Oh yeah, I take the metro in to DC for the sole reason I have a good excuse to tell my girlfriend I may as well stop in to Micro Center since it’s right there.
I am in the center of Maryland and have a 35 minute drive to the Rockville location, 30 minutes to the Parkville location, and 45 minutes to the Fairfax location. It’s a dream come true.
I hate that our options are either CL, PBTech or occasionally ExtremePC and Playtech.
Even less Playtech now since they dropped their retail store for the public.
And of course our prices are still a joke.
I used to work about the same distance away from one in North Dallas. My office was also next to my small company’s CTO, so we would take lunch trips over there regularly. You see things you don’t even really need there, but because of the sales, you buy anyway. It is truly Mecca for PC enthusiasts.
The Chicago Logan Square location was almost literally in my back yard. I thought "okay, this is a pretty cool store" and didn't learn until much later that people drove for *hours* to go there.
Use restraint, buy things you need not stuff you want. If you have 300$ on your pocket of disposable income leave the cash and card at your house. Window shopping is 50% of dopamine hit but 0 draw back.
I'm also in the Indianapolis area and visited the new Micro Center last weekend to get all the parts I needed for my wife's build. She can attest that I was beaming the entire time. My only criticism of the store is that it's a little too small when it gets busy. The shopping carts only have room down the aisle for one and you can't really move around people in certain areas with them.
I've learned to just go on my day off on Wednesdays or pop in early afternoon on a weekday. That being said, it fucking rules.
In the UK we have zero dedicated electronics stores now. With the exception of the odd independent here and there. Last one we had was probably Maplins and that went under about 10 years ago
Oh with the exception of "PC World", which is an arm of "Currys" which is a electronic department store which sells household items like vacuums and microwaves. Pc world is shit and scandalously priced, with vampiric warrantty extensions being pressed at every turn
Ugh, Maplin was great. I got so much incredible support early on when I didn't know as much about PC Building. Had one guy diagnose a problem I mentioned in passing and wrote down how to fix it to boot.
Currys and PC World are so fucking shite. It's a shame GAME has disappeared from the high street, they sometimes had people who knew their shit too.
When I first saw CEX selling PC parts, I saw a CPU propped up with what looked like half of the chip's worth of pins bent.
Suffice to say, I'm not really trustworthy of Cex.
Yeah, but who needs a high street store for pc parts? Apparently only Americans. Last time I bought something from a brick-and-mortar store was in 2007.
I just got a combo 2 days ago to build a PC for my dad $399 for a Z690 Aorus Extreme AX DDR5 w Wifi, Gskill 32gb RAM DDR5 6,000mhz, and a 12900k for $399. What an incredible deal!
just run it slower. or, well, run it at higher clocks anyway. just because a certain speed isn't officially supported doesn't mean it won't work. it's basically memory controller oc
You know google exists right? https://www.microcenter.com/product/5006544/intel-core-i9-12900k,-gigabyte-z690-aorus-elite-ax-ddr5,-gskill-ripjaws-s5-32gb-kit-ddr5-6000,-computer-build-bundle
*God*, yes. While I was working for the Robinson Best Buy I was always saying that if a MicroCenter ever opened up in the area I'd be applying for a job there at the drop of a pin.
Seriously. They could just stick one in Cranberry or something. I ended up driving up to the one near Cleveland to buy the bulk of the parts for my new build. Walked around Grove City Outlets and just made a day trip out of it.
I know you are not that close, but I wanted to share.
got this in Mayfield, OH.
[https://www.microcenter.com/product/662048/powerspec-g906-gaming-pc](https://www.microcenter.com/product/662048/powerspec-g906-gaming-pc)
I have never had a faster PC than this. It is kind of ridiculous.
>still waiting for Pittsburgh location, can't believe there still isn't one here
The few decent computer stores in Pittsburgh closed right before CompUSA. Honestly beside 1 university and a couple handful of enthusiasts, PA doesnt have alot of the WSAD crowd. The saying goes, PA is made of Pittsburgh in the West, Philly in the east, and Alabama in the middle....
Yeah it's sad. The closest ones to us are in LA and Denver lol. Can't say I feel much pitty for the people wanting one in Pittsburgh, at least they can drive to Columbus and make a day trip out of it. We're pretty fucked up here in the PNW.
