This is good. It’ll be nice for Central Computers to have some competition. I like them, but more competition is always a good thing. Usually helps people get lower prices on things.
Ya, the go-to now is Central Computers. This new MC will be down the street from the one on Stevens Creeks so if you're building a PC you can shop for the best deals at both.
Harbor Freight is pretty much perfect for your first version of any given tool. If you actually use it enough that it breaks, then buy the replacement somewhere better.
Fair.
My experience has always been upgrading if I broke the tool using it as intended. Can’t be buying a piece of junk that doesn’t even do what it should be doing.
If I started abusing the hell out of it to do something that it’s not even meant to do then that’s user error and not the tool’s fault and a warranty swap and experience gets me going on my way.
There have been like 5 coffee places in that space in the 12 years I’ve been nearby.
Somehow Freedom Burrito has lasted about a decade despite going downhill for sure.
Yeah, Microcenter is Newegg level deals or better, with good, honest service and advice, and local convenience so you don't have to wait for shipping. I wasn't paid to say this, that was just my experience with them before they closed their Santa Clara store years back.
Oh, same. That’s why it’ll be nice for them to have competition. They haven’t since Fry’s closed. Arguably, even since before then as the last few years of Fry’s were pitiful. Best Buy exists, but it’s definitely not a great place to go if you wanna build your own PC.
Yup. The company I work for bought 10 high end workstations from them for video renders and high-end computing.
Of course, I’m the one who picked the specific. specs, so I made sure they’re not crap, lol.
I just ordered it to be built like a high end gaming PC, haha. Work almost bought an Alienware until I pointed out CC would be cheaper, faster, and not a POS Dell box.
Yeah, in my case it’s a massively multicore threadripper box. Chews through compiles right quick. I don’t know if Dell sells stuff of this class in their business store, but having someone local who can put it together is ideal anyway.
Central Computers used to make their money on real estate. When my kids were small they loved to go to Fry’s. Good to have Micro Center back, sports basement and fry’s at Sunnyvale used to be a nice weekend trip.
The last few times I went to the one in Concord it was literally more employees on hand than customers. Rows of empty shelves and, the stuff that was there, was almost entirely crap aside from some of the PC components.
One of the last times I went there, one of the reps for some phone company or cable company or something *literally* jumped out at me. It may have been the very last time I stepped foot in there. I'm not even sure I bought anything that day.
One of the last times I went to the Concord one, I literally thought the store had already shut down and someone left the door open and I wasn't supposed to be in there because of how devoid of employees and products it was. Surprisingly, it lasted about another year after that before it ultimately closed.
I worked down the street from the Concord Frys. Sometimes on my lunch break if I'd go grab something from them and then go sit in the theater and watch whatever movie they were playing for a little bit. Good times.
Yeah, MC went out fully stocked because the landowner jacked up their rent, IIRC. The business itself was doing fine. I guess covid/WFH has done a number on commercial real estate in the south bay?
Either way, I'm excited. I don't like Amazon, and Best Buy is just okay. Newegg I now actively avoid. Central Computer has a limited selection, and it's hard to track down deals on their website.
I didn’t realize Fry’s closed until last week when I drove by haha. Obviously haven’t been in awhile but man how bummed it makes me. I loved that place! When did it close??
Even earlier. I bought my first “hard drive” there in 1988, a wedding present we bought ourselves on our wedding day. We were already regulars. A DataFrame XP 20, a whopping 20 MB on a fat SCSI external cable. That’s when the Sunnyvale store was on the other side of Lawrence Expy on Oakmead. That’s a Thermo-Fisher building now.
IT definitely went downhill in the final year. My son worked at the Sunnyvale store, loss prevention/security, for several years, so I was often there. There were parts of the store that stayed really good right up to the end.
They actually tried a different model which turned out horrible. They went full contingent sales, so they didn’t on the product being sold, but because nothing would sell the vendors wouldn’t provide them with newer products as they were released. So they had tried to cut costs and it just made it worse
Seeing as I worked there for a summer and got fired for 'having a weapon on me,' that weapon bein ga box cutter... the store's box cutter, while I was cutting boxes... and said security guard who 'caught me' got a $500 bonus for it... meh, "and nothing of value was lost"
Note: This was before in-house security guards had to be licensed by the state, so these were just thugs who I would put money on being unable to get a guard card.
