Favorite Technology Resources

Here are some of my favorite resources when it comes to buying computer equipment and other related items.

1. BUY.COM - this site seems to sell everything! I have only bought computer equipment from them however. And there are some great deals to search for! A couple of my favorites:
   *Norton Antivirus - when it comes time to renew my antivirus, instead of paying $60 to renew another year, I simply go here and buy a new copy of Norton Antivirus for use with three computers. If you buy just antivirus, it may be as cheap as $10! If you get the 360 version with a lot more protection, you will pay more, but half the cost of renewing.
   *LCD screens - they are getting cheaper all of the time, but BUY.COM seems to have the best deals. The problem is, there are too many to choose from! I would recommend this one. This is definitely the best deal for the price - $150! A little bit more and you can jump this 22" LED up to a 24". And if you are like me, you will have to buy two - can't work with just one screen!


2. NEWEGG.COM - While you can get some items at a really good price at BUY.COM, it can be difficult to get specific computer parts. If you are searching for specific parts at the best price or even building your own computer, NEWEGG.COM is your one stop shop. This site has every computer part you can imagine at the best prices. We have been building some nice computers at work for right around $600 (6 core processors, 8-16GB memory, mirror'd 500GB drives, and more...). I purchased two car stereos for nearly half price through newegg!


3. DELLAUCTION.COM - Are you searching for a computer or laptop but you don't have much money? This site may be for you! I think I may be the biggest customer on this site, I have probably bought hundreds of computers here, dozens of them for friends and family. I must add a disclaimer here: THESE ARE REFURBISHED COMPUTERS. This is where Dell sells their off-leased and refurbished laptops, desktops, and monitors. I can't tell you how long your computer will last when buying from this site - some do have problems. You can win a laptop for as cheap as $200 if you are patient, and desktops for even cheaper! It would be a good idea to watch it for a few days to get a feel of the pricing - it works similar to ebay, with a few minor differences. I find it easiest to find what I am looking for with the specs I want (Latitude or Optiplex with at least 2048mb memory and an OS, dvd-rw a bonus, bigger harddrive a bonus), and I don't bid until there is just over 10 minutes left. That is your best chance to sneak a bid in without someone noticing until the last five minutes. Any bid under the 10 minute mark will put the auction timer back to 10 minutes. If you figure the system out, you will get some great deals! The desktops come in "used" condition, but run great. The laptops usually come in "like new" condition! I even won a nice projector for half the cost of a new one that we are still using at our church.


4. Laptops - Being in the technology field, I get non-stop inquiries about buying laptops. I can only tell you what I am familiar with, and I am not always up on the latest. In my experience, Dell, HP, Toshiba, and IBM are the top runners. HP is the most affordable, and everyone that buys them seems to love them. I have never liked them in the corporate world however. I don't particularly care for the Inspiron line of Dell laptops either, but I think they have replaced this line with Vostro. The Latitude should do great! Toshiba is more expensive, but one of the highest rated consumer laptops. IBM is like buying a Mac, they are top of the line, but you pay for the name! If you have twice the amount of money, go ahead, buy a Mac. Costco and Staples actually carry pretty good deals on some of these laptops. You can usually do well on the web also. The best time of the year to buy is right after Thanksgiving on into Christmas. If you are really tight on the budget, go back to my 3rd item in this post.


5. EBAY.COM - If you know what you want and have priced it out, take a minute to look it up on ebay and you are sure to find a cheaper price for it. You may even be willing to take a used item that is in great shape for half the cost.


6. B&H Photo - There are some great resources for photographers out there, but unfortunately, there are a lot of black market dealers too. I realize there are more resources than I will mention, but I found B&H Photo to have great prices and customer service for all of my wife's photography needs. They even have the option to buy "Made in USA" vs items made elsewhere.


7. CNET.COM - There are so many devices to choose from - phones, cameras, tablets, laptops, desktops - how do you know what to get? Well, a lot of it becomes preference in the end, especially when you are considering all the different variations of Droids vs an iPhone or Blackberry. I have stopped trying to keep up with this stuff, if I have questions, I can go to CNET.COM. They have some great reviews of just about every device you can think of.