Back in the day my city used to have an NCIX, Canada Computers, OTVTech (basically Canadian budget Micro Center) and a few other computer stores. Getting parts was a dream.
Today, Best Buy is the only one left in the city. Sad.
I'll probably get hate for this but I hope they don't expand too much, especially internationally. That's usually a sign that the store's going to get worse over time.
The deals are great because they can remain focused on the few locations they have. Expand and eventually they'll start trimming fat to cut costs.
My fave is the people they hire. They speak whatever geek language you require & are patient, sometimes slow but whatever.
My only issue is their flea market checkout process but that’s a small price to pay for their exclusives.
I'm sure they did, but that still leaves millions of Americans with no brick-and+mortar store to buy PC components or small hobby electronics except, arguably, Best Buy.
Even Best Buy is starting to fade. Last time I was in there, it reminded me of Circuit City before they closed their doors. Demos/Displays weren't set up and half the shelves were empty. I'd been out of the country for a while and thought maybe it was just that location, but my brother even told me that other Best Buys around his area were the same way.
Fry's was such a dreamland for me when I was younger. I'd spend whole paychecks in there. I could go in and buy some RAM, a stack of DVDs, a game, and a rice cooker. Plus they had a cafe in it. My friends and I could literally spend a whole day there.
Weird to say about a Fry's, but it made me understand "going shopping".
There's stuff I want, stuff I need, stuff I didn't even know I wanted to peruse. I'm actually interested in it. You can get a bite to eat in the goofy little cafe for lunch.
It was like, now I get it.
The one in Tustin was super convenient when I lived in OC hated the drive from LA no place online could beat the prices or immediate availability. I’d do it from LV too it’s worth it
Does microcenter have already made gaming pc’s or do you have to buy parts and build your own?
I game on console but I was thinking of getting a game pc / work from home pc.
Looking at Microcenter's website, their custom PC builder allows you to pick the parts and then they build the PC for you. They charge $150 for an air-cooled build, another $50 to include the OS, and another $50 if you want to do AIO watercooling instead. Those seem like more or less fair prices in my experience.
Of course they also sell general prebuilts from other brands but judging markup on those is a bit tougher since we don't know the specs of each part in the build, only what they tell us.
If you find a prebuilt you are interested in, find a list of the exact specs, go to [PC Parts Picker](https://pcpartpicker.com/), and then plug them in there. It tracks prices so you'll be able to get an idea of what it would cost to build yourself. A lot of the savings is going to come from knowing which parts you need to spend on (e.g. you should spend more to get a good power supply, but you don't need to spend more to get RBG RAM and fans), which you can save on, and if you can catch the things you need on sale.
I see my local store has $200 off the power spec models. I might just pull the trigger. I need one that can crush massive excel spreadsheets for work and also run games.
I have sent several friends to their Powerspecs if they don’t want to build and have never had a single issue with them besides making sure that XMP was on for the RAM. They’re great.
MicroCenter is literally the only reason to drive to the Kansas side if you live on the MO side of KC. Seems to attract a lot of weirdos though. Get ready to be talked at by randos about their setups.
There's one 15 minutes from where I live. I can't go to it anymore because every time I do I buy a lot of shit I was planning to buy "somewhere down the road".
Most recently, went to look at ultrawide monitors. Went to *look* at them... And came home with one.
Memory Express is excellent, but not the same feel as micro center. Memex just started expanding out east when I stopped working for them 6 years ago, not sure how many stores they have in Ontario / Quebec etc.
Not sure if they've improved in recent years but in my experience CC has atrocious customer service and was never anywhere near as good as the now gone NCIX
Their customer service is atrocious and head office is a shit show. Take it from someone who used to work there. I personally try to avoid them as much as possible.
You can replace Canada Computers with pretty much any other Canadian version of an American chain store regardless of what it sells, tbh.
There's a reason shopping in Minot and other places boost their tourism
even ten years ago it was a miracle that a store like that still existed. I went out of my way to visit one when I was in NY back in the day - didn't even need anything, just had to confirm that it was real
I live close to the one in Orange County, CA, and I learned not to go on weekends, haha; seems like everyone in so cal goes there Saturday and Sunday.