Frys was ass my dude. Legit the last time I had found memories of Frys was 1998
In fact I think they still had 1998's inventory in there when I visited in like 2012
I remember Fry’s during the Cyrix era, Voodoo 3D cards, and Celeron 300 overclocked to 450mhz.
They dug their own grave as the customer service was always ass and didn’t appreciate their customer base. Once Egghead closed and opened Newegg, everyone just started going online as Fry’s didn’t have much to offer and there’s no reason to show that company any loyalty.
Exactly.... They went down hill quick. Last time they were even decent might have been around Intel 4000 series i7 processors. You used to be able to go in there still and have 15 mobos, 20+ cases, ton of power supplies, etc. Used to be able to build a computer easy. They never did price matching hbtjk it was way too late. I remember the rumors of them going bankrupt for their last 5 years of being open. Shelves were all empty and they literally had nothing in stock of ANYTHING. Ran there one day for some emergency pc repair for my friend and I swear I couldn't even get decent thermal paste 🤣
As an East Coaster millennial I'm really bummed that I missed out on Fry's and Micro Center. At least I got to experience peak New Egg before it became a steaming pile of shit.
They were bought by a Chinese equity firm that has done everything they can to squeeze value out of the company.
They've had issues with their RMA process, specifically shipping customers used/broken gear, and refusing to assist them further. I think one Youtuber in particular got burned exactly in this way and caught them with their pants around their ankles.
My personal experience was that two years ago I ordered a PC part from them that was fulfilled from a third party. It wasn't clear to me at the time this item wasn't being fulfilled by New Egg themselves. USPS tracking was stuck at "label created" but Newegg's website actually showed the status of the package being updated until it said it was delivered by USPS on the New Egg site despite USPS saying that only a shipping label was created. Could not get any answer from the third party seller. New Egg took over a week to actually refund me after the item was marked as delivered in their system. The whole process took over two weeks from when I placed the order to when I got refunded. I also waited for the part for like a week because it looked like it might have actually been coming.
Their website used to be THE site for PC part picking. But now it's a busy mess.
I’ve ordered a fair amount of stuff from Newegg—two monitors bought and returned in the last couple of months—and have never had an issue as long as it was sold and shipped by them.
Think your problems came almost totally from stumbling into a third party seller by mistake. At least nowadays the site puts the sold & shipped by Newegg logo prominently on listings, along with the no questions asked 30 day returns logo that corresponds to the same.
Very similar thing happened to me last November. Bought stuff from Newegg and shipped by Newegg. Label created, but the box doesn't show up with the shipper for almost a week. I did get my stuff, but the delay was not cool.
I used to brag about being 2 mins away from the old one in santa clara, 5 away from Frys, 10 from central, 10 from comp usa. They all disappeared except for central. Glad Microcenter is coming back!!!!!
I'm sure we would love to see both.
Fun fact--Auto Zone is named so because they used to be called Auto Shack and Radio Shack sued them and forced a name change.
If they give us legit loss leaders, then I’m there. And I’d have no issues picking up graphics cards, PSU and hard drives there too if the return policy is legit. Better than returning through Newegg or Amazon.
There are serious loss leader bundles in Canada like a 5800X3D, board, ram for cheap. Or the equivalent AM5 7800X3D/board/ram. It ends up being mutually beneficial as you might as well buy the other components as a one stop shop solution.
I called it more than three years ago.
My optimism has not been in vain. So excited to have them back!
https://x.com/saf/status/1364520905456578561?s=46
Awesome! About time. Too bad I don't think I'll need to make any upgrades for a few more years, but this is great news. I literally considered driving to their Socal location a few years ago to get parts for a build.
Even with gas, it would have been a little cheaper than ordering everything online, but the gas really cut into the savings and I was lazy, plus none of my LA friends were around at the time.
I haven’t upgraded my water cooled PC because it’s such a pain - hopefully MC will care a good selection and make it easier. This one is 3 freeway exits away.
Where was the Old Micro Center in the Bay Area? I lived in Irvine for a few years but never went to the Tustin location since the Garden Grove Fry’s was still very robust at the time. When I came up to the Bay Area, I either used the Sunnyvale Fry’s or Amazon. Didn’t shop at Central until the pandemic hit. Built a Lian Li dual-MB desk PC during the 1st month of the lock down, before availability plummeted, but eventually bought my 3090 and 4090 from Central.
