We all know that Newegg and Amazon are good sources for unRAID parts and drives. 

 

But there are other merchants that are also well-priced and worth considering. 

 

And there are certain places that are the best for buying specific things.

 

The purpose of this thread is to allow users to provide specific recommendations on where to (or not to) shop for what.

Buy.com

 

Buy.com is a great place to shop for the SuperMicro CSE-M35T-1 5-in-3 "hotswap" disk cages.  At ~$96 with free shipping, I have not found better.  There is an easy to find $5 off first order over $100.

 

Also, budget (free) shipping is amazing.  I placed an order on Friday and it arrived by 10AM the next day (Saturday morning).  Last time I ordered from them the order also arrived next day (but it wasn't a weekend), and I thought it was a fluke.  Shipping for this item was from PA, which is about a 5 hour drive from where I live.  After 4 perfect transactions from buy.com, I would recommend them.

If you have one nearby, Micro Center is a great brick and mortar store to get computer parts at.  Their prices are often pretty close to online stores, though you will get hit with sales tax.  But, I don't think I would order online from them.  That's not really their main thing, and their customer support for online orders doesn't seem nearly as good as Newegg's.

Here in Canada I buy a lot of things from NCIX.com. Their prices are comparable to Newegg and sometimes you can get some pretty good sales. They have excellent supply and stock. They do sell and ship to the US as well.

 

Shawn

 

UK

 

Scan

http://www.scan.co.uk/ -- Huge e-tailer with a very efficient distribution system. Sign up to avforums.com and get free next day delivery: http://www.avforums.com/forums/scan_offer.php

You can order pretty late in the day and will usually get the delivery by lunchtime the following day.

They text you your order status in real time. Orders are always well packaged -- they wrap bare hard drives in 4 cubic metres of bubble wrap. You could probably play football with the package and the drive would be OK.

 

Their "Today Only" page usually has the best deals. They have also just started offering offers for Facebook fans -- but ironically, I found the deal on Twitter. I don't know if they will Tweet every offer. The first deal was a 2TB Samsung F4 for £53.99. http://twitter.com/#!/ScanComputers/status/58549245086670848

 

Crescent Electronics

A smaller company. I've only ordered from them twice -- first for the HP Microserver, and recently I ordered some RAM. On both occasions they were amongst the cheapest suppliers listed, and of those cheap suppliers, they were the only ones listed who had lots of positive reviews.

 

Some cheapskates on http://www.hotukdeals.com were complaining that their free delivery option was slow -- they quote 5-7 days, and people were complaining that it took 7 days, sometimes longer.

I paid £6.99 or so for next day delivery of the server and did receive it the next day. For the RAM, I paid £2.49 ex. VAT for 2-3 day shipping. I ordered that on Friday, so it'll be interesting to see how long it takes to be delivered.

SuperBiiz.com

They consistently have the lowest prices on the Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 cards.  Plus, they almost always have some sort of promo deal going on...check this site for the current one.  I believe they will ship internationally as well.

UK

 

Scan

http://www.scan.co.uk/ -- Huge e-tailer with a very efficient distribution system. Sign up to avforums.com and get free next day delivery: http://www.avforums.com/forums/scan_offer.php

You can order pretty late in the day and will usually get the delivery by lunchtime the following day.

They text you your order status in real time. Orders are always well packaged -- they wrap bare hard drives in 4 cubic metres of bubble wrap. You could probably play football with the package and the drive would be OK.

 

Their "Today Only" page usually has the best deals. They have also just started offering offers for Facebook fans -- but ironically, I found the deal on Twitter. I don't know if they will Tweet every offer. The first deal was a 2TB Samsung F4 for £53.99. http://twitter.com/#!/ScanComputers/status/58549245086670848

 

Crescent Electronics

A smaller company. I've only ordered from them twice -- first for the HP Microserver, and recently I ordered some RAM. On both occasions they were amongst the cheapest suppliers listed, and of those cheap suppliers, they were the only ones listed who had lots of positive reviews.

 

Some cheapskates on http://www.hotukdeals.com were complaining that their free delivery option was slow -- they quote 5-7 days, and people were complaining that it took 7 days, sometimes longer.

I paid £6.99 or so for next day delivery of the server and did receive it the next day. For the RAM, I paid £2.49 ex. VAT for 2-3 day shipping. I ordered that on Friday, so it'll be interesting to see how long it takes to be delivered.

 

Add Aria too.  They are more often that not cheaper than Scan.  Check the super specials for the best prices, sometimes with free delivery.