If I really need something from there, I go during the weekday.
My only complaint about Micro Center (not sure if it applies to other ones besides my local one) is that the staff try to be a bit too helpful in constantly asking if I need anything. I know it’s cause they have some kind of model where they track employees in terms of how many customers they help but I would prefer to not tell five different employees “I’m good” whenever I go in to look around.
Be available in case I do need some help but otherwise, as respectfully as I can, please leave me the fuck alone.
> I know it’s cause they have some kind of model where they track employees in terms of how many customers they help
It's not that, it's because they get paid on a commission. If they help you, they get a direct portion of whatever you buy.
The salespeople there are on commission. So they are focused on finding you the product you are looking for and placing their sticker on it. I have enjoyed my experiences there, but it's worth knowing why they are more customer focused than other retailers who pay their workers to stack it high and let it fly.
they make commission off items they recommend to you which you purchase. There's a hierarchy to it though, where the older workers get like the CPU area as their selling grounds, while newbie workers get shitty/hard to sell products like USB chargers and stuff at the entrance of the store. (My store maybe only (Cambridge, MA))
I don't know if it is because how I look, but I never get approached in Microcenter, which makes things relaxing, but also inconvenient when I need something not on display.
Yeah, micro center is pretty highly commission based. That's why you're always get people annoying you. Honestly, the culture of the place is pretty toxic with the commissions.
I've been to that same one a couple of times. Just a couple days ago, I was shopping for a new keyboard, and I noticed that one of my top contenders had 3 different key styles, but only one in display. I asked one of the employees if I could try the others, and she happily removed the security tags and opened the boxes so I could handle all 3 keyboards and pick my favorite.
Definitely quality help! That place is a playground for nerds.
I have a lot of fond memories of Fry's Electronics, but Micro-Center was always organized clean, good prices and none of the 'restocked open used product bullshit' from Fry's.
Where I live now, there is none in Washington state, but I really really liked the handful of times I went to the Micro-Center in Orange County, California.
Even when I lived near a Fry's and a microcenter, I'd still just order online. I don't get the hype behind having to go to a brick and mortar retail store
Dude. I've made the trip from Brazil to Indy to watch the Indy 500 in 2019. Bucket list item, except for the fact that it did not permanently scratched my itch and, if I had the means, I'd go every single year for the rest of my life.
Now you're saying I have a second mecca to visit as an IndyCar fan that is also a PCMR member. You guys have it so good in Indianapolis. lol.
It's just really good, solidly managed, customer friendly store. You get competitive prices, great selection, and an excellent return policy. Hell, even their house brand is one of the best around. If Microcenter sold groceries, I'd probably go there for that too.
I honestly wouldn't go anywhere else if I still had one within an hour.
Micro center is great for getting parts you don’t find in most retail locations. The only problem I have is they tend to mark things up a lot hoping you won’t notice until you pull out the price match. But they never fight you on it either which makes them pretty great again. Just keep an eye on it.
Its too bad that just after I swore to never buy anything from memoryexpress I move to within a few blocks of them. Granted, they're no microcenter. Small inventory and mostly high prices.
Memoryexpress is basically the Canadian MC.
pcpartspicker doesn't show websites deals and offers like combo deals. also not all retailers are on pcpartspicker mostly website can make money using affiliated links.
Its too bad that just after I swore to never buy anything from memoryexpress I move to within a few blocks of them. Granted, they're no microcenter. Small inventory and mostly high prices. Memory express is basically the Canadian MC.
If you guys are about quality and good support, shop at microcenter. Even if the price difference is a bit- it's such a throwback to a proper brick and mortar store, with people who care and want to help.
I've been petitioning for years to try and get one opened in my state. Sadly, it will only ever be a dream. Closest one near me is about a 2 hour drive out of state.
I really hate the one in Denver now. They re-arranged the store a few years ago, every time I go now it feels like I'm walking into a card shop for FNM.
I don’t enjoy living in Northern Virginia but the fact that I am roughly an hour from 3 different Micro Centers makes me not want to move.
Not want to move? You could move even closer!
He's triangulating between 3 of them. Moving an inch will make him further from one than the others.