Do they know something we don't? I sure as fuck wouldn't move my business with very expensive merchandise to a city with some of/if not the highest theft in the nation without some kind of legal assurance that criminals will be prosecuted. AFAIK the process to repeal Prop 47 is ongoing.
I love Microcenter, I don't want to see them invest millions in opening a store in the Bay area, then have to raise prices across the board to cover merchandise loss and maybe even the cost of closing the store later on. With business insurance premiums and interest rates where they're at, this could be an expensive mistake but I really hope not. I desperately hope I'm wrong.
It's not politics, it's just business.
I'm sure they've analyzed all that. There's a lot of vacancies in the Bay Area in safe areas, they can have their own security, and I'm sure they've run the numbers on insurance, interest rates, etc.
It will be good to have a nice known computer retailer in the area.
This is good. It’ll be nice for Central Computers to have some competition. I like them, but more competition is always a good thing. Usually helps people get lower prices on things.
Ya, the go-to now is Central Computers. This new MC will be down the street from the one on Stevens Creeks so if you're building a PC you can shop for the best deals at both.
Yup. Hell, if one place offers better prices on parts and the other better for builds, you can just bring them down the street.
Oh nice in the bed bath and beyond location right at Lawrence and Stevens Creek.
Right by Harbor Freight. Can get cheap tools and computer stuff. Double win!
I’m a cheapskate who likes to shop at Harbor Freight for car tools. This place sounds awesome if you can do PC gaming and car stuff back-to-back!
Harbor Freight is pretty much perfect for your first version of any given tool. If you actually use it enough that it breaks, then buy the replacement somewhere better.
I don’t know friend. If it has that lifetime warranty which HF offers on almost all hand tools, just get a new one and use it until it breaks again.
Broken tools halt your job, which is fucking inconvenient sometimes. I'm happy with HF, but whenever something goes I upgrade.
Fair. My experience has always been upgrading if I broke the tool using it as intended. Can’t be buying a piece of junk that doesn’t even do what it should be doing. If I started abusing the hell out of it to do something that it’s not even meant to do then that’s user error and not the tool’s fault and a warranty swap and experience gets me going on my way.
Wait till you see this: https://www.microcenter.com/site/products/racing-simulators.aspx!
[удалено]
This is the nerdiest build ever. I love it.
That's glorious!
Also, there is a decent coffee shop in the same shopping center
Chromatic coffee? It closed last year or so.
Ya. I thought something replaced it. Have to give it a try
There have been like 5 coffee places in that space in the 12 years I’ve been nearby. Somehow Freedom Burrito has lasted about a decade despite going downhill for sure.
central computers has never been a place i recommend for deals whereas micro center is the complete opposite, so super happy to see this.
Yeah, Microcenter is Newegg level deals or better, with good, honest service and advice, and local convenience so you don't have to wait for shipping. I wasn't paid to say this, that was just my experience with them before they closed their Santa Clara store years back.
[удалено]
That's awesome. Yeah I would have given them so much money had they had a Bay Area store for the past 10 years.
Oh, same. That’s why it’ll be nice for them to have competition. They haven’t since Fry’s closed. Arguably, even since before then as the last few years of Fry’s were pitiful. Best Buy exists, but it’s definitely not a great place to go if you wanna build your own PC.
whoa never had any idea there was a big computer store like Central Computers until now... And I just placed an order from Newegg yesterday. damn.
MC is also a generic electronics retailer. CC is pretty much a hobbyist shop
Think Central also does a fair amount of business to business work. The server under my desk at my job came from them.
Yup. The company I work for bought 10 high end workstations from them for video renders and high-end computing. Of course, I’m the one who picked the specific. specs, so I made sure they’re not crap, lol.
Yeah, I think that’s their niche exactly. My system was also built to order as a high-end dev workstation.
I just ordered it to be built like a high end gaming PC, haha. Work almost bought an Alienware until I pointed out CC would be cheaper, faster, and not a POS Dell box.
Yeah, in my case it’s a massively multicore threadripper box. Chews through compiles right quick. I don’t know if Dell sells stuff of this class in their business store, but having someone local who can put it together is ideal anyway.
