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  • Mailordering computer parts

    Where do you computer toolers get your stuff from when going the mailorder route? Newegg? Zipzoomfly? TigerDirect? Any good or bad experiences you would like to share?

    My 3 year old Socket A Athlon finally retired itself. I'm ready for another project. I miss Byteware.

  • #2
    Re: Mailordering computer parts

    I buy almost exclusively from NewEgg.com but recently I've been comparing prices and shipping costs from http://www.geeks.com/ better known as ComputerGeeks.com but their URL is just geeks.com.

    One thing about NewEgg is their shipping costs are somewhat lower but don't use their default UPS 2nd Day Air shipping method. Use FedEx because the shipping costs come out to around 45% less than UPS for our zone.

    With NewEgg the more you buy at one time the lower the overall shipping costs. For example I just purchased two hard drives. With one drive only the shipping cost came out to $32 and some change. When I upped the quantity to 2 hard drives the shipping cost went down...to $22 and some change for BOTH DRIVES! Amazing. If I hadn't selected FedEx as opposed to leaving it to the defaulted UPS my shipping cost for both drives would have jumped to just over $40 and some change. Definately ship via FedEx to Hawaii.

    Computer Geeks has shipping costs similar to NewEgg but they don't specify which carrier they use.

    Both have great daily deals once in a while. NewEgg has "One Day" sales that typically lasts two days with some great prices. Computer Geeks has their "Green Light Specials" that last one day and has a "time left" ticker to let you know how much time you have left to buy stuff.

    I just purchased two Intel Socket 478 mobos with Intel North/Southbridge chipsets for $14.95 each on a Green Light special. It had onboard audio and LAN but no video support. No bother I also bought two 16mb ATI Radeon graphics cards for $6.50 each to compliment each board. These are brand new boards not refurbished. Along with that purchase I bought two 802.11g PCI wireless adapter cards for $14.95 each, two IDE CD Burners for $9.95 each, and one DV video capture card from K-World for $37.99. The shipping came to $25.00

    As for TigerDirect, their advertised prices are great but it's their shipping costs that push them higher than NewEgg or ComputerGeeks. When you order from them make sure you take advantage of their "Multiple rebates" per item. For example a mobo/cpu/memory combo for $49.00 really costs $120 before rebates on the memory, processor and mobo all from their respective manufacturers. So you have to fill out three rebate forms and wait typically half a year to get the money.

    And if you buy two of these great deals on combo's, bad news...the rebates are limited to one per customer per household per combo. So one combo you can ultimately buy for $49 but the second will have no rebates applied.

    For TigerDirect...the only way they can actively compete against NewEgg is by offering rebates that bring the final costs to where NewEgg is already at.

    So far I've spent over $3000 at NewEgg building computers for friends here on the Big Island and for my family and haven't regretted it at all. If you buy online Sunday evening you typically get your stuff via FedEx 2nd day Air by Thursday morning. I've told clients on a Friday night that I can have their computer built by the following Saturday. That's pretty good since out here on the Big Island, if you mention computer store the best places are Walmart and Office Max. And WalMart is cheaper and better stocked than Office Max for what little they have. That's a sad statement about this island.



    All were daily specials and total shipping costs
    Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Mailordering computer parts

      I've been checking out ZipZoomFly.com. They way I read it is that whatever item is listed as FREE 2 DAY SHIPPING (FedEx) applies to HI and AK too (however, the additional $10 surcharge is still applied... no biggie). You just have to make sure you pick Fedex rather than UPS...they kinda say that if you pick any other shipping method other than Fedex (which the special is on), all bets are off and you will be charged accordingly.

      I got my list ready but I want to phone it in and talk to a human being to make sure I'm reading the shipping quotes correctly.

      Yeah TigerDirect does seem to stick it to you with the shipping.

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      • #4
        Re: Mailordering computer parts

        I never heard of ZipZoomFly.com so I decided to check it out. Their prices are kinda lofty there. I think the two best I've seen so far has been NewEgg and Computer Geeks.