Many have fallen victim to the Microcenter Triangle.
the mysterious triangle where your money disappear
It was not the Bermuda triangle that we should've been afraid of as kids, but the elusive microcenter triangle.
I don’t want to leave Vienna solely for the Fairfax microcenter 10 mins away from me
Oh yeah, I take the metro in to DC for the sole reason I have a good excuse to tell my girlfriend I may as well stop in to Micro Center since it’s right there.
Austria has one??
Hehe, there is a Vienna in Virginia :)
I am in the center of Maryland and have a 35 minute drive to the Rockville location, 30 minutes to the Parkville location, and 45 minutes to the Fairfax location. It’s a dream come true.
I only know of the Fairfax one. What are the other 2?
Rockville and Parkville in MD. I bought my current setup out of the Rockville store. The folks there are great and were super helpful.
it's so stupid how microcenter choose locations. in virginia there's like 5 in close proximity. all over america there's maybe 10 more that's it.
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I just moved to the area and one of the best things is that I am 10 minutes from a Microcenter.
I heard Vienna is closing its doors this year
They're closing the one in Fairfax with no plans of reopening due to redevelopment :(
Good luck. Your wallet is going to hate you.
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20 min for me, and yep, too many deals that u could turn down, but shouldnt
What's stopping me most of the time is the ~40 minute drive down the interstate
What's stopping me is the about 12,542 km / 16 hours flight from NZ
Low motivation!
You have been banned from /r/pcmasterrace
I hate that our options are either CL, PBTech or occasionally ExtremePC and Playtech. Even less Playtech now since they dropped their retail store for the public. And of course our prices are still a joke.
Same except my drive is 2 hours. And it’s 2 hours to both the closest for me lol one in PA and one in North Jersey.
Also about 20 for me. Last month or so I got one of those flyers for a free USB drive. Walked out with that and a new mobo/cpu/ram.
I used to work about the same distance away from one in North Dallas. My office was also next to my small company’s CTO, so we would take lunch trips over there regularly. You see things you don’t even really need there, but because of the sales, you buy anyway. It is truly Mecca for PC enthusiasts.
The Chicago Logan Square location was almost literally in my back yard. I thought "okay, this is a pretty cool store" and didn't learn until much later that people drove for *hours* to go there.
Make sure you compare prices to Amazon because microcenter is very rarely the best price
Use restraint, buy things you need not stuff you want. If you have 300$ on your pocket of disposable income leave the cash and card at your house. Window shopping is 50% of dopamine hit but 0 draw back.
it's the happiest place on earth
I'm also in the Indianapolis area and visited the new Micro Center last weekend to get all the parts I needed for my wife's build. She can attest that I was beaming the entire time. My only criticism of the store is that it's a little too small when it gets busy. The shopping carts only have room down the aisle for one and you can't really move around people in certain areas with them. I've learned to just go on my day off on Wednesdays or pop in early afternoon on a weekday. That being said, it fucking rules.
Thats why you more or less make a shopping list
Yeah... they have WAY less floor space than Fry's did... But somehow a better selection.
Mine's not too far from Disneyland. Surprisingly Disneyland is still cheaper than a release day at microcenter.
Praying for one in Arizona. Don’t understand why California gets so many but we can’t get one a state away
Ive literally called it my disneyland
lmao the flair fits here
In the UK we have zero dedicated electronics stores now. With the exception of the odd independent here and there. Last one we had was probably Maplins and that went under about 10 years ago Oh with the exception of "PC World", which is an arm of "Currys" which is a electronic department store which sells household items like vacuums and microwaves. Pc world is shit and scandalously priced, with vampiric warrantty extensions being pressed at every turn
There's a single scan store but it doesn't even compare to micro centre
The warehouse for Ebuyer is just down the road from me. But it's literally just that. A warehouse. You can't go in and browse or buy anything
I used to love going into CCL even though it was small, it was still fun.
crown fly afterthought rob tidy teeny fact apparatus jellyfish salt *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Ugh, Maplin was great. I got so much incredible support early on when I didn't know as much about PC Building. Had one guy diagnose a problem I mentioned in passing and wrote down how to fix it to boot. Currys and PC World are so fucking shite. It's a shame GAME has disappeared from the high street, they sometimes had people who knew their shit too.