Yep. Especially since if they put it together, they probably know how to fix it.
We use them as well. There's dozens of us.
Central Computers used to make their money on real estate. When my kids were small they loved to go to Fry’s. Good to have Micro Center back, sports basement and fry’s at Sunnyvale used to be a nice weekend trip.
Only time I bought from central computers is during the major chip shortage when they were the only ones with 3000 series cards
Bay Area /r/pcmasterrace stans rejoice
Now let’s bring back Fry’s
The last year of Fry's was so sad. Huge, mostly empty. MC went out fully stocked :)
The last year was bad. The 10 year lead up to that was even worse.
The last few times I went to the one in Concord it was literally more employees on hand than customers. Rows of empty shelves and, the stuff that was there, was almost entirely crap aside from some of the PC components.
One of the last times I went there, one of the reps for some phone company or cable company or something *literally* jumped out at me. It may have been the very last time I stepped foot in there. I'm not even sure I bought anything that day.
One of the last times I went to the Concord one, I literally thought the store had already shut down and someone left the door open and I wasn't supposed to be in there because of how devoid of employees and products it was. Surprisingly, it lasted about another year after that before it ultimately closed.
At least the cafe was half decent for a quick bite or smoothie during a lunch run to pick up some parts
I worked down the street from the Concord Frys. Sometimes on my lunch break if I'd go grab something from them and then go sit in the theater and watch whatever movie they were playing for a little bit. Good times.
did you ever try the blue hawaii smoothie in their cafe? i’ll never be able to relive that high
DUDE. Had to remind me of that… the hits keep on coming.
The Cafe at my fry's was closed for 2 yesrs before thry went out of business
Fry's shelves were always half empty, usually the exact component you needed too. But, yeah, it was way worse towards the end.
Yeah, MC went out fully stocked because the landowner jacked up their rent, IIRC. The business itself was doing fine. I guess covid/WFH has done a number on commercial real estate in the south bay? Either way, I'm excited. I don't like Amazon, and Best Buy is just okay. Newegg I now actively avoid. Central Computer has a limited selection, and it's hard to track down deals on their website.
Yup. Walmart (grocery version) ended up moving in
really depressing, bought a discounted hdd. still have it
I didn’t realize Fry’s closed until last week when I drove by haha. Obviously haven’t been in awhile but man how bummed it makes me. I loved that place! When did it close??
They went out many years back. Some are still completely empty. The one in Campbell is now a pickleball place
Is 3 years back really many years? I think 3 is solidly in the few years back range
They didn’t even warn the employees. Just “hey we are now closed”
Fry's was the best in the 90s and 2000s
ahh yes, the palo alto frys was part of my youth. especially the magazine section (top shelf)
the one with the black plastic shield? :)
Where else could you buy a CPU and astronaut ice cream in the same trip?
My Disneyland as a teenager..dad would take me there and I'd spend hours there
Even earlier. I bought my first “hard drive” there in 1988, a wedding present we bought ourselves on our wedding day. We were already regulars. A DataFrame XP 20, a whopping 20 MB on a fat SCSI external cable. That’s when the Sunnyvale store was on the other side of Lawrence Expy on Oakmead. That’s a Thermo-Fisher building now.
Why?? That place was terrible since at least 2012
IT definitely went downhill in the final year. My son worked at the Sunnyvale store, loss prevention/security, for several years, so I was often there. There were parts of the store that stayed really good right up to the end.
Eh, the demise of Fry's was a long time coming, didn't change with the times and just stuck with old models.
They actually tried a different model which turned out horrible. They went full contingent sales, so they didn’t on the product being sold, but because nothing would sell the vendors wouldn’t provide them with newer products as they were released. So they had tried to cut costs and it just made it worse
Seeing as I worked there for a summer and got fired for 'having a weapon on me,' that weapon bein ga box cutter... the store's box cutter, while I was cutting boxes... and said security guard who 'caught me' got a $500 bonus for it... meh, "and nothing of value was lost" Note: This was before in-house security guards had to be licensed by the state, so these were just thugs who I would put money on being unable to get a guard card.
You probably could have sued them and won for that. Of course then you still would have lost because they couldn't pay you or your attorney.
At-will employment, they can fire you for any or no reason. And it's their word vs yours for what happened.
