Building a PC - Advice on Merchants

kaleidoscope on 10/06/2020 - 13:10
Last edited 10/06/2020 - 13:37 by 1 other user

Hello all.

After more than a decade, building a PC and having not much experience with PC vendors here in down under thought of asking the question.

The PC is for personal use, mostly for gaming. After sales support is very important for me so am trying to avoid dodgy vendors by saving just a few bucks.
What are some of the well reputed merchants here in Australia and online merchant to look out for? Am based in VIC, Melbourne northern suburbs if that matters.

Cheers.

• 

  Hybroid on 10/06/2020 - 13:14

  +2

  Merchants:

  Amazon
  MSY
  Umart
  Skycomp
  PC Case Gear
  Mwave
  Scorptec
  CPL
  Computer Alliance

  Comparison:

  https://www.staticice.com.au/
  http://au.pcpartpicker.com/

  • 

    kaleidoscope on 10/06/2020 - 13:36

    Thanks. msy & cpl though. I heard their aftersales isnt good.

• 

  oscargamer on 10/06/2020 - 13:23

  +1

  Northern VIC or Melb north suburbs? (there is at least 200km of land north of Melb before you hit NSW)

  • 

    kaleidoscope on 10/06/2020 - 13:31

    Okay my bad, it’s melbourne north suburbs

    • 

      Slippery Fish on 10/06/2020 - 13:54

      Pccg is based in Melbourne I believe.

      • 

        kaleidoscope on 10/06/2020 - 16:23

        Yeap they are in rowville.

• 

  Slippery Fish on 10/06/2020 - 13:26

  +3

  Pccg and amazon are pretty top notch CS. Pccg will be better if you need assistance testing bits etc.

  • 

    Xyzzy on 10/06/2020 - 14:28

    +2

    +1 for PCCaseGear here.

    I've done a couple of builds with them. They picked up an incompatibility in my part selection and suggested a fix.
    I had an SSD that failed and they organised a replacement promptly under warranty. They responded promptly to queries I had.

    I'd happily use them again.

    • 

      kaleidoscope on 10/06/2020 - 16:25

      Thanks this is really good

• 

  Mechz on 10/06/2020 - 13:29

  +3

  Centrecom will be your best bet based on location.

• 

  netjock on 10/06/2020 - 15:04

  What you want to do is buy local if possible, makes returns easy.

  Also buy CPU and motherboard from same place so if you plug everything in and it doesn't even post you can point to CPU or motherboard is DOA. If you got dodgy ram and hard drive you'll get a beep.

  If you are not about saving a few bucks here and there, a few extra frames per second you might just figure out which one single outlet has all CPU, motherboard, ram and SSD you need (cheapest as a combo). So if it things go wrong you can bring it back with a receipt and work it out with them.

  Things might not go wrong but if they do then would you want the run around for $20 or $30 saved because the shop tells you it isn't their part at fault.

• 

  kaleidoscope on 05/08/2020 - 11:26

  Updating here as I can't edit original post.

  • scorptec - contacted them first as few products was out of stock and wanted an eta. Didn't get a proper response sadly so had to look for other options.
  • pccg - one of the product I wanted had month long wait for eta and it was pushed back a further 3-4 weeks which was not good, other product the price was too high, so didn't go ahead with them
  • cpl - the only place which had the memory sticks I wanted and was close by
  • amazon au (seller itself, not 3rd party) - most of my parts were sourced from here. Simply amazed by the quality of packaging and delivery speed. Would definitely be my go to place for future upgrades for pc parts. The motherboard I wanted is still pending arrival to all other local retailers warehouses and amazon au delivered it last week.
  • amazon us (seller, not 3rd party) - bought gpu from here due to no local stock. Not happy with the packaging, it was simply plastic bag over the retail box which had taken a beating and box was open and bag even had mud (lol). After talking to support, they offered refund (still in transit) and I re purchased it.

  Some of the ozb gpu deals on shopping-express were quite tempting, but sadly I had my mind set on an evga product.

  Overall it was frustrating with the whole supply chain issues with covid 19, but otherwise really happy with the build and is quite stable and quiet.

  Cheers,

• 

  Moderatorscrimshaw on 05/08/2020 - 19:26

  Thread closed by OPs request.