 

EDIT : Currently playing with some scripts and made this http://www.smokingcures.com/hdd/ to help me work out the best deal on a few UK suppliers websites..

Here in Canada I buy a lot of things from NCIX.com. Their prices are comparable to Newegg and sometimes you can get some pretty good sales. They have excellent supply and stock. They do sell and ship to the US as well.

 

Shawn

 

+1. AND, they have the best price matching system I've seen. You see a better price somewhere else? Click the price match button when it's in your NCIX cart. Provide price and url, they update the price they charge you immediately in your cart. Done.

 

I've never been refused a pricematch, but I assume if they do, they let you know before they charge your card....

 

They probably hate nickel and dimers, but whenever I buy parts, I scour the web for the best deals, then buy everything from NCIX. Even if it's just a couple of bucks per part, it ends up paying at the very least for shipping, and sometimes the savings are significant...

 

[EDIT] For Clarity

Add Aria too.   They are more often that not cheaper than Scan.  Check the super specials for the best prices, sometimes with free delivery.

 

I just ploughed through the entire Super Specials list. They have some interesting products there that I haven't seen elsewhere, but of the products I wanted to buy, they weren't any cheaper.

 

The WD20EARS was £59.99 without free shipping at Aria (£68.33 inc shipping).

It's £53.99 at Scan, with free shipping.

 

So, the total price is 27% more at Aria. If they do have good deals in future, please do post them in the Good Deals section.

Fry's does have some bargains at times.  Lately they are matching online prices.  Just took an Amazon price in and they would have matched it (if they had stock).  Guess I'll call before I go next time. 

If they do have good deals in future, please do post them in the Good Deals section.

 

They change their deals everyday the same as Scan,  I agree that scan are cheaper at the moment but Aria are often cheaper than scan.

 

A Couple of weeks ago I bought 2x WD20EARS for £105 from Scan,  at the time Aria were cheaper for single drives and scan were cheaper for 2.  Just depends on what deals are on what site.

We have two TigerDirect stores about 30-45mins from me here, but everyhting there is hit or miss. There's no telling what they'll actually have in the store at any given time. We're planning on moving to Denver this summer, and they have a Microcenter. I wish they'd open a Fry's, but for some reason they refuse to open a location in Denver.

Also, budget (free) shipping is amazing.  I placed an order on Friday and it arrived by 10AM the next day (Saturday morning).  Last time I ordered from them the order also arrived next day (but it wasn't a weekend), and I thought it was a fluke.  Shipping for this item was from PA, which is about a 5 hour drive from where I live.  After 4 perfect transactions from buy.com, I would recommend them.

 

Also, LCD prices are often better than NewEgg or Amazon. I've bought several over the years and they also arrive quickly with "free ground shipping" - from Richardson, TX.

I bought my LG 42" 1080p LCD from Fry's.com for $500 shipped in March of last year. Great deal.

Monoprice.com

 

Monoprice is a great place for cables (SATA, network, audio, video, and more), splitters, adapters, and a few PCI / PCIe controller cards.

 

They do not carry the SAS breakout cables, but there was a recent post that they might be adding them.

 

This vendor has an excellent reputation for quality products at low cost.

UK

 

Scan

http://www.scan.co.uk/ -- Huge e-tailer with a very efficient distribution system. Sign up to avforums.com and get free next day delivery: http://www.avforums.com/forums/scan_offer.php

You can order pretty late in the day and will usually get the delivery by lunchtime the following day.

They text you your order status in real time. Orders are always well packaged -- they wrap bare hard drives in 4 cubic metres of bubble wrap. You could probably play football with the package and the drive would be OK.

 

Their "Today Only" page usually has the best deals. They have also just started offering offers for Facebook fans -- but ironically, I found the deal on Twitter. I don't know if they will Tweet every offer. The first deal was a 2TB Samsung F4 for £53.99. http://twitter.com/#!/ScanComputers/status/58549245086670848

 

Crescent Electronics

A smaller company. I've only ordered from them twice -- first for the HP Microserver, and recently I ordered some RAM. On both occasions they were amongst the cheapest suppliers listed, and of those cheap suppliers, they were the only ones listed who had lots of positive reviews.

 

Some cheapskates on http://www.hotukdeals.com were complaining that their free delivery option was slow -- they quote 5-7 days, and people were complaining that it took 7 days, sometimes longer.

I paid £6.99 or so for next day delivery of the server and did receive it the next day. For the RAM, I paid £2.49 ex. VAT for 2-3 day shipping. I ordered that on Friday, so it'll be interesting to see how long it takes to be delivered.

