I was near Richmond today and the Best Buy…

DinoMikeSr

DinoMikeSr

I have the box
…I used is shut down. Wanting to look at computers I went across the street to Office Max where they had one All in One Desk top and a hand full of lap tops. Freaking Walmart had the same models OM had.

Where does one shop for a desktop now?
 
DinoMikeSr said:
…I used is shut down. Wanting to look at computers I went across the street to Office Max where they had one All in One Desk top and a hand full of lap tops. Freaking Walmart had the same models OM had.

Where does one shop for a desktop now?
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Sam's Club and Costco ususally have a few in store. Typically more laptops than desktops though, with the latter usually being higher end gaming systems. If there is a MicroCenter near you, they usually have a pretty good selection of both. Otherwise, it's online I'm afraid. Can order direct from Dell, HP, etc....or Amazon. I once built a system with components from TigerDirect, but they're out of business now too. NewEgg is a good online option for refurbished, new, or bare-bones systems.
 
Why not buy a computer online?

I have Best Buy 25 minutes southeast of me in Colorado Springs and they have a wide selection. Walmart, 10 minutes away from me, has quite a few. Staples, 10 minutes from me, used to have a few but I have not recently looked there.

Park Meadows Mall in Lone Tree, CO is 30 minutes north of me. They have a Microsoft store as well as an Apple Store. I also have an Apple Store 20 minutes to my south.

My son recently bought computer parts to build his friend a gaming PC. I think he went to Micro Center in Denver.

Obviously, I have options close. It’s a shame that you don’t. If I did not have stores near me, I’d order something online.

Roughly 12 years ago, I bought a custom gaming computer from iBuyPower online. I noticed that my local Walmart carries one model from that company.
 
jrockbridge said:
Why not buy a computer online?

I have Best Buy 25 minutes southeast of me in Colorado Springs and they have a wide selection. Walmart, 10 minutes away from me, has quite a few. Staples, 10 minutes from me, used to have a few but I have not recently looked there.

Park Meadows Mall in Lone Tree, CO is 30 minutes north of me. They have a Microsoft store as well as an Apple Store. I also have an Apple Store 20 minutes to my south.

My son recently bought computer parts to build his friend a gaming PC. I think he went to Micro Center in Denver.

Obviously, I have options close. It’s a shame that you don’t. If I did not have stores near me, I’d order something online.

Roughly 12 years ago, I bought a custom gaming computer from iBuyPower online. I noticed that my local Walmart carries one model from that company.
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I’m probably going to go the on line
route. Been reading and comparing most of the evening.
 
I bought a new phone at my Best Buy last month. A Samsung Galaxy s24. The store was a ghost town. 2 other customers on a Friday night. They had a lot of nice stuff at competitive prices too. I don't like their chances for staying in business.

People prefer buying online these days. I'm no different. I hadn't been to that store in years. I drop and cracked my old phone, and the battery was shot. I didn't want to wait to have one shipped.

While Best Buy was never K-Mart, I had some great times there. Family dance off in the TV surround sound room. Soccer game in the aisles. Browsing the cd section. Sad.
 
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Best Buy was the first big record store anywhere close to where I grew up. We would skip school, drive twenty minutes to Best Buy, and spend an hour browsing (sometimes shoplifting) CDs. It was the only store that always had the cool new metal albums on release day. And Best Buy’s music section survived a long time, outliving Blockbuster Music and Tower Records. I still have the picture disc they gave out when Tool released Opiate.

I don’t think I’ve been to Best Buy in at least a year. It’s good for something like a TV or a sound bar because you can try it out right there on the sales floor. But those aren’t the kind of things that I need to buy on a regular basis. So when Best Buy finally does die it won’t affect me.
 
Andrew Sak said:
I bought a new phone at my Best Buy last month. A Samsung Galaxy s24. The store was a ghost town. 2 other customers on a Friday night. They had a lot of nice stuff at competitive prices too. I don't like their chances for staying in business.

