Comment Educated Guide to Buying Your Computer (Score 1) 1132
Guide to Educated Online Buying
1) http://www.google.com
Your first step should be to research the product/s that you are considering to put in your system. While many products look very appealing a review may shine light on severe problems that you would have never have noticed unless you found out for yourself. There are tons of Tech websites that review products read several so that you are making an educated buy.
2) http://www.pricewatch.com
Pricewatch is hands down the best Street Price finder on the Internet. At pricewatch.com you can find almost anything that you're looking for to build your computer. You should know what OEM, White Box, and Retail mean so that you don't end up with just the product itself and not the box / drivers. Another thing to be aware of is that sometimes the companies set their own warranties. For Example: If you buy a licensed retail version a 3yr warranty is included. If you buy an OEM version the warranty may only be 15days. It's very hard to return a faulty product to a vendor in 15days since most require you to get a Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) first. Before you decide to buy please see step 3)....
3) http://bizrate.com/ (especially the: ratings guide
Part of making an educated buy is knowing WHO you are buying from. The business-rating guide is a collection of ratings from users who have bought items from a company. By reading their experiences you can get a better feel of whether or not the company is reputable. This is a very important step, there is nothing worse then getting ripped off by a company that is thousands of miles a way.
4) Brick and Mortar Stores:
Don't forget regular stores. While some stores may not be the most friendly of places (Fry's Electronics, Best Buy, etc.) they do have occasional deals that are much better than anything you'll find online. So keep your eyes on the newspapers for advertisements.
5) Paying Online / Deals That Are Too Good to Be True
Our final step is to pay for the products. Make sure when you pay that the site has some sort of secure buying system. I realize that some companies are run out of their home and might just use PayPal, BillPoint, etc... Just be careful when you're giving out your credit card number.
Deals that are too good to be true: almost always are. Stay away from people who sell $3,000 items for $400 when everyone else on the Internet is selling them for $2299. It will save yourself a lot of time and headaches if you don't fall prey to people who are running scams.
Building your system yourself is definitely the right choice. Not only does it give you the freedom of choosing the right components it also helps you learn just how your computer functions. It's a really fun and exciting process. Enjoy!
1) http://www.google.com
Your first step should be to research the product/s that you are considering to put in your system. While many products look very appealing a review may shine light on severe problems that you would have never have noticed unless you found out for yourself. There are tons of Tech websites that review products read several so that you are making an educated buy.
2) http://www.pricewatch.com
Pricewatch is hands down the best Street Price finder on the Internet. At pricewatch.com you can find almost anything that you're looking for to build your computer. You should know what OEM, White Box, and Retail mean so that you don't end up with just the product itself and not the box / drivers. Another thing to be aware of is that sometimes the companies set their own warranties. For Example: If you buy a licensed retail version a 3yr warranty is included. If you buy an OEM version the warranty may only be 15days. It's very hard to return a faulty product to a vendor in 15days since most require you to get a Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) first. Before you decide to buy please see step 3)....
3) http://bizrate.com/ (especially the: ratings guide
Part of making an educated buy is knowing WHO you are buying from. The business-rating guide is a collection of ratings from users who have bought items from a company. By reading their experiences you can get a better feel of whether or not the company is reputable. This is a very important step, there is nothing worse then getting ripped off by a company that is thousands of miles a way.
4) Brick and Mortar Stores:
Don't forget regular stores. While some stores may not be the most friendly of places (Fry's Electronics, Best Buy, etc.) they do have occasional deals that are much better than anything you'll find online. So keep your eyes on the newspapers for advertisements.
5) Paying Online / Deals That Are Too Good to Be True
Our final step is to pay for the products. Make sure when you pay that the site has some sort of secure buying system. I realize that some companies are run out of their home and might just use PayPal, BillPoint, etc... Just be careful when you're giving out your credit card number.
Deals that are too good to be true: almost always are. Stay away from people who sell $3,000 items for $400 when everyone else on the Internet is selling them for $2299. It will save yourself a lot of time and headaches if you don't fall prey to people who are running scams.
Building your system yourself is definitely the right choice. Not only does it give you the freedom of choosing the right components it also helps you learn just how your computer functions. It's a really fun and exciting process. Enjoy!
