asked. They also offer great OEM deals and combo packages, If you end up spending a measly 10 dollars more buy exclusively shopping at newegg you will not regret it, because if something goes wrong they will help you out.

They've always treated me well, but I DO NOT like their policy about dead pixels on LCD monitors...i burn 300 bucks on one, it better not have a dead pixel in the middle of screen..but sometimes it happens..with newegg, im screwed.

 

[AddictiveHerring]

I would have plain lied and sayed it was DOA and had them take it back payed the shipping back and then bought a new one after my credit was restored.

I don't really think that policy is striclty a newegg policy, it's mildly standard. The trick is buy monitors of a brand where the manufacturer will take it back. And often if they are just stuck pixels, as in pixels stuck a certain color, running a color flasher will fix them while alternating refresh rate (just google Color Flasher and lcd or something), If they are truly dead however, as in black, and not working. There isn't much you can do.

 

[enforcerfx]

I would have plain lied and sayed it was DOA and had them take it back payed the shipping back and then bought a new one after my credit was restored.

I don't really think that policy is striclty a newegg policy, it's mildly standard. The trick is buy monitors of a brand where the manufacturer will take it back. And often if they are just stuck pixels, as in pixels stuck a certain color, running a color flasher will fix them while alternating refresh rate (just google Color Flasher and lcd or something), If they are truly dead however, as in black, and not working. There isn't much you can do.

Local places (Bestbuy, circuitcity, etc.) only charge about 30-40 bucks more on the monitor than newegg does(not including rebate). I bought my Syncmaster 204B in store, because of newegg's policy. It was well worth it.

 

[AddictiveHerring]

I haven't found that to be the case, I am looking at an lg 700-1 contrast with 300 cd m2 brightness that is about 230 plus shipping on newegg and is 450 at the local best buy lol.

 

[Threshold]

Local places (Bestbuy, circuitcity, etc.) only charge about 30-40 bucks more on the monitor than newegg does(not including rebate). I bought my Syncmaster 204B in store, because of newegg's policy. It was well worth it.

Circuit City is good, Staples isn't bad either. Office Depot is decent, though they tend to add mail in rebates onto everything.

But Best Buy is just horrible. They're like Office Depot's prices, except they don't have mail in rebates-and that's on a good day.

So yeah, it's gonna be more at BB.

I can't find the L1920 on any of them (well, didn't check BB), but the L1932 is at Circuit City, if you've got one of those there. Link: http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/LG-Monitor-L1932TQ/sem/rpsm/oid/156428/catOid/-12965/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do
Sorry. Circuit City needs to redo their link system. AGAIN.
But it looks like roughly the same thing except for a 1400:1 contrast ratio...but I'm not a monitor guru.

 

[nikolokolus]

Newegg and ZZF are my first choices but I've had great luck with ewiz.com chiefvalue.com (a newegg spinoff company) and Allstarshop.com

for specialty cooling and other stuff, sidewinder, performance-pcs and frozencpu are also really good choices