Technology 2008

[wmd]

The pump on my liquid cooler burned out the other day and its
under warranty so I decided to get a fan style cooler while it gets fixed.
so I looked online to see who had a replacement in my area
and circuit city had one great get in my truck drive to the
store I'm looking around and cant seem to find it anywhere
so I asked a store employee where are all the prossesor cooling fans and
he said there over here I'll show you and he picked up a case fan
and said theres another one wright there I tried to explain to him what
I wanted but he did not understand. So I went to best buy, wal-mart and
then k-mart and still no one sells them in store. one last place some
little computer repair shop the guy didn't even sell them but he had them
he kept saying bring it in and I'll fix it but if I bring it in I'll have to pay for labor. so I paid $20.00 for the fan and an extra $20.00 just for him to sell it to me. Now the year is 2008, computers are everywhere but yet you cant walk into an electronics store and buy a cooling fan. You should be able to get one at a convenience store.

wmd

[Jeffro]

new egg dude new egg.....

[WalkinTarget]

His point is, you can't drive to any local joint and grab one off the shelf. I've seen cases and HSFs at my local Best Buy (Frys on the west coast is by far the best place to buy gear) but none that I would actually spend my money on. Its usually a store contract with a vendor such as Antec or Thermaltake, so thats what you'll find.
The Mom & Pop PC parts/electronics stores are dying off rapidly, replaced by the large mega-companies that buy mass quantity and are able to sell much cheaper, but at some point if we as Americans give a damn, we'll need to spend more at the remaining local shops to help ourselves out in the long run.

[CarbonFire]

new egg dude new egg.....

+1

And it has nothing to do with the date. Internal components like cooling fans will always exist in the niche. The VAST majority of computer users have never, ever opened their PCs, let alone fooling around with any internal components.

The box is still a magical, mysterious thing to many people. It either works or it doesn't. And when it doesn't, most don't try to fix it themselves, they just pay someone else to fix or go buy a new one.

Why do you think the console gaming market has exploded in the last few years? Besides just the cost, there's no need to understand how to setup a PC to properly run games with consoles. You just stick a disk in and it works (and if it's a 360 - works, then dies ). Also theres the fact that nearly all retail PCs are running either integrated video or 5-year-old quality video cards

[Trooper110]

There's a Radio Shack right across the road from me that carries a surprising amount of internal parts. Liquid cooling solution, an actual liquid cooling setup, coolers for your processor, all sorts of fans and cathode lights. I believe it's all ThermalTake pieces.

Then there's 2 other RadioShacks within 30 minutes that don't sell anything but the basic case fans.

[-IRC-MIKE]

I still find it remarkably retarded that a damned circuit city computer salesman didn't know what a heatsink fan was.

To add to what Carbon said, this kid that worked locally and rode on a trash truck asked me to fix his computer for him. I agreed and I didn't charge him much but he didn't have the money to pay me after his next payday, so I said that's fine. The next week he brought me 4 computers with monitors, keyboards, mouses ....the works.. and asked if it would be okay for payment. I had already written off the fact that he probably wouldn't be able to afford it, but I always lend a hand to less fortunate people and don't charge them if it isn't too much work.

To make a long story short, ALL FOUR of the pc's booted right up and were NEWER than the one he had...all four... so I gave him one of them and explained that this one was WAY better than the one he had.

From then on, he just kept bringing me computers that people had thrown away... and maybe they'd have a bad floppy causing a boot error, or loaded with viruses and not booting. So to what Carbon said, it is amazing that people don't see the thing come on when they press the power button so they toss it out.

He eventually quit the job and got a better one.

[Apache Warrior]

You might want to cultivate your new Sanitation Engineer.
Apache

[Trooper110]

I worked at Circuit City while I was in school. It was amazing the idiots they had working there. I'd hear customers explaining things to some of them on occasion. And after knowing some of the techs, I'd want to know the Firedog person working on my computer before trusting them to plug in a monitor, let alone do any work on it.

[drunken_chef]

I can drive two blocks to an office depot that sells antec brand HSF units.

[wmd]

well I do have lots of stores around me its just that ever since comp-USA
closed down there is no where to get computer parts other than online
"Tiger Direct" but you have to wait a couple of days. I just feel they should be
everywhere.

[drunken_chef]

http://www.officedepot.com/stores/lo...ode=&x=50&y=12

there are NO PC shops in pittsburgh? I really find that hard to believe.

PS compUSA sucked, no loss IMHO

[Devilguns]

Yeah WMD I feel your pain. I'm lucky to have quite a few private shops around me but a lot have cut back on inventories and would rather order you the part than stock it. My local best buy actually has a really healthy supply of PC parts. But it really hurts to pay $160 for a PSU when you can get the same one on New Egg for $70.

One of my local Radio Shacks just got in a decent amount of ThermalTake stock, cases, fans, water cooling ect. You might want to give them a try, their prices are decent too.

[Duke{CLR}]

Like someone else said some Radio shacks carry Thremaltake parts. If not then its the Egg for me.

[Trooper110]

Like someone else said some Radio shacks carry Thremaltake parts. If not then its the Egg for me.

Look Duke, just cause you have 5000+ more posts than me doesn't mean I'm a non-entity

[WalkinTarget]

Trooper, you're lucky to have that Shack nearby. If they have any sales, lemme know .. I may be stopping over there to visit. They usta have a great deal on Ultra mid tower cases (Antec 630 clone) for $29.
And +1 to the sanitation engineers !! I have half a notion to pick up a part time job doing that so I can keep all those messed up throwaway PCs for myself ! A lil refurb here and there and I've got more PCs to sell off.