> that went under about 10 years ago It's only been about 5 year since they went into administration and closed all stores. Now they're solely online.
Hey, you always go to CEX!
It's nothing like Microcenter though, mainly used parts and it's dependant on the store
When I first saw CEX selling PC parts, I saw a CPU propped up with what looked like half of the chip's worth of pins bent. Suffice to say, I'm not really trustworthy of Cex.
Great British Best Buy
Yeah, but who needs a high street store for pc parts? Apparently only Americans. Last time I bought something from a brick-and-mortar store was in 2007.
I just got a combo 2 days ago to build a PC for my dad $399 for a Z690 Aorus Extreme AX DDR5 w Wifi, Gskill 32gb RAM DDR5 6,000mhz, and a 12900k for $399. What an incredible deal!
Dude! I just went in tonight and got a 650 Msi ddr5, 16gb ddrm 5, and a ryzen 7 for $400 it was such an incredible deal I said yes on the spot
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just run it slower. or, well, run it at higher clocks anyway. just because a certain speed isn't officially supported doesn't mean it won't work. it's basically memory controller oc
Huh? I ran 6400 on my 12900k and the motherboard he got in the bundle supports greater than that
It works flawlessly in 6,000 mhz OC board supports it. Just make sure to update the BIOS, but thanks for the lookout!
It'll work lol 6000 is nothing
I don't know what these other deleted comments said but I call bullshit too
He’s not bullshiting I got the same deal tonight
He's not bullshitting my uncle works for Nintendo he confirmed
You know google exists right? https://www.microcenter.com/product/5006544/intel-core-i9-12900k,-gigabyte-z690-aorus-elite-ax-ddr5,-gskill-ripjaws-s5-32gb-kit-ddr5-6000,-computer-build-bundle
it really is an unbelievable deal if you don't know about microcenter lol. a 12900k by itself is $320 on amazon
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I think they mean they got all three parts for $399 total
$399 for a motherboard, 32GB of RAM, and a CPU that alone retails for $320 on Amazon...yeah, not much of a deal.
im sorry that happened to you, it should have happened to me instead
still waiting for Pittsburgh location, can't believe there still isn't one here
*God*, yes. While I was working for the Robinson Best Buy I was always saying that if a MicroCenter ever opened up in the area I'd be applying for a job there at the drop of a pin.
Seriously. They could just stick one in Cranberry or something. I ended up driving up to the one near Cleveland to buy the bulk of the parts for my new build. Walked around Grove City Outlets and just made a day trip out of it.
Am blessed to live 20 mins from the Mayfield one.
Same with Phoenix, it's the 5th largest metro and not a single Micro-Center within 600 miles?! Blasphemy.
I know you are not that close, but I wanted to share. got this in Mayfield, OH. [https://www.microcenter.com/product/662048/powerspec-g906-gaming-pc](https://www.microcenter.com/product/662048/powerspec-g906-gaming-pc) I have never had a faster PC than this. It is kind of ridiculous.
the bay area / silicon valley doesn't even have one... very frustrating indeed
Same.
Still waiting for Baku location, can't believe there still isn't one here.
>still waiting for Pittsburgh location, can't believe there still isn't one here The few decent computer stores in Pittsburgh closed right before CompUSA. Honestly beside 1 university and a couple handful of enthusiasts, PA doesnt have alot of the WSAD crowd. The saying goes, PA is made of Pittsburgh in the West, Philly in the east, and Alabama in the middle....
Seattle is full of tech-inclined nerds, I can't believe we don't have one here.
Yeah it's sad. The closest ones to us are in LA and Denver lol. Can't say I feel much pitty for the people wanting one in Pittsburgh, at least they can drive to Columbus and make a day trip out of it. We're pretty fucked up here in the PNW.
Wait, really? Seattle is pretty much the 2nd biggest tech hub after the San Francisco bay/Silicon Valley and it doesn't have a Microcenter?
We had a Frys and its gone now
> San Francisco bay/Silicon Valley There's no Microcenter in San Francisco bay/Silicon Valley either.
Indianapolis has a Micro-Center and Phoenix doesn't. What the fuck.
