CompUSA Stores are closing - any good deals?

[Dmitri]

With CompUSA closing a bunch of stores in the next two months - has anyone
seen any worthwhile deals there lately? I don't have one in close
proximity but would drive to one if there is a good reason to.

--

Best Regards,
Dmitri Abaimov, RCDD
http://www.cabling-design.com/
Home Cabling Guide, Cabling Forum, color codes, pinouts and other useful
resources for premises cabling users and pros



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[hemm99]

With CompUSA closing a bunch of stores in the next two months - has anyone
seen any worthwhile deals there lately? I don't have one in close
proximity but would drive to one if there is a good reason to.

--

Best Regards,
Dmitri Abaimov, RCDD
http://www.cabling-design.com/
Home Cabling Guide, Cabling Forum, color codes, pinouts and other useful
resources for premises cabling users and pros

Only 10% off list so far. Mail order still cheaper.

 

[Terrabitte]

:With CompUSA closing a bunch of stores in the next two months - has anyone
:seen any worthwhile deals there lately? I don't have one in close
roximity but would drive to one if there is a good reason to.
:
:--
:
:Best Regards,
mitri Abaimov, RCDD
:http://www.cabling-design.com/
:Home Cabling Guide, Cabling Forum, color codes, pinouts and other useful
:resources for premises cabling users and pros

Here in Overland Park, Kansas they are offering 30% discounts. Their
parking lot yesterday was full with a lot of overflow. That store
never did have a lot in the way of stock anyway. If 30% sounds ok
with you, go for it. If not, you can hold out until the last few days
when they will probably drop to 70% or at least cost.

I liked CompUSA over Best Buy and Circuit City. They usually had the
best price and inventory the others didn't have. However, we do have
a Micro Center which I love. They have EVERYTHING for the novice and
guru, and they keep their sights on computers and not other
electronics. If you are looking for a gadget, Micro Center has it.
Fry's, which we don't have here, is another good store to deal with.

 

[Matt J. McCullar]

With CompUSA closing a bunch of stores in the next two months - has anyone
seen any worthwhile deals there lately? I don't have one in close
proximity but would drive to one if there is a good reason to.

Coincidentally, I had to buy a replacement power supply for my dad's
computer a week ago. It was an ATX but a special size (went in an eMachine)
and I took the bad p/s into the CompUSA store that was closing near The
Parks Mall in south Arlington, TX. (Actually, I was originally going to the
Fry's Electronics just about half a mile down the road, but my friends and I
stopped at a nearby restaurant to eat dinner and saw the CompUSA and their
close-out sale.)

I showed the bad p/s to the tech support guy behind the counter and he said
no, they had nothing like that. Fry's might, though. I thanked him and
kept shopping. The store was advertising 10% to 20% off of everything.
When my two friends met back up with me a half-hour later, they presented me
with a brand-new p/s, a drop-in replacement, still in the box -- from the
shelf just a few feet away! The store actually had the correct power supply
for sale, but that tech support guy didn't know it.

"That's probably why CompUSA is closing," my friends said. "Their people
don't know what they're talking about!"

With the discount, the total cost was just a skosh over $50. Worked great,
though.

 

[kony]

Coincidentally, I had to buy a replacement power supply for my dad's
computer a week ago. It was an ATX but a special size (went in an eMachine)
and I took the bad p/s into the CompUSA store that was closing near The
Parks Mall in south Arlington, TX. (Actually, I was originally going to the
Fry's Electronics just about half a mile down the road, but my friends and I
stopped at a nearby restaurant to eat dinner and saw the CompUSA and their
close-out sale.)

I showed the bad p/s to the tech support guy behind the counter and he said
no, they had nothing like that. Fry's might, though. I thanked him and
kept shopping. The store was advertising 10% to 20% off of everything.
When my two friends met back up with me a half-hour later, they presented me
with a brand-new p/s, a drop-in replacement, still in the box -- from the
shelf just a few feet away! The store actually had the correct power supply
for sale, but that tech support guy didn't know it.

"That's probably why CompUSA is closing," my friends said. "Their people
don't know what they're talking about!"

.... putting a kid behind a sales counter does not create a
technician. Technicians tend to need be hands-on, take one
and get them away from that and pushing sales and the
technology changes too much, it becomes more of a guess or a
failsafe answer of "no".

With the discount, the total cost was just a skosh over $50. Worked great,
though.

Yikes! $50 was a bit steep still, those are normally mATX
or PS/3 sized and tend to be about $25. That's one of the
reasons for CUSA's demise, IMO, that through the internet
computer parts shoppers become far more savvy and can find
exactly what they want for the same price or lower- and have
it dropped off on their doorstep. CUSA and the like are
most useful for emergencies when you just can't wait.

 

[Ken Maltby]

... putting a kid behind a sales counter does not create a
technician. Technicians tend to need be hands-on, take one
and get them away from that and pushing sales and the
technology changes too much, it becomes more of a guess or a
failsafe answer of "no".

That could certainly be the answer, but why would you expect one
of their technicians, in their little technical services/support cubical
to know what's out on the floor? Of course the OP may have been
talking to a clerk manning the service and support desk, and not a
technician at all. But I guess that could be what you meant.

Yikes! $50 was a bit steep still, those are normally mATX
or PS/3 sized and tend to be about $25. That's one of the
reasons for CUSA's demise, IMO, that through the internet
computer parts shoppers become far more savvy and can find
exactly what they want for the same price or lower- and have
it dropped off on their doorstep. CUSA and the like are
most useful for emergencies when you just can't wait.

