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Visited Microcenter, what a candy store!

P

pshufd

macrumors G4
Original poster
Oct 24, 2013
10,337
14,669
New Hampshire
Something I've wanted to do for ten years and we went yesterday and it was amazing. If you want to see PC components and accessories and Macs at the best prices around, it's the place to go.

I'm still looking into doing a build even though my current build meets my needs but Microcenter gives you a ton of options.

At the moment, I'm thinking of doing a 9700x build as my goal is high single-core performance and I am fine with integrated graphics. I asked about pre-builts and they didn't have anything like that. I also looked through the clearance section for motherboards. I'm gravitating towards an MSI Tomahawk right now - once you get into it, motherboard specs can be just as important as CPU specs, particularly for longevity.
 
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I'm thinking of this current bundle: https://www.microcenter.com/product...ies-32gb-ddr5-6000-kit,-computer-build-bundle

9900x, MSI Tomahawk, 32 GB G-Skill Flare DDR5-6000 for $600. I think that I could reuse my case and PSU and I'd use it without a GPU. The nice things about the MSI Tomahawk is 1 Gen 5 NVMe + 4 Gen 4, USB4 ports in the back and PCIe 5.0 should I want or need it. I'd actually be fine with the 9700X but there isn't a bundle with that CPU with a premium motherboard.

One thing that I did notice at the store was that prices had gone up 10% for this particular motherboard. They had an old stock motherboard for $344 and the new ones are $390 though there's a current discount that gets you back to the pre-tariff price.
 
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Microcenter is great. I didn’t live near one for a long time but finally got the chance to go after moving to a different state. Built my Linux PC last year which turned out to be good timing to wait out the storm with tariffs.

It’s rare to see a custom built with no dedicated GPU. If I had that option I’d probably go for a mini PC form factor. Or a Mac mini as these have good integrated graphics and single-core performance. What do you plan to use it for?
 
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redheeler said:
Microcenter is great. I didn’t live near one for a long time but finally got the chance to go after moving to a different state. Built my Linux PC last year which turned out to be good timing to wait out the storm with tariffs.

It’s rare to see a custom built with no dedicated GPU. If I had that option I’d probably go for a mini PC form factor. Or a Mac mini as these have good integrated graphics and single-core performance. What do you plan to use it for?
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Trading.

I have one program that runs horribly on Apple Silicon and I need to run it or else I'd be 100% macOS. It actually uses tiny resources on Windows but I want responsiveness. The thing about Intel and AMD is that you get better single-core performance with the more costly models and it's the opposite of what I need. It appears that eight is the minimum for Ryzen 9xxx CPUs whereas you could get lower core counts in the 7xxx generation.
 
pshufd said:
Trading.

I have one program that runs horribly on Apple Silicon and I need to run it or else I'd be 100% macOS. It actually uses tiny resources on Windows but I want responsiveness. The thing about Intel and AMD is that you get better single-core performance with the more costly models and it's the opposite of what I need. It appears that eight is the minimum for Ryzen 9xxx CPUs whereas you could get lower core counts in the 7xxx generation.
Click to expand...
Is that one program not native to Apple Silicon and having to run under Rosetta?
 
Is there a reason a small form factor prebuilt PC wouldn’t work for you? Mac mini + MacOS isn’t the only option in that space. Although I’ve seen reviewers say the value is better with the Mac (until you start adding upgrades).
 
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redheeler said:
Is there a reason a small form factor prebuilt PC wouldn’t work for you?
Click to expand...

I'd like a Gen 5 NVMe slot and another two or more Gen 4 slots and these are pretty hard to come buy on prebuilts unless you spend a lot of money. I haven't seen these on SFF systems. I'd also like four RAM slots. I already have a huge case, PSU and SSDs so the cost wouldn't expensive for just motherboard, CPU and new RAM sticks.
 
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pshufd said:
I'm thinking of this current bundle: https://www.microcenter.com/product...ies-32gb-ddr5-6000-kit,-computer-build-bundle

9900x, MSI Tomahawk, 32 GB G-Skill Flare DDR5-6000 for $600. I think that I could reuse my case and PSU and I'd use it without a GPU. The nice things about the MSI Tomahawk is 1 Gen 5 NVMe + 4 Gen 4, USB4 ports in the back and PCIe 5.0 should I want or need it. I'd actually be fine with the 9700X but there isn't a bundle with that CPU with a premium motherboard.

One thing that I did notice at the store was that prices had gone up 10% for this particular motherboard. They had an old stock motherboard for $344 and the new ones are $390 though there's a current discount that gets you back to the pre-tariff price.
Click to expand...
Wow, these prices are insane! In Germany, we pay around 860€ for this configuration, which is about 974 dollars here. It’s crazy!

This reminds me of the good old days when it was so much cheaper to fly to New York and buy SyQuest and CD burners there. Even with import duty in Germany, I could buy them for export in New York without paying taxes. The flight and hotel in New York were easily paid for.
 
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genexx said:
Wow, these prices are insane! In Germany, we pay around 860€ for this configuration, which is about 974 dollars here. It’s crazy!

This reminds me of the good old days when it was so much cheaper to fly to New York and buy SyQuest and CD burners there. Even with import duty in Germany, I could buy them for export in New York without paying taxes. The flight and hotel in New York were easily paid for.
Click to expand...

The bundle discount is about $200 so it's not that far apart. Microcenter currently has the M4 Mac mini for $449.99 and the MSRP is $600. It seems like they make nothing off these sorts of items but make money on accessories (which I do buy).
 
I just looked at pictures of that store. It looks amazing!
Much better than a Best Buy with mostly empty shelves and 15 pushy salesman bothering me in each isle!
 
My MicroCenter is 18 minutes away without traffic.

And I never go when there is traffic, except when I was hopelessly trying to get a 5090. I got there with a line around the block and later learned they had only gotten 9 in stock.

It was my favorite store until I bought everything I wanted needed. I am itching to go, but really don’t have anything to buy sadly.
 
Im about 30 minutes from a Micro Center and a big of the store.

I've built a few PCs with parts all bought from MC.

And as someone else stated, their warranty is amazing. I bought a used product and got the 2 year MC warranty with it. That cost me less than buying new without a warranty. After about a year, it started having issues and MC just gave me a brand new one.

A brick and mortar with solid prices is hard to find. MC is definitely one of them. With all the video card craze the last few years MC was always stocked, especially if you went early and got on line.

During winter they handed out tickets with your line number before the store was officially open so you could just go back and wait in your car instead of standing out in the cold.
 
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