Opinions on ShopBLT.com ?

[Guest]

Just a quick question here, hopefully I'm posting in the right place. Has anybody here bought computer hardware through these guys? I really, really want a Sapphire R9 280X Toxic, and they have it listed at $355, but on back-order. I'm assuming this would mean a wait of a month, possibly longer given the demand of these GPU's. This is not a problem for me, especially if it saves me $100!!! But I have never bought anything at all from them, so I have no idea how good their support is, how legitimate they are, etc. So, anybody have any experience with them for online buying of computer hardware?

 

[Guest]

Been doing a bit of research on them, have yet to find a bad review. One 4/5 star review I found, the guy said he bough an I5 4670K right after it's release for MSRP, the only complaint he had was the padded envelope packaging it came in was not ideal for an expensive CPU. I would agree there hahaha. But bad packaging aside, I cannot seem to find any evidence of this site being a scam or anything. Anyways, here is a link to a GPU I am considering from themhttp://

Hopefully somebody here has bought something from them or I may have to do a test order of something cheap. Anybody???

 

[ssddx]

personally i wouldnt.

if you look at the numbers sold in relation to the number ordered they sold more than they have coming in. also looking at the eta its behind schedule.

you could very well be waiting 6months for a card (and maybe never get it) if going that route.

they are selling items they dont have and are only guessing that they would be receiving them.

often things that sound too good to be true are. not saying its a scam with 100% certainty just saying that i personally wouldnt risk my own money on it.

it could very well be a badly ran legitimate company though not sure that changes how i feel about their practices.

 

[Guest]

Yea my worries on it exactly. They say on the site FAQ section that if you order something on back order, you are basically put in line behind the last guy to order the item before you. It also says they do not charge your credit card for said item until it ships out to you. Which sounds legit, just how many people are ahead of you?? I'm still up in the air on this one.

I can buy the card in stock for the ridiculous prices they are at, or wait til who knows when for them to come down to earth. The only other option is a GTX 770, but then I'd want the 4GB version, and I don't like Nvidia anyways so this situation isn't too easy to figure out for me hahaha.

 

[ssddx]

ati is out of this world on some of the products because of bitcoin mining.

honestly you would be better off picking a standard 280x from asus or other brand.

or going with a 770. nvidia is great. no need for a 4gb version unless you wanted to have triple monitors or some shit like that.

its rather easy to figure out. i just think you are dead set on that particular model

 

[Guest]

Yea I really wanted that one, or the 280x toxic. Got me there hahaha. Although I do swear by Asus Mobos, so one of their cards wouldn't be a bad option. Might even end up trying a different brand other than Asus. I've had good luck with MSI, although their overclocking has been difficult for me in the past. I've heard XFX is pretty good too.

As far as Nvidia goes, I used to be an Nvidia only user, but I have had issues with their drivers more often than with AMD. Opposite of most people it seems CPU's remain the only thing I am neutral on these days.

Different brand shopping it is I suppose. Thanks for the opinions and thoughts on this, this was just one of those things that was easier to figure out for myself with another persons input I guess.

 

[ssddx]

the toxic is a nice card but its also on the upper end of prices too.

the gigabyte version of the 280x has a nice triple fan design which gets very high marks.
the asus design runs a bit slower than some other brands but gets very good cooling numbers.

both would be good choices.

sometimes you just need a kick in the butt to get your mind in gear

 

[Guest]

Hahaha ain't that the truth Anyways, finally made up my mind and went with the Sapphire 280x Vapor X. Should arrive this week! Got it for $440, and apparently it came with a free "gift" of an R7 240 1GB from Sapphire. No idea what the hell I'm ever going to do with that thing, but I suppose another back up alongside my very tired, overused, but still faster BFG GTS 250 1GB is always nice to have:lol: I was going to get an XFX DD 280x, but just before I bought it, i happened across a forum with AMD and Nvidia fans alike bitching about XFX. Bad VRM and memory cooling, support, etc. I want his card to last like that old GTS has, so no XFX.

All the Gigabyte and Asus ones were sold out, and the base clocked Dual X Sapphire was like $15 less than the Vapor, while the Toxic still sits at near $500. I don't feel too bad about paying what I did, I think this thing should last me quite some time before needing to be replaced for being too slow. Just kicking myself in the ass for not buying one of these cards a few months back when they were $300!! Oh well, still cheaper than the 7970's were after their release.

This whole thing made me come really, really close to make a move back to Nvidia again for an EVGA super clocked GTX 770 4GB though. Probably would have been really happy with that too I'm sure, and it was about the same price, but I feel more comfortable with AMD cards. Damn miners making us gamers' lives hard!

 

[ssddx]

all of the higher end amd cards are overpriced right now because of bitcoin mining.

the gtx 770 would have been a better choice overall. you wanted to go with amd though and its not my place to say otherwise.

in any case the 280x should work fine. honestly never heard anything bad about xfx myself but i will keep it in mind.

 

[Guest]

Yea I wasn't too enthused about the pricing, but in my case I could have been waiting ages for them to come back down. Financially, the 770 would have killed my 280x in the value department. I've always had terrible luck with Nvidia for some reason though. My closest buddy is the exact opposite. Like a Chevy Vs Ford thing, they both do the same thing, but some of us get bad luck with one or the other I guess :/ Oh well, this thing is amazing! I can't even get it to break 70 degrees, even when using MSI Kombustor burn in test. It is extremely fast too! So fast I'm not even going to OC it. Sapphire did a hell of a job with the cooler on this thing, that's for sure. Easily the most effectively cooled GPU I have ever owned.

Yea, it's weird that so many people were slamming XFX for poor cooling. I had previously not heard anything bad about their DD cooler before either. Most of them were saying the VRM cooling was the issue, and some were saying the memory is cooled poorly. Although everyone goes by sensor readings so it could just be bad sensors or buggy BIOS versions I suppose. I once owned a Pentium 4 that ran at an apparent 120+ degrees C, and it's still running to this day without any problems:lol: It was enough complaining though to steer me away anyways. Same stuff was coming from pure Nvidia users from XFX's Nvidia days too.

 

[grafxone]

Beware that the price on their page is not locked in when you order a backordered item. Unlike most places, ShopBLT can raise their prices once the item becomes available and charge that to all 2,300+ orders waiting. This is stated in their pricing policy. Also, no returns.