It's been quite a long time since buying a "replacement" PSU
for under $50, back in the 150w PSU days, at least. Perhaps
this is what explains all your "heat related problems/worries"?
Using $25 PSUs could cause all kinds of problems.

Luck;
Ken

 

[kony]

That could certainly be the answer, but why would you expect one
of their technicians, in their little technical services/support cubical
to know what's out on the floor? Of course the OP may have been
talking to a clerk manning the service and support desk, and not a
technician at all. But I guess that could be what you meant.

CUSA doesn't sell proprietary PSU, it had to be a mATX or
PS3 size. If the supposed technician doesn't even know
whether CUSA sells these, then one wonders why they are at
CUSA at all, and the correct answer would have been "I don't
know, PSU are in isle 3, you want a (insert form factor
here) PSU".

It's been quite a long time since buying a "replacement" PSU
for under $50, back in the 150w PSU days, at least. Perhaps
this is what explains all your "heat related problems/worries"?
Using $25 PSUs could cause all kinds of problems.

Luck;
Ken

Remember we're talking about an eMachine, not an enthusiast
class system with lots of bells and whistles.

Any *typical* lower-to-mid range OEM system can run fine
from a $35 name brand PSU of the correct ATX(n.n) era.
However, there are plenty of junk generic PSU which would be
a bad choice and these days, some of them prettied up to
look good and sell for more $, but not suitable merely
because they were overrated and poor quality in general.

We can say this because the most power is demanded from the
12V rail and with CPUs now at 150W and less, and ~ 93% or so
motherboard subcircuit efficiency, that's about 13A being
generous (most CPU are not 150W). Add a couple amps for a
HDD to spinup (we can assume it doesn't have 5 of them, the
case probably won't even hold more than 2) and that it likey
has integrated video and the total peak power is about 15A.
Regular power usage would be under 10A.

We can concede something atypical with a ton of hard drives
or gaming video cards will need more, but even then these
are standard PSU.

The system, PSU in question was a small form factor unit,
mATX or PS3. Go to Newegg.com and see what they cost...
$50 is too high, they're about 200W *continuous* power,
labeled as 180-250W, sometimes 300W if most of that is on
12V rail. If you paid $50 for these mATX or PS3, it won't
get you a better PSU, except "Maybe" if PC Power & Cooling
makes one with exotic parts, and then I would expect it to
cost a lot more than $50, and not sell at CUSA.

I'm not in favor of putting a ~ 200W in a desktop system
though, feel the power density is too high for continuous
use, particularly the heatsinking and capacitor space
allowances, unless very low power designed hardware. That
seems to be why those eMachine PSU fail so often, but
nevertheless it is the requirement under which a replacement
is selected so it'll fit in the case. It should be noted
that PS3 has the same mounting face, just shorter, so in
some atypical uses a case that didn't need an optical drive
in it could have it removed so there is enough clearance to
put a std. ATX where a PS3 used to be. That can be handy
for turning the newer generations of OEM systems into
fileservers, as they don't really need an optical drive in
some cases if they can boot a USB drive for maintenance,
recovery or backup purposes.

 

[Ken Maltby]

CUSA doesn't sell proprietary PSU, it had to be a mATX or
PS3 size. If the supposed technician doesn't even know
whether CUSA sells these, then one wonders why they are at
CUSA at all, and the correct answer would have been "I don't
know, PSU are in isle 3, you want a (insert form factor
here) PSU".


Remember we're talking about an eMachine, not an enthusiast
class system with lots of bells and whistles.

Any *typical* lower-to-mid range OEM system can run fine
from a $35 name brand PSU of the correct ATX(n.n) era.
However, there are plenty of junk generic PSU which would be
a bad choice and these days, some of them prettied up to
look good and sell for more $, but not suitable merely
because they were overrated and poor quality in general.

We can say this because the most power is demanded from the
12V rail and with CPUs now at 150W and less, and ~ 93% or so
motherboard subcircuit efficiency, that's about 13A being
generous (most CPU are not 150W). Add a couple amps for a
HDD to spinup (we can assume it doesn't have 5 of them, the
case probably won't even hold more than 2) and that it likey
has integrated video and the total peak power is about 15A.
Regular power usage would be under 10A.

We can concede something atypical with a ton of hard drives
or gaming video cards will need more, but even then these
are standard PSU.

The system, PSU in question was a small form factor unit,
mATX or PS3. Go to Newegg.com and see what they cost...
$50 is too high, they're about 200W *continuous* power,
labeled as 180-250W, sometimes 300W if most of that is on
12V rail. If you paid $50 for these mATX or PS3, it won't
get you a better PSU, except "Maybe" if PC Power & Cooling
makes one with exotic parts, and then I would expect it to
cost a lot more than $50, and not sell at CUSA.

I'm not in favor of putting a ~ 200W in a desktop system
though, feel the power density is too high for continuous
use, particularly the heatsinking and capacitor space
allowances, unless very low power designed hardware. That
seems to be why those eMachine PSU fail so often, but
nevertheless it is the requirement under which a replacement
is selected so it'll fit in the case. It should be noted
that PS3 has the same mounting face, just shorter, so in
some atypical uses a case that didn't need an optical drive
in it could have it removed so there is enough clearance to
put a std. ATX where a PS3 used to be. That can be handy
for turning the newer generations of OEM systems into
fileservers, as they don't really need an optical drive in
some cases if they can boot a USB drive for maintenance,
recovery or backup purposes.

OK, sorry I missed the form factor reference (e-machine)
in the OP. You have made some good points here.

Luck;
Ken