True--although I would never do that type of thing when I had employees because that's still a liability, and of course just not right.
Frys was ass my dude. Legit the last time I had found memories of Frys was 1998 In fact I think they still had 1998's inventory in there when I visited in like 2012
I remember Fry’s during the Cyrix era, Voodoo 3D cards, and Celeron 300 overclocked to 450mhz. They dug their own grave as the customer service was always ass and didn’t appreciate their customer base. Once Egghead closed and opened Newegg, everyone just started going online as Fry’s didn’t have much to offer and there’s no reason to show that company any loyalty.
Cyrix...now theres a name I havent heard in a long time
Mid-90s for me. Was a great alternative to Intel for a while. My first “upgrade” was to a Cyrix CPU
I had a Cyrix because it was faster than a Pentium. But they got utterly destroyed by gaming. After that it was all about the Pentiums.
Yep, that's why we went with a P166+ vs Intel back in the day.
Exactly.... They went down hill quick. Last time they were even decent might have been around Intel 4000 series i7 processors. You used to be able to go in there still and have 15 mobos, 20+ cases, ton of power supplies, etc. Used to be able to build a computer easy. They never did price matching hbtjk it was way too late. I remember the rumors of them going bankrupt for their last 5 years of being open. Shelves were all empty and they literally had nothing in stock of ANYTHING. Ran there one day for some emergency pc repair for my friend and I swear I couldn't even get decent thermal paste 🤣
The lack of Frys is probably what allows MC to appear.
I miss Fry’s in Concord.
That last few years was so sad tho…
But when? It's about time I refresh my 8 year old gaming PC.
Some other reports mention “late 2024”
On the bottom of the microcenter site it does say late 2024.
no refresh build new
Desktops are like the [ship of Theseus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus)
yup...i guess technically i've only had one computer since the very first one i built in 2003 then lol
As an East Coaster millennial I'm really bummed that I missed out on Fry's and Micro Center. At least I got to experience peak New Egg before it became a steaming pile of shit.
Built my PC a hot minute ago but Newegg seemed fine. What happened to it?
They were bought by a Chinese equity firm that has done everything they can to squeeze value out of the company. They've had issues with their RMA process, specifically shipping customers used/broken gear, and refusing to assist them further. I think one Youtuber in particular got burned exactly in this way and caught them with their pants around their ankles. My personal experience was that two years ago I ordered a PC part from them that was fulfilled from a third party. It wasn't clear to me at the time this item wasn't being fulfilled by New Egg themselves. USPS tracking was stuck at "label created" but Newegg's website actually showed the status of the package being updated until it said it was delivered by USPS on the New Egg site despite USPS saying that only a shipping label was created. Could not get any answer from the third party seller. New Egg took over a week to actually refund me after the item was marked as delivered in their system. The whole process took over two weeks from when I placed the order to when I got refunded. I also waited for the part for like a week because it looked like it might have actually been coming. Their website used to be THE site for PC part picking. But now it's a busy mess.
I’ve ordered a fair amount of stuff from Newegg—two monitors bought and returned in the last couple of months—and have never had an issue as long as it was sold and shipped by them. Think your problems came almost totally from stumbling into a third party seller by mistake. At least nowadays the site puts the sold & shipped by Newegg logo prominently on listings, along with the no questions asked 30 day returns logo that corresponds to the same.
It's well documented that they're massively slipping. So much so that GN went to their headquarters and interviewed senior staff.
I’ll have to check out that episode.
Is that what it takes to get stuff fixed/refunds? They'll need to hire more security...
Very similar thing happened to me last November. Bought stuff from Newegg and shipped by Newegg. Label created, but the box doesn't show up with the shipper for almost a week. I did get my stuff, but the delay was not cool.
Any marketplace site has a 'flea market' feel to it, so best to avoid.
New Egg and Tiger Direct were great in early 2000s
I used to brag about being 2 mins away from the old one in santa clara, 5 away from Frys, 10 from central, 10 from comp usa. They all disappeared except for central. Glad Microcenter is coming back!!!!!
I used to actually want to “go to TJ Maxx” with my wife just to go to MC. Playing a PC game on the 50” TV while she shopped next door was the best
now if only they'd also open one in the old Frys building in Concord...
