vanilla awesome :
super helpful community here. I crossed the forums for a couple of weeks before making a post. I could only find sub $600 builds from a couple years ago and if you guys aren't aware, these computer gizmos seem to keep changing lol. so I think I'm decided on the build. any online shops I should frequent outside of new egg and amazon?
First, just know what you want. "Learn" what you can, all you can, about what you want.
Second, a refurb might be a pretty budget friendly worthy consideration (I paid $30 for a refurb' Logitech G600 MMO mouse ...it looks new to me lol). Anything and everything is only "new" until you open the box.
Next, keep to your budget, but don't be entirely rigid: sometimes a few extra bucks, can net you a much higher performance item (for $40 more, I could have bought a Radeon 7870 instead of the 7850 ...that's probably the only thing I'm still kicking myself over lol). Be a little flexible. Eat Top Ramen for a few extra days. Don't over-do-it, but don't short yourself, either. Let a "penny wise and pound foolish" be co-equal with "a penny saved is a penny earned" (and, a "penny" would buy two loaves of bread when they coined that phrase, so do the exchange math lol).
Keep in mind, when comparing online pricing, whether you have to pay additional local taxes, and shipping. That $10 is *your* $10, and you are as worthy of deciding what to do with your money as some government or corporate entity. Sometimes the better deal only looks like it costs a little more; the devil's in the details.
Pay attention to promo's, to sales, to rebates, and to "special offers" (like masterpass and such: I saved almost $100 in promotions that way, over the holidays, through being careful, and juggling different sites/sellers).
On rebates: Pay attention to the "fine print" in rebate offers. Don't get burned. Send in your box's UPS code, and the signed rebate, ON TIME!!! (mark those dates down) ...or "you lose". Pay the $1-$2 for "quick payment" (yeah, it's aggravating, but it puts *your* rebate at the front of the line, and it's only a couple of bucks ...and it can mean getting paid back in a week, versus 8-12 weeks). The rebate itself will typically be a credit card for the amount, so figure that amount into your budget for what you still need to buy. (In other words, don't treat it as "mad money", especially if your budget is tight.)
As for where to buy ....
I got a better deal through TigerDirect for an FX8320 than Newegg offered.
And I got a screaming deal at Rakuten (the old buy.com, I think) on a Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD. (Even though I had to pay sales tax.)
...so don't limit yourself to the 'egg and Amazon.
And I only paid $50 delivered for the CM Storm Quickfire XT full keyboard w/cherry green switches that I've been lusting over for way long before I decided on even doing a build. At Amazon (which didn't get a lot of my business this build). So don't NOT look at the usual suspects, either.
...better deals come through assiduous shopping, and patience. It ***really*** helps to be so conversant with the usual street value of something that when you see a "good deal", you're confident that it IS a good deal, so you don't hesitate. You have to pore over prices for awhile to get those kinds of mad shopping skillz though, lol.
This probably won't matter in your situation, but I try and "time" my major purchases so they occur in late November lol ...Black Friday/Cyber Monday is the careful [and not quite as careful] shopper's best friend.
EDIT: Oh. Add your local Craigslist to your "places" list. You never know. You might get lucky: the horse may learn to talk (http://andrewbwatt.com/2009/02/16/the-horse-may-learn-to-talk/: it's funny).
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