People prefer buying online these days. I'm no different. I hadn't been to that store in years. I drop and cracked my old phone, and the battery was shot. I didn't want to wait to have one shipped.

While Best Buy was never K-Mart, I had some great times there. Family dance off in the TV surround sound room. Soccer game in the aisles. Browsing the cd section. Sad.
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Once upon a time their cd selection was really nice.
 
I just bought a cheap laptop for $360 at Best Buy. It came with Windows 11. It was deep discounted and meets my minimum needs for work.

My experience with the computer salesman at Best Buy was not great. He wanted me to buy a more expensive laptop but I did not need it. He told me the computer was in S Mode which means it only allows Microsoft software to be loaded. He claimed I would need to buy a more expensive computer to avoid S Mode. I refused. Of course, he would not tell me how to get it out of S Mode.

None of the online solutions worked to get that laptop out of S Mode. But, I read enough online to eventually stumble on the solution within the Microsoft Store on the laptop. Once I switched it out of S Mode, I immediately downloaded Firefox, Chrome and VLC Media Player.

When I worked retail decades ago for Soundtrack (Ultimate Electronics), we considered Best Buy the bottom of the barrel. Their staff was not particularly knowledgeable nor helpful. But, they outlasted all the big box alternatives including Radio Shack, Fred Schmidt, Soundtrack, Ultimate Electronics, Circuit City, CompUSA, Federated, etc.

I remain unimpressed with Best Buy staff. But, I bought my GE Fridge, my last 2 Sony big TV’s, smart speakers, wireless amp for surround speakers and my Windows Laptop from them. I’d be sad to see them go at this point which is ironic to me.
 
jp_nyc said:
Increasing security by only permitting Microsoft approved software is one of the stupidest security ideas I’ve ever heard of.
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Statistically, Edge may experience less security attacks than Chrome or Firefox. But, that’s likely due to the fact that few people use it and so fewer people target it for attacks.
 
jrockbridge said:
Statistically, Edge may experience less security attacks than Chrome or Firefox. But, that’s likely due to the fact that few people use it and so fewer people target it for attacks.
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Edge is Chromium based, so unless the attack is using an exploit specific to the proprietary parts specific to Google's builds of Chrome then the security attacks apply to Edge as well as any other Chromium-based browser (like Opera).
 
jrockbridge said:
About Windows 11 in S Mode….

Windows 11 in S mode is a version of Windows 11 that's streamlined for security and performance, while providing a familiar Windows experience. To increase security, it allows only apps from Microsoft Store, and requires Microsoft Edge for safe browsing.
Click to expand...
jp_nyc said:
Increasing security by only permitting Microsoft approved software is one of the stupidest security ideas I’ve ever heard of.
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They tried that with Win10 (and maybe even Win7) too. If all you want to do is browse the internet with Edge and use Office for everything else, I suppose it's fine. That's not how most folks us a computer though.

We are preparing to transition to Win11 at work soon. It will be interesting to see if they try and force us into S mode. I use a ton of non-MS apps, so it seems pretty unrealistic.
 
GilmourD said:
If you're not doing anything insane like I do the new Mac Mini (which is the one I hope you got) is fucking killer.
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It would be the newest model.

What I do on the computer:
Internet for bills, doctor meeting research

Word documents creating and printing

Excel documents creating and printing

Apple music

I may record some guitar, just me. I have
Scarlett interface 2i2 I haven’t used in years that I was thinking about using on light recording.

I wound need to buy a SD card reader and an external disk drive.

Some light photo stuff.
 
DinoMikeSr said:
It would be the newest model.

What I do on the computer:
Internet for bills, doctor meeting research

Word documents creating and printing

Excel documents creating and printing

Apple music

I may record some guitar, just me. I have
Scarlett interface 2i2 I haven’t used in years that I was thinking about using on light recording.

I wound need to buy a SD card reader and an external disk drive.

Some light photo stuff.
Click to expand...
The base configuration is killer for stuff like that. The problem is when you start upping the spec the pricing doesn't track even remotely close to the added parts cost. But for what you do, it's perfect and it's affordable.
 
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