Sad visit with local computer store today

the local computer store i hang around at (my brothers friends dad used to own it, now a coworker bought him out) he was the old school type, went to college back in the hay day of computers first starting to gain attention, he knows well........itd be hardpressed to find something he doesnt know about computers or the history of any company.......he very much perfers Intel (prolly cause he gets 1 proc half off each time they relese them) and his intel rep got him hooked up with Vanguard beta this year so yeah id love intel too but, i see him with customers all the time, he never bs's them, he tells them why he uses which part and which company he works only with the following unless a customer asks for certin part/brand

Asus mobo's
Intel's line minus celly's
Nvidia cards
Kingston ram
Soundblaster sound cards
and WD hdd's

to me, those parts/brands are the type you know that last a long time, of all the 2,000 machines hes built in the past 4 years, only 1 kingston stick was memtest bad out of box, no intel chips were bad out of box, 1 asus board was bad, no hdd's bad, no video cards were bad..........tho he has said the older DFI boards hes had to send back like 4-5 back when he used DFI over anyone else (cheaper cost)

but yeah........you find some techies who know their stuff, and you find tards who think they do know it........i myself am caught inbetween.....one min i think i know my stuff then someone here proves me wrong at the end of the day, i try to learn what i can, and if i truly dont know what im talking about, i tend not to open my mouth


soulsaver_8229

It's the same further south in Pullman/Moscow area, but at least Turbonet carries AMD components...and they are a great ISP...

So your location is WA and BC? What are you a drug runner? jk, kinda. We in spokane have so many other things to do other than smoke weed! We can go get miseducated at the local computer store. Their is one shop here , bundles and more, they have really high quality cabling at prices that are totally competitive with newegg, even if you don't count shipping. But they don't sell any other hardware. Got a sweet gigabit capable 50 foot cable for 3.95 there the other day. Their just down the road south on Nevada st from the dumbasses at Abacus. Ray's video station and computers is cool, but just because he has a ton of killer Laser discs for like 3 for 10$ in primo shape. Once in ahwile he has something decent in his used computer stuff but its never competitivly priced. So if gas prices continue to elevate do you think eventually newegg will be more expensive than local stores due to shipping costs? Then wtf will we have to do to get hardware?

Originally Posted by QuimZ

I will put aside most of my usual bitching and whining about uninformed, ill-representing techs/sales associates for this post.

Mom and pop PC shops in my area NW Ohio are becoming slim, and in my particular town virtually non-existent. As for pricing these people are, and have been getting absolutely slayed by the big boys in the retail and e-tail biz of PC parts and pre-built computers. They can't keep up with Newegg's prices on most stuff, and they sure as hell can't build a computer as cheap and as powerful as HP, Compaq, or Dell's offerings. I went to a small computer shop out of town a few months ago needing a 120mm fan (couldn't wait for shipping) and saw a tiger direct invoice on the counter. Some of these places pay what we pay. So they have to do it to stay in business. However, misleading a customer due to lack of knowledge, being ignorant, and refusing to diversify your stock is straight B.S.

Only way I could understand this scenario would be if the guy got seriously hosed on previous AMD chips..A little money lost is a big problem for small biz. They can't afford to lose anything.

Omit the first line of this post for a second. My aunt got totally screwed a few years ago on a system because of a sales rep who shat on AMD's name. She could have saved big money and had a more powerful computer for what she paid for her P4 2.6 system. I won't listen to their BS and walk away. Heck, I'd take almost any thread from these forums even if it's fan boy-ish in flavor and use it over the word of a salesman that I didn't know personally.
/end rant

I am from the NE Ohio area, and i can also attest to this, i know one or two decent stores who are actually worth going to. And there still not really good on deal's the only way you are going to get a good deal is basicly threw newegg or pricewatch. These stores cant match the same price due to the fact of how small they are. The big business can throw stuff like this around because they can afford to make 1 or 2 bucks off one purchase.

heh any one own/work at a shop in the pittsburg area namly around the airport i need a job

Originally Posted by Advil

Yeah, I love it when people get some cheap-arse 1U rackmount server case because they don't want to pay for 2U of space month to month. Of course it's going to run a powerhouse dual proc web server. Oh, and "It makes too much noise cant you quiet it down?".

Result? Despite being warned a half dozen times, they bitch when the CPUs and hard disks burn out in six months and it costs them $1000 for repair and a week in down time.

Duh.

Oh so many assumptions, by the sound of them wrong as well, being that the new smaller 1U & 2U chassis' faired a lot better than the larger older 2U to 5U chassis'. I very much doubt that when room temps get into the 40 and 50C areas that a larger chassis helps much, it's all on thermal design and for that our smaller chassis' walk over the older larger ones.

You'd think at the end of the day that a sale is a sale.

If you dont stock AMD because its not particularly financially good for you, thats fair enough. However, if after one attempt at asking the customer if they would perhaps try an Intel solution and they say no. Then why not say "Ok well we can order in the AMD parts you require!"

Maybe setup a 'Falshmob' (ok thats so 2003) of dozens of folks all asking if they stock AMD?

Originally Posted by AndoOKC1

is it just me or can you guys never seem to run into so called "computer experts" who have the deep enthusiasm and knowledge that most regulars on hardforums have. Everytime i go to a computer store i just have to bite my tongue b/c their "computer experts" have no idea about anything beyond the tech sheet intel and microsoft sends them. It'll be the day when i hear someone who know what a memory divider is and knows how to properly overclock.

Many "deep enthusiasts" as you say, are prefessionals, computer stores couldnt affort us

I am over here in Amsterdam and the local computer shops can be ok.

I strolled into one last week, sidle up to the counter and ask

"Mate, got any X2 4400s in stock"

straight away, the guy says they have one left. I ask if he has any 3800s and if they have been playing with them. He then regails me their tales of phase/3800/2.9ghz stable

Thats place rocks (PCL computers in Amsterdam).

Then you walk a bit further down the road and go to this placed called Mycom. They are such, how do you say it nicely, dense fuckers. I ask them which is a good gaming vid card, saying i like battlefield and I have a 20inch lcd, they show me a 6600gt and a 9550.

doh.

but I love my pcl store, they rock, its just so cool to go in,

"Mate, need more artic silver....got those new swiftech TECs in yet? no, backordered...k, let me know"

sweet.