# Place to buy a PC...



## bill5 (Jul 10, 2021)

There was a place someone mentioned to me a few years back but forget the name. It wasn't one of the below. Anyone? 

So far to my surprise Best Buy has the best deal. Just looking for a low-end, like 8GB i3 or i5 kinda thing. I want new, not used or "refurbished." I have checked:

- New Egg
- Tiger Direct
- Amazon
- Wal-mart
- Overstock


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## Richard- (Jul 10, 2021)

Not sure what you're wanting to do/achieve but having built numerous PCs for studio use, I would at the very least suggest you source a reputable computer store rather than most of above, if not all.

I would not go with an i3, either. At least i5 plus 16 gigs RAM min. The Intel i5 10600K (what I use on one of my PCs) is quite a performer= Very good single core performance too, very important for audio.

Richard


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## bill5 (Jul 10, 2021)

? I'm wanting to buy a PC. 

A "reputable computer store" will cost a fair bit more than those above but thx. I think they're reputable enough.


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## MarcusD (Jul 11, 2021)

If you’re in the UK.. Scan.co.uk are very good and build machines spesificly for pro Audio & video.


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## bill5 (Jul 11, 2021)

Nope the states - thanks though!


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## Tim_Wells (Jul 13, 2021)

EDIT #2 - see post below.

I just bought a Custom Builder PC from Newegg. Overall, I have been happy. Note that I'm still in the process of migrating/re-installing everything from my old PC to the new one. (OMG - what a big ass job that is!)

Pros:
- I'm very happy with the build quality and the way it was shipped!
- The price seems far less than many other custom builders. $99 + parts.
- A good selection components. (Although there are some limitations. See below).
- They're the only builder I found that had Fractal and other quiet cases at a reasonable price.
- Responsive and friendly customer service.

Cons (minor):
- Website was finicky for me. I had to get customer service to complete my order.
- No special requests. You get what you get. No options for leaving comments or a note with your order. Even customer service can't pass special instructions.
- You're limited to the parts they have in stock at their CA branch. Be sure to select "Need Assembly Service" to see what's available. Also, parts come in and out of stock, so you might have to wait.
- They partitioned my C drive in a way that I did not want. I had to figure out how to un-partition it and recapture the unallocated space (fun stuff!).
- Obviously, you're still going to have to tweak the PC for audio yourself.

Would I buy from Newegg Custom Builder PC again? Absolutely! I'll update once I get this monster finished.

EDIT: Apologies! I didn't read the original post properly. Thought you were looking for a custom build.


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## allen-garvey (Jul 13, 2021)

If you're near a Micro Center I would highly recommend them. I've bought my last 2 PCs from there as open-box deals, got a great price and they ran great.


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## cygnusdei (Jul 13, 2021)

Why not Dell? I think I have had 4 Dell desktops and every single one of them worked like it did on day one until I sold/gave them away.


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## bill5 (Jul 13, 2021)

Thanks all for the replies. To my own surprise, I ended up finding what I wanted at Best Buy, lol. Far from top end but I wanted to keep costs down. And it's still a respectable machine. Not like I'm doing 800 track songs.


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## kgdrum (Jul 13, 2021)

allen-garvey said:


> If you're near a Micro Center I would highly recommend them. I've bought my last 2 PCs from there as open-box deals, got a great price and they ran great.


Although I’m a Mac-user and I don’t use Windows,I totally concur Microcenter is a wonderful store for recently discontinued & open box computers.
I purchased my last two Macs from them.
In 2013 I got a brand new Mac Pro (2012)5,1 (4 core 2.8 with 8gig) for $1,300 which is the 12 core I’m presently using(it’s now 12 core 3.46 with 96gig).
I also bought another at the time recently discontinued 15” MBP (9,1 8 gig) I think for $899.
Both are still going strong 💪 
One bit of info for people that like deals on Apple products (I think this still stands true).
From my understanding Microcenter is the only authorized brick and mortar store that handles Apple’s clearance and discontinued models.Everything I have purchased came with a full warranty,I was able to purchase Apple Care etc…..Microcenter is not well known but for me it’s been a wonderful store. Here in NYC I have 3 nearby locations of MC stores. So when I’m looking for something I will go online and see what each location has on clearance until I hopefully find what I’m looking for.
I ❤️ Microcenter


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## SlHarder (Jul 13, 2021)

kgdrum said:


> totally concur Microcenter is a wonderful store for recently discontinued & open box computers.


Microcenter is also very competitive on "new" equipment. Just find a salesperson that you click with and have at it.


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## Tim_Wells (Jul 19, 2021)

deleted


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## Reid Rosefelt (Jul 19, 2021)

I bought my last computer from Jim Roseberry at Purrrfect Audio. Music computers are his specialty. It was a great experience and I couldn't be more happy. I would definitely go back again.

https://studiocat.com/opencart2/index.php?route=common/home


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## Tim_Wells (Jul 19, 2021)

TigerTheFrog said:


> I bought my last computer from Jim Roseberry at Purrrfect Audio. Music computers are his specialty. It was a great experience and I couldn't be more happy. I would definitely go back again.
> 
> https://studiocat.com/opencart2/index.php?route=common/home


I know Jim. No doubt he does brilliant work. I was trying to get by on the cheap (as always).


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## Reid Rosefelt (Jul 19, 2021)

bill5 said:


> There was a place someone mentioned to me a few years back but forget the name. It wasn't one of the below. Anyone?
> 
> So far to my surprise Best Buy has the best deal. Just looking for a low-end, like 8GB i3 or i5 kinda thing. I want new, not used or "refurbished." I have checked:
> 
> ...


In the past, I bought standard PCs from places like HP and Dell. They worked fine for music for me. I got a really nice 4K monitor from Dell. I had fast CPUs and video cards was happy with the performance.

But eventually, there were things i wanted to do, like add more SSDs, including NVme ones, and PCIe cards. And there were limitations on RAM. 

It really depends on what you're looking to do long term. If you can see yourself getting into this in a big way, it's nice to have a computer that will allow you to expand. But if you're on a budget, I understand.


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