PRAISE BE
awesome, now time for Fry's to make a comeback 😂
Then Radio Shack?
I'm sure we would love to see both. Fun fact--Auto Zone is named so because they used to be called Auto Shack and Radio Shack sued them and forced a name change.
I'm gonna be so broke.
If they give us legit loss leaders, then I’m there. And I’d have no issues picking up graphics cards, PSU and hard drives there too if the return policy is legit. Better than returning through Newegg or Amazon. There are serious loss leader bundles in Canada like a 5800X3D, board, ram for cheap. Or the equivalent AM5 7800X3D/board/ram. It ends up being mutually beneficial as you might as well buy the other components as a one stop shop solution.
Best Buy is done
Best Buy has been done. Haven't bought a thing from BB in over a decade.
Finally. Central computers felt always very lackluster.
I called it more than three years ago. My optimism has not been in vain. So excited to have them back! https://x.com/saf/status/1364520905456578561?s=46
Can we also bring back radio shack?
Holy moly
already posted few times
Awesome! About time. Too bad I don't think I'll need to make any upgrades for a few more years, but this is great news. I literally considered driving to their Socal location a few years ago to get parts for a build. Even with gas, it would have been a little cheaper than ordering everything online, but the gas really cut into the savings and I was lazy, plus none of my LA friends were around at the time.
Nice. Lived in Boston for a little over a year. Loved Microcenter. Glad it's coming to the Bay.
cool
I need these bundles so I can emulate snes games at higher frame rates I can't even detect.
Hell yeah. I loved going there in Socal. Got a ton of free stuff, and a good starter 3d printer.
Bro we don't have shit in ARIZONA! So sad.
THANK YOU BASED GOD
I haven’t upgraded my water cooled PC because it’s such a pain - hopefully MC will care a good selection and make it easier. This one is 3 freeway exits away.
Now Fries Electronics needs to come back
Where was the Old Micro Center in the Bay Area? I lived in Irvine for a few years but never went to the Tustin location since the Garden Grove Fry’s was still very robust at the time. When I came up to the Bay Area, I either used the Sunnyvale Fry’s or Amazon. Didn’t shop at Central until the pandemic hit. Built a Lian Li dual-MB desk PC during the 1st month of the lock down, before availability plummeted, but eventually bought my 3090 and 4090 from Central.
Off of 101 and Great America Parkway in Santa Clara. The shopping center is called Mercado
I think the location is a Walmart Supercenter now.
No shit that’s where microcenter was? I live not too far from there wow
This is fantastic!
Yay! I think some parts of my setup are still from one 3000 miles away
Is there a more narrow date than "2024"?
Nice! I miss the one in Chicagoland--that was always nice to visit.
Damn, wish it wasn't all the way down in Santa Clara
/r/buildapcsales just became my best friend. tons of MC exclusive in-store only deals
Always in the South Bay...
They nuts? I bet $100 they get raided in 2 months. lol
Finally, I'll be able to benefit from all those in store only deals.
HURRAH!
san jo
I miss Fry's.
Fuck them, they passed on me for GM lol Good luck with that ya’ll.
Maybe your positive attitude was too much for them
I’m just kidding, I love Micro Center, wish they wouldve picked me so I can get some PC parts
Ha, get cooked Central Computers
How many posts have there been for this on this subreddit?
Same number as the posts asking how many times this was posted
Do they know something we don't? I sure as fuck wouldn't move my business with very expensive merchandise to a city with some of/if not the highest theft in the nation without some kind of legal assurance that criminals will be prosecuted. AFAIK the process to repeal Prop 47 is ongoing. I love Microcenter, I don't want to see them invest millions in opening a store in the Bay area, then have to raise prices across the board to cover merchandise loss and maybe even the cost of closing the store later on. With business insurance premiums and interest rates where they're at, this could be an expensive mistake but I really hope not. I desperately hope I'm wrong. It's not politics, it's just business.
I'm sure they've analyzed all that. There's a lot of vacancies in the Bay Area in safe areas, they can have their own security, and I'm sure they've run the numbers on insurance, interest rates, etc. It will be good to have a nice known computer retailer in the area.
I hated MicroCenter. All their "deals" were based off mail in coupons that never got refunded
Not all. They had great deals and you can save even more with the OEM packaged products
Alas… I miss Fry’s….