 

Add Aria too.   They are more often that not cheaper than Scan.  Check the super specials for the best prices, sometimes with free delivery.

 

And Ebuyer too.  Been using them for years - along with Scan.  Good service and no complaints.

I'm in California so my go to is usually Amazon, but given NewEgg carries a 8.75+% premium for me I've used Comp-U-Plus and TheNerds.Net as well.  

 

These places are not as competitive on commodity items like hard drives and memory, but they are often well priced on component items like SuperMicro motherboards and controllers.  Comp-U-Plus has additional discounts for repeat customers.

 

Nice thread on where to shop for UPSes and replacement batteries:

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=12548.0

Everyday I check the Good Deals fourm here and www.techbargains.com.  They cover deals of any kind.  I have never had an issue with anything posted on their site.  I have gotten everything from mother boards, pc cases, Monster remote controls to a PS3 based on what I have found there.  It also has a pretty clean format that is easy to navigate.  Of course I have an alarm set for every newegg shell-shocker on my cell phone too. 

CANADA - look up the lowest price on www.shopbot.ca which searchec Canadian webshops.

 

In order to save on shipping costs (if lowest priced items are from multiple vendors), check and see if NCIX.ca has the same items, in which case they will probably price match it (item has to be the exact same, and the price in CAD).

CANADA

 

Also, another deal site for Canada is the new Canada Post shopper. I used to use shopbot.ca exclusively, but lately the CP has been giving me better results

 

CanadaPost Shopper

Another thing to add to this thread for folks in the UK....  Norco cases are available from X-Case  http://www.xcase.co.uk

UK

 

Scan

http://www.scan.co.uk/ -- Huge e-tailer with a very efficient distribution system. Sign up to avforums.com and get free next day delivery: http://www.avforums.com/forums/scan_offer.php

You can order pretty late in the day and will usually get the delivery by lunchtime the following day.

They text you your order status in real time. Orders are always well packaged -- they wrap bare hard drives in 4 cubic metres of bubble wrap. You could probably play football with the package and the drive would be OK.

 

Their "Today Only" page usually has the best deals. They have also just started offering offers for Facebook fans -- but ironically, I found the deal on Twitter. I don't know if they will Tweet every offer. The first deal was a 2TB Samsung F4 for £53.99. http://twitter.com/#!/ScanComputers/status/58549245086670848

 

Crescent Electronics

A smaller company. I've only ordered from them twice -- first for the HP Microserver, and recently I ordered some RAM. On both occasions they were amongst the cheapest suppliers listed, and of those cheap suppliers, they were the only ones listed who had lots of positive reviews.

 

Some cheapskates on http://www.hotukdeals.com were complaining that their free delivery option was slow -- they quote 5-7 days, and people were complaining that it took 7 days, sometimes longer.

I paid £6.99 or so for next day delivery of the server and did receive it the next day. For the RAM, I paid £2.49 ex. VAT for 2-3 day shipping. I ordered that on Friday, so it'll be interesting to see how long it takes to be delivered.

+1

I'm quite lucky that Scan's warehouse is 2 minutes down the road from my house.  Always had excellent service both with retailing and technical support

In addition to the ones posted above,

 

Google Product Search

http://www.google.com/prdhp?hl=en

 

Pricegrabber

http://www.pricegrabber.com/

In Australia - well you simply can't get the same deals as in the US. Half the stuff on Amazon they won't ship to Aus, NewEgg doesn't ship internationally and SuperBiiz does but they require a wire transfer to do business. I won't wire transfer OS for goods - too dangerous and it is quite expensive until you start to get into the $2000 bracket where you can use a Forex service.

 

Techbuy.com.au for reasonably priced Norco cases and they carry the 120mm Fan wall bracket as well. To import these cases would cost way more with shipping..

http://www.techbuy.com.au/p/149123/CASINGS_SERVER_-_4U/Norco/RPC-4224.asp

http://www.techbuy.com.au/p/152644/CASINGS_SERVER_-_ACCESSORIES/Norco/120mmfanbracket.asp

 

Mwave.com.au for CPUs, memory, hdds and other brands of cases - always reasonably competitive. Bought a lot of stuff from them over the years...

 

And so far nowhere for SuperMicro server boards and SAS PCie cards  :'(. Unbelievable that no one is Aus stocks these things at a reasonable price - Scorptec.com.au has the MV8 but @ $AU199 a piece ($US212) its more than double the price from SuperBiiz... even with transport you can import them cheaper... but you must wire the money.

 

John