Price Checking

There are a zillion hardware computer vendors out there. It seems that only the higher prices vendors ones have their own flashey domain name and mail circulars and seem to get the most hits. Well, if you look at bit harder, you will notice that there are a lot of places that sell the same exact products at a (sometimes much) lower price. So, if you actually worked a bit when looking for parts, you could save your self up to $150 on any given single part.

Magazines, they have ads in them. No, not the January issue of Sports Illistrated, computer magazines! The best one out there for finding ads for products is Computer Shopper by Ziff Davis. I'm sorry, you'll have to go out and buy this magazine. Ziff Davis only posts the articles in the magazine on their website, not the adverts, so don't waste your time. ;-) Instead of only looking in the glossy section of the magazine, why not look in the middle section. Yea, I know, I usually skip that part too cause then my hands get all dirty, but many great deals can be found in there. I usually find a product in a larger hardware vendor, such as CDW (Computer Discount Warehouse) because they give product details in their monthly circulars. Then I look for that product in the other vendors in the Computer Shopper. It has worked well for me for a long time.

But recently, I have found that internet shopping can be better, and is more fun then flipping pages in a magazine. Even many of the small computer hardware vendors have a homepage somewhere, that way you can updated prices, rather then the 30-60 day old ones in your advert. I will admit though, there is one large computer vendor out there, with its own domain, and mail circulars and tons of hits, that has great prices. Great eh? NECX (www.necx.com) has been a favorite place to show for products. They have grown so big that they actually offer lower prices because of their huge buying volume. That should be one of the first online places to check for your products.

Another value of online shopping is that you can place an order 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 (or 366:) days of the year. Online line ordering of products is really easy, plus you don't have to wait 10 extra minutes while you stay on hold hearing the lovely elevator music that for some reason stores think we like to hear. Anyway, placing an order online IS SAFE. It's got to be one really messed up hacker to find your credit card information IF you are using a secure socket or secured web server to making your transaction. I mean, giving your Credit Card to that 21 year old in the mall at Bloomingdales and then walking away while a copy of the reciept is sitting right next to him/her .... well, it sounds like it could be even worse. So, don't be afraid. Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer both off 40 bit encrypted security on their browsers, you can even download a 128 bit encrypting version if you want to feel a bit more safe.

Ah yes, so shopping yourself for parts to a computer can be a pain sometimes. I mean, there are a ton of places that carry your product, and all you are looking for is that deal that is $1 cheaper then the last lowest price you have found. That's why a friendly online service called PriceWatch has come about. At PriceWatch (www.pricewatch.com) computer hardware vendors contact them and tell PriceWatch what their price is on many products that they carry. If you want to buy maybe from a larger online hardware vendor like NECX or CDW, PriceScan and Net Buyer keep tabs on them. Practically every product you can think of for your computer they have a listing for. All arranged by prices, the cheapest vendor at the top of the list.

So, there you go. It so far has lead upto this. You now have a perfect online site that finds the lowest price on anything you could want to make your own computer. It couldn't be easier. But just to make your job a bit easier from the start, letme just give you some suggestions on computer parts that I would highly recommend buying, and info sheets on all of them. So, let's start picking some products.