        Well it's just past 4am again and I just finished that mysterious missing LAN issue. On the initial XP install it failed to load a couple of .dll extensions. Did the XP repair and now the ASRock mobo has LAN!

        Tonight I tackle another computer with missing wav.out issues. Client removed MusicMatch's Jukebox without using the Add/Remove utility so she removed some key system files and now the computer is giving her the BSOD!

        Time for some sleep goodnight all
        Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

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        • #5
          Re: Mailordering computer parts

          Hmmm... better double back and check my prices.

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          • #6
            Re: Mailordering computer parts

            I ordered a motherboard on the 11th (sunday night) and it arrived via UPS on Thursday, with no problems. Its pretty quick for a company in Cali.
            How'd I get so white and nerdy?

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            • #7
              Re: Mailordering computer parts

              Support your local company. We offer the same prices and we eat the warranties and support questions. I love it when customers bring in their mail-order computers for repairs. I make more money off of them then if they bought it in the shop! If they had purchased it from us it would have been free service. Unless youre stuck on an island like Craig.....Sorry too far for me to go to your house now.

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              • #8
                Re: Mailordering computer parts

                Originally posted by speedtek
                Support your local company. We offer the same prices and we eat the warranties and support questions. I love it when customers bring in their mail-order computers for repairs. I make more money off of them then if they bought it in the shop! If they had purchased it from us it would have been free service. Unless youre stuck on an island like Craig.....Sorry too far for me to go to your house now.
                Alliance computers got my back for local parts, and they offer the best customer service I've seen.

                Its just that they have limited options in parts, and I can't carry full size towers on the bus, then carry it home.
                How'd I get so white and nerdy?

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Mailordering computer parts

                  Originally posted by speedtek
                  Support your local company. We offer the same prices and we eat the warranties and support questions. I love it when customers bring in their mail-order computers for repairs. I make more money off of them then if they bought it in the shop! If they had purchased it from us it would have been free service. Unless youre stuck on an island like Craig.....Sorry too far for me to go to your house now.
                  What company is that?

                  I used to get everything through Byteware now dba PureDigital. In fact I just picked up a case from them though it was higher than mailorder. Problem is they didn't have the mobo/cpu/vidcard that I want in stock.

                  I still haven't ordered my stuff so I'm open to suggestions as to which local company to check out too. Thanks.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Mailordering computer parts

                    Originally posted by speedtek
                    Support your local company. We offer the same prices and we eat the warranties and support questions. I love it when customers bring in their mail-order computers for repairs. I make more money off of them then if they bought it in the shop! If they had purchased it from us it would have been free service. Unless youre stuck on an island like Craig.....Sorry too far for me to go to your house now.

                    That's why I decided to figure out computer building. For those who haven't figured it out yet, Speedex and I are good friends who go back a couple decades already. When I left Honolulu I just couldn't unplug my desktop and drive to Speedex's place at 1am and have him fix it (anymore). So I started picking up every PC magazine I could find at Borders and read every article over and over again even though I hadn't a clue as to what the heck I was reading.

                    Slowly as I read and cross read artcles, pieces of information started to gel like, "Oh that's what FSB means and PC3200 vs PC2700 and that I can't use PC2100 memory modules on a mobo using 184-pin DDR400 but I can use PC3200 and that yes you can mix DDR333 with PC3200 but you'll get the performance of PC2700. Hah? But now I know.

                    I still don't know as much as Speedex but slowly with the 11pm cell calls to him I'm slowly understanding things like Western Digital's harddrive settings if you're not running a slave HD.

                    For me I can wait four days for NewEgg to FedEx my stuff to me. Now here's a record for me, I just ordered two Hard Drives from NewEgg on 12/20/05 (Tuesday morning). About half an hour ago (today is 12/22/05) FedEx has just delivered it in my hands. Simply amazing. Yeah I had to wait a couple of days but it sure beat the holiday crowds at CompUSA and the traffic/parking there.