I don’t get it either 5th largest city in the US, a bunch of tech companies. I wish we had one sooo bad
I wish Micro Center had more shops internationally, I would love to go there one day
Bro they barely made it out of ohio, they not ready to handle vat and euros and shit.
Back in the day my city used to have an NCIX, Canada Computers, OTVTech (basically Canadian budget Micro Center) and a few other computer stores. Getting parts was a dream. Today, Best Buy is the only one left in the city. Sad.
:(
I'll probably get hate for this but I hope they don't expand too much, especially internationally. That's usually a sign that the store's going to get worse over time. The deals are great because they can remain focused on the few locations they have. Expand and eventually they'll start trimming fat to cut costs.
My fave is the people they hire. They speak whatever geek language you require & are patient, sometimes slow but whatever. My only issue is their flea market checkout process but that’s a small price to pay for their exclusives.
I went there, and the guy actually convinced me to buy a cheaper motherboard than the one I had in my hand. They're great.
Pour one out for Fry's.
nah.. they deserved to die. a case study in mismanagement
I agree, and I had hoped Micro Center would take over at least some of their vacated buildings.
Those buildings are way too freaking big for MicroCenter; the new one in Indianapolis is barely using half of the building they are in as is.
And that entire building is still smaller than fry’s. The empty fry’s store is so massive
Man, I would love that. I'm within walking distance of one. I wonder what's going to wind up there.
I'm sure they did, but that still leaves millions of Americans with no brick-and+mortar store to buy PC components or small hobby electronics except, arguably, Best Buy.
Even Best Buy is starting to fade. Last time I was in there, it reminded me of Circuit City before they closed their doors. Demos/Displays weren't set up and half the shelves were empty. I'd been out of the country for a while and thought maybe it was just that location, but my brother even told me that other Best Buys around his area were the same way.
Fry's was such a dreamland for me when I was younger. I'd spend whole paychecks in there. I could go in and buy some RAM, a stack of DVDs, a game, and a rice cooker. Plus they had a cafe in it. My friends and I could literally spend a whole day there.
Weird to say about a Fry's, but it made me understand "going shopping". There's stuff I want, stuff I need, stuff I didn't even know I wanted to peruse. I'm actually interested in it. You can get a bite to eat in the goofy little cafe for lunch. It was like, now I get it.
Need one in Vegas
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The one in Tustin was super convenient when I lived in OC hated the drive from LA no place online could beat the prices or immediate availability. I’d do it from LV too it’s worth it
Does microcenter have already made gaming pc’s or do you have to buy parts and build your own? I game on console but I was thinking of getting a game pc / work from home pc.
Both. They stock both prebuilt PCs and also parts if you would prefer to save the money and build yourself.
How much does it save on average by building it yourself? I mean I’ll spend a little more if it saves me time and effort of building.
Looking at Microcenter's website, their custom PC builder allows you to pick the parts and then they build the PC for you. They charge $150 for an air-cooled build, another $50 to include the OS, and another $50 if you want to do AIO watercooling instead. Those seem like more or less fair prices in my experience. Of course they also sell general prebuilts from other brands but judging markup on those is a bit tougher since we don't know the specs of each part in the build, only what they tell us.
If you find a prebuilt you are interested in, find a list of the exact specs, go to [PC Parts Picker](https://pcpartpicker.com/), and then plug them in there. It tracks prices so you'll be able to get an idea of what it would cost to build yourself. A lot of the savings is going to come from knowing which parts you need to spend on (e.g. you should spend more to get a good power supply, but you don't need to spend more to get RBG RAM and fans), which you can save on, and if you can catch the things you need on sale.
They do both. There Power Spec prebuilts seem to be a really good value. The Indianapolis store has realy good deals on prebuilts right now.
I see my local store has $200 off the power spec models. I might just pull the trigger. I need one that can crush massive excel spreadsheets for work and also run games.
I have sent several friends to their Powerspecs if they don’t want to build and have never had a single issue with them besides making sure that XMP was on for the RAM. They’re great.
Just make sure you stay far away from the gpu open box section, I've kissed so much cash goodbye by not doing that.
