Tiger Direct's only store is in South Florida. Perhaps you could get them to assemble the requested parts for you.
chat with tigerdirect rep said:
Me: <summarize what I want> Do you offer this service?
TD: For a barebones kit you will need to come in to our store pick what you want would like to be in the barebones and we can build it for you
2-3days max to have it running
"ah well, couldn't hurt to head down there and scope it out at least... uh, hey, what is up with all these balloons"
*___*
perhaps tempting you with this part list?
Savings from Florida sales tax: $50
\o/
Special thanks to mkenyon for suggesting something I honesty wouldn't have thought of, Stubo for the blueprint I followed, and whatever component of my rig it is that decided to go kaput precisely on a tax-free weekend I had no idea was going on. It was meant to be *wipes away tear*
I followed the parts list as closely as possible with their inventory... they don't carry EVGA PSUs, so I went with Corsair's bronze-cert modular 600W for $15 more, and no Fractal Design case, but got a Corsair R200 for $20 less. Was overcharged about $15 on the mobo and RAM, the CPU and cooler prices were shockingly spot on though! Between the slightly different build and no tax, it was almost a total wash buying there versus part-by-part deals online, way better than I expected.
Factor in the gas cost of going to Miami and back, I paid about $110 over the parts to have them assemble my choice of components (minus the need to buy the most expensive ones from them), do some cable-fu for me, test for all working (committed to a partial refund on labor if I can't "just plug in my GPU and SSD and boot it up") and get it into my hands two days after deciding I wanted it- on a sunday no less. That versus however long for each part to arrive, plus doing the build, then the variable chance of DOAs or any issues along the way, and this was totally worth that to me. I know that for some, that will seem like an outrageous cost, but I honestly believe there's a market for this service. I feel they should advertise it more; the labor cost is fixed no matter what or how many parts you're asking to have them install, they didn't skip a beat when I said I needed them to test boot it with their own drive and test each RAM stick individually, and they were extremely confident about the timeframe. Yet neither of the dudes I talked to had ever heard of Tigerdirect advertising, "pick your parts and we'll build it for you in 2 days."
Shops offering customizable prebuilts would have charged me 30% more, weeks of waiting time + shipping, with no more than a warranty and a nifty logo on the case to show for it. I grant you, all of this is contingent on having somewhere a comfortable distance away that's willing to do it, but it's something to consider for peeps in my situation.
It's not silly. I'd say the only thing you'd be missing out on, which is subjectively important to me, is that you'd be overall less familiar with your system. Having someone help you with it, they can walk you through the process, explain some things to you, get you comfortable with your BIOS settings, and how to troubleshoot possible issues.
Relying on a store means you're on their time table for having things worked on. That's probably not really a big deal to most folks, but it would bug me.
That I definitely understand. I'm confident enough in my abilities to learn the nuances and do my own support after I get the thing working in my possession. Opening the case for the tiny finishing touches I'll need to do before booting up will be a good opportunity to familiarize myself with access and what differs from my old rig.
again I really appreciate the help guys. this thread was my first instinct when I realized my PC was on its last legs and I was not led astray.