                    I'm becoming the "Local" computer store for a few friends and their friends as word is slowly spreading. I tell them I can build them a computer system in less than a week and they're astounded when I tell them I can build them a PC for well under $500. Typically it's a Celeron-D running 2.53Ghz, 512mb DDR400 RAM, 80gb Hard drive, DVD-ROM/CD-R burner, Windows XP Home (OEM edition), 15" Monitor, keyboard, optical mouse and free tech support.

                    For most applications that's pretty much all you need. For the more serious gamers the price goes up substantially depending on how much processing and graphics power they need. It's amazing that a graphics card can cost more than the computer itself!
                    Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Mailordering computer parts

                      My vote is for ZipZoomFly.Com. $10 FedEx 2-Day shipping per order to Hawaii on nearly everything they sell is great especially when ordering multiple items.

                      Newegg has bigger selection and slighty cheaper prices, but higher shipping charges. The more items you order, the bigger the difference in price between NewEgg and ZZF. Check both sites and go with the cheaper. I've been ordering from them both for years and they both provide great service.
                      Last edited by mapen; December 26, 2005, 02:51 AM.

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                      • #12
                        Re: Mailordering computer parts

                        When you price out NewEgg and Zipzoomfly, NewEgg's retail prices are way lower. Zipzoomfly compensates by lowering their "Handling" charges. The problem with that is once you list your retail prices you cannot readjust for market competition unless you have sales.

                        Because NewEgg's prices are already low they compensate by higher handling charges. But that charge is dynamic depending on how much you buy. Typically my orders can run from as low as $150 to as high as $1000. I've actually seen their handling charges stay flat (no increase) as I increase my retail spending. Sometimes the shipping charges get lower as you buy more.

                        With Zipzoomfly you cannot readjust your retail costs as you buy more and they already trimmed their shipping costs to the point where they cannot make any profit there.
                        Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Mailordering computer parts

                          Here's my list of stuff and comparisons:

                          Abit KN8 Ultra mobo
                          Newegg 99.99(one day only price), ZZF 99.99

                          AMD Athlon 64 3500+
                          Newegg 201.00, ZZF 202.00 (Newegg -1.00)

                          Corsair 2x512 Ram
                          Newegg 100.00, ZZF 100.00

                          Sapphire Radeon X800GTO 256 vidcard
                          Newegg 169.00, ZZF 165.90 (Newegg +4.00)

                          MS Windows Professional 64-bit version (OEM)
                          Newegg 147.95, ZZF 139.99 (Newegg +7.96)

                          Subtotal
                          Newegg 712.94, ZZF 707.88 (Newegg +5.06)

                          Shipping (FedEx 2-day)
                          Newegg 31.81, ZZF 10.00 (HI and AK surcharge added to "Free 2-day shipping")

                          Total
                          Newegg $744.75, ZZF $717.88 (Newegg +26.87)

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Mailordering computer parts

                            I'll go check out Zipzoomfly again but last time I priced checked (including shipping) for items I wanted to get, NewEgg was cheaper. That included mobos, cpu's, and hard drives. But if' they're cheaper only a fool would argue against it.
                            Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Mailordering computer parts

                              The price differences I posted were kinda off (stupid calculator ) but the totals and the shipping were copied and pasted from the sites.

                              I placed the order with ZZF last night about 10pm our time. It takes awhile because you go through all these verification screens (I guess since I'm a first-time customer). I was sent a confirmation email within half an hour. Checked this morning at 7 on the site's "order status" page and it already changed from PROCESSING to PACKED. It could be still on the shelf waiting to be packed for all I know right?

                              Newegg does have more in stock stuff, they actually had the video card that I really wanted so I opted for another. I backordered a DVD burner from ZZF that Newegg had in stock but it still would come out cheaper with the shipping. Yeah I'm pa'ke even though I'm not pa'ke.
                              Last edited by cezanne; December 28, 2005, 10:14 AM.

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