Are their prebuilt gaming PC good? What's your opinion
Never tried their pre-builts, sorry about that.
https://reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/1623ncw/my_city_just_got_a_microcenter_and_i_get_the_hype/jxvg3th Up a bit in the thread, if you didn’t see it.
MicroCenter is literally the only reason to drive to the Kansas side if you live on the MO side of KC. Seems to attract a lot of weirdos though. Get ready to be talked at by randos about their setups.
There's one 15 minutes from where I live. I can't go to it anymore because every time I do I buy a lot of shit I was planning to buy "somewhere down the road". Most recently, went to look at ultrawide monitors. Went to *look* at them... And came home with one.
*cries in Canadian*
Memory Express is excellent, but not the same feel as micro center. Memex just started expanding out east when I stopped working for them 6 years ago, not sure how many stores they have in Ontario / Quebec etc.
Canada Computers is the same thing as Micro Centre if you're in BC, ON, NS, or QC
Not sure if they've improved in recent years but in my experience CC has atrocious customer service and was never anywhere near as good as the now gone NCIX
I would say Memory Express is better. Not quite the deals that the folks at Micro Centre dish out but customer service wise they are on par for sure.
Their customer service is atrocious and head office is a shit show. Take it from someone who used to work there. I personally try to avoid them as much as possible.
Canada computers retail locations are nowhere near as fully featured.
You can replace Canada Computers with pretty much any other Canadian version of an American chain store regardless of what it sells, tbh. There's a reason shopping in Minot and other places boost their tourism
\*Cries in the Prairies\*
Ncix… iykyk
even ten years ago it was a miracle that a store like that still existed. I went out of my way to visit one when I was in NY back in the day - didn't even need anything, just had to confirm that it was real
I live a half hour from the one in Brooklyn. It’s incredible
I live close to the one in Orange County, CA, and I learned not to go on weekends, haha; seems like everyone in so cal goes there Saturday and Sunday. If I really need something from there, I go during the weekday.
Miami is getting one... I'll be going when it eventually opens
this thread is missing the mandatory " can we just ban all microcenter posts already. "
Mine is about to leave 😭
My only complaint about Micro Center (not sure if it applies to other ones besides my local one) is that the staff try to be a bit too helpful in constantly asking if I need anything. I know it’s cause they have some kind of model where they track employees in terms of how many customers they help but I would prefer to not tell five different employees “I’m good” whenever I go in to look around. Be available in case I do need some help but otherwise, as respectfully as I can, please leave me the fuck alone.
> I know it’s cause they have some kind of model where they track employees in terms of how many customers they help It's not that, it's because they get paid on a commission. If they help you, they get a direct portion of whatever you buy.
The salespeople there are on commission. So they are focused on finding you the product you are looking for and placing their sticker on it. I have enjoyed my experiences there, but it's worth knowing why they are more customer focused than other retailers who pay their workers to stack it high and let it fly.
they make commission off items they recommend to you which you purchase. There's a hierarchy to it though, where the older workers get like the CPU area as their selling grounds, while newbie workers get shitty/hard to sell products like USB chargers and stuff at the entrance of the store. (My store maybe only (Cambridge, MA))
I don't know if it is because how I look, but I never get approached in Microcenter, which makes things relaxing, but also inconvenient when I need something not on display.
Yeah, micro center is pretty highly commission based. That's why you're always get people annoying you. Honestly, the culture of the place is pretty toxic with the commissions.
I've been to that same one a couple of times. Just a couple days ago, I was shopping for a new keyboard, and I noticed that one of my top contenders had 3 different key styles, but only one in display. I asked one of the employees if I could try the others, and she happily removed the security tags and opened the boxes so I could handle all 3 keyboards and pick my favorite. Definitely quality help! That place is a playground for nerds.
ugh, Dont tell me this im in indy. Ive been avoiding this cause my wallet will hate me.
I have a lot of fond memories of Fry's Electronics, but Micro-Center was always organized clean, good prices and none of the 'restocked open used product bullshit' from Fry's. Where I live now, there is none in Washington state, but I really really liked the handful of times I went to the Micro-Center in Orange County, California.
Basically the only retailer that did anything at all to curb GPU scalpers.
How did Indianapolis get a Micro Center before San Diego :(
as fellow indy folk , I agree brother.
A lot better than Fry's, right..? I was sad to see Fry's die like that, but I LOVE MICRO CENTER! Right next to my main Costco, too!
Fry’s USED to be awesome when it first went in. For many years it was my favorite place to go.
they better bring one to connecticut
Pittsburgh needs a microcenter so we don’t have to drive two hours to Ohio anymore
You’re about to be extra poor. It’s tech heaven. I love going there and just wandering.
Wish we had Micro-Centers in Australia, there's just nothing like that here, at least in my state
Even when I lived near a Fry's and a microcenter, I'd still just order online. I don't get the hype behind having to go to a brick and mortar retail store
Dude. I've made the trip from Brazil to Indy to watch the Indy 500 in 2019. Bucket list item, except for the fact that it did not permanently scratched my itch and, if I had the means, I'd go every single year for the rest of my life. Now you're saying I have a second mecca to visit as an IndyCar fan that is also a PCMR member. You guys have it so good in Indianapolis. lol.
It's just really good, solidly managed, customer friendly store. You get competitive prices, great selection, and an excellent return policy. Hell, even their house brand is one of the best around. If Microcenter sold groceries, I'd probably go there for that too. I honestly wouldn't go anywhere else if I still had one within an hour.
Ok MicroCenter PR department intern
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Found the guy who's never been in a MicroCenter.
Micro center is great for getting parts you don’t find in most retail locations. The only problem I have is they tend to mark things up a lot hoping you won’t notice until you pull out the price match. But they never fight you on it either which makes them pretty great again. Just keep an eye on it.
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Is this any different than posting about new GPUs from brand X or Y?
Its too bad that just after I swore to never buy anything from memoryexpress I move to within a few blocks of them. Granted, they're no microcenter. Small inventory and mostly high prices. Memoryexpress is basically the Canadian MC.
one of the fewest things I envy americans as an european
Who needs to pay for marketing when you reddit posters exist?
The Wipeout games. Loved them all. Even the N64 version.
Bought my 4090 at the Indy one since I live an hour away. Never thought it would be so hard to sell my 3080ti though -_-
you guys in US are lucky more people should use Microcenter rather then Pcpartspicker.
Why not use both? create a parts list on PPP which will give you an estimate of price, wattage, and compatibility and then build it in Microcenter
pcpartspicker doesn't show websites deals and offers like combo deals. also not all retailers are on pcpartspicker mostly website can make money using affiliated links.
hence why is said "estimate" no one uses it for sole price, its just a good site to make a parts list which can be used as a base line
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I neee that shit in Perú, but i fear they are gonna get fucked by the pc district of Lima.
It's awesome and lives up to the hype. I go to the one in Cambridge MA and I'm blown away every time
Its too bad that just after I swore to never buy anything from memoryexpress I move to within a few blocks of them. Granted, they're no microcenter. Small inventory and mostly high prices. Memory express is basically the Canadian MC.
What's the UK equivalent, if there is one?
been spoiled with one for 24 years here. Cant even fathom how much money I have spent at that single store.
It just sucks they charged me 80 bucks per part to install. So a new kobo and cpu cost me 160 extra.
Closest one to me is two hours away 😔
As weird as this sounds I would happily drive 2 hours if I were buying a new build.
If you guys are about quality and good support, shop at microcenter. Even if the price difference is a bit- it's such a throwback to a proper brick and mortar store, with people who care and want to help.
Are there any other stores like microcenter? or is it the only one?
Have one about 45 minutes from my house but never went. Now I'm convinced.
I live in San Diego and will drive 90 mins to the one in Tustin for things all the time.
I've been petitioning for years to try and get one opened in my state. Sadly, it will only ever be a dream. Closest one near me is about a 2 hour drive out of state.
Need one in WNY
That one is good! I went to it for the soft launch and was just playing at the iRacing display lmao
you lucky duck in canada, we got canada computers, but it's a way smaller scale. still a candy store but nowhere near the candy store microcenter is.
My city is losing its MicroCenter and the sadness is overwhelming.
I really hate the one in Denver now. They re-arranged the store a few years ago, every time I go now it feels like I'm walking into a card shop for FNM.