The thing I hate about MicroCenter is that the closest one to me is in Colorado. A 2800 mile round trip from WA. I just look at all those crazy in-store only deals as a single tear rolls down my cheek. Used to have a Fry's to the north about an hour away and one to the south 3hrs away. RIP.
@@myrealnamedoesntfit Before I moved I was 30 minutes from a MicroCenter. Now its over two hours. I tried Best Buy for my recent upgrade. Next time I just taking the long drive.
USA is lucky to have this shit. In Denmark we only have 2 chain stores that are more general from kitchen stuff to laptops. 1 of them I noticed recently did get some PC desktop parts, but its very little.
I rarely comment, but I wanna thank you. I live in France, where there is no Micro Center. I felt like vising the store with you guys, and discovering a paradise I can hardly access haha. Thanks again !
same, this is one (little) thing i dislike about living in eu, i would gladly swap the starbucks franchise for the microcenter one. just last month i went to one of our physical store here (Italy), and i remembered the feeling of see things with my own eyes, I mean you can judge and oled display from a youtube video, there were also the rog ally, so i tried and actually see how it was, same thing for phones like the foldable ones. just in the first minute in this video i was literally amazed by the possibility to see and touch the case, for us pc gamers it's everything 🤤🤤
Between Microcenter having a bundle deal for the 5800x3d w/ mobo and ram for $349, and this 6950xt shown in this video, you could make one HELL of a price to performance build for right around the 1k mark. Incredible job, Microcenter!
I would spend the extra $50 and get the $399 bundle - AMD Ryzen 7 7700X, MSI B650-P Pro WiFi, G.Skill Flare X5 Series 32GB DDR5-6000 Kit for future proofing.
They might as well not exist for 80% of the US PC building public. Their online pricing is not competitive at all and I am still pissed off about them getting 5600X3D exclusivity because they said 'f u' to the vast majority of gamers. Neither of these deals are available unless I drive 622 mi to Denver, making it absolutely not worth it. Microcenter literally has 3 GPUs listed for sale on their website. They could put a Microcenter in my back yard and at this point, I'd just ignore it. They're not the only retailer with deals and everyone else makes their deals available online. Their business model sucks. It is like a pre-internet store. Buying the parts to finish out a build at Microcenter will eat up the savings from any special deal they have on a GPU or CPU because 98% of their stuff is overpriced. The deals are a come on so they can rip you off in the end. How is it an actually useful PC parts store like Fry's could go out of business but Microsucker is still going strong?
@@Lurch-Bot You need to understand about the retail stores like Best Buy, Walmart, Micro Center, etc. on how they operate and make money. Most products are not purchased from the manufacture. The manufacture pay the box stores to lease space/storage space at their location to sell their products. The reason why Micro Center are still around for so many years is because of limited locations in particular areas near corporate businesses that they have established accounts with. We have to also look at what Micro Center sell in their stores. It's specific items and their stores are not over saturated like Fry's was. Fry's having a huge store with a huge overhead like a daycare, a mini bar, tons of employees just standing around, 20 cash registers, way too many products, and competing with online shopping. The 2008 recession destroyed Fry's because of the mismanagement, bad reputation, overhead, lost of business contracts, massive layoffs, etc.
i used to work for micro center in Brentwood MO. not only are they super awesome with the stuff they have and good CS but i honestly was hesitant on leaving. the Brentwood people and management made you feel welcomed and valued as a employee ( special shout to Jim R and Thomas O, MC supervisors) so all around i could 100% recommend micro center. either as a customer or if you are looking for work.
As someone who has never stepped foot inside a Microcenter (They don't have any near me sadly..) this was awesome to see a nicely recorded walkthrough of the store, awesome stuff as always Jay.
Yep, live in Florida and would love to have a microcenter here. Best buy is... Ok... But they are for the everyday consumer and aren't the PC/electronics nirvana that microcenter seems to be.
Meanwhile in my area there are 4 within driving distance with one being 7 minutes away... They could close one of them and open it elsewhere as this particular location doesn't get as much business as the others.
Working as a service tech for Micro Center for a year, I found some of the wildest stuff in the store shelves whenever I needed to SUM out something for a repair. If you live near a Micro Center, you pretty much have access to every part you could possibly need without having to order anything on an online retailer.
Its a bittersweet experience watching these Micro Center walkrounds.. love it all, but since the UK is regressing into the 17th century the likelihood of a Micro Center popping up here ever is slim to zero..
indeed. About th enearest experience you can get is if you're fortunate enough to live near Horwich and can browse around Scans sole outlet (and then buy elsewhere online lol).
@@panman1964 About the closest we've ever had generally I think is the Currys PC World merger, but it's still very generic compared to the granular experience of Micro Center. We've also lost a lot (Maplin, Tandy). Every town seems to be able to quote the existence of an independent store that served the community well for things.. We had a store called Bardwells which was the tiniest shop but had everything for electronics. That went to the wall eventually, as have so many. That ability to get hands on is the single greatest problem which places like Micro Center solve.
@@Gavrev at a general level yes and DIxons|PC World|Currys are nowhere as near broad as MicroCentre. Maplins was a great place for all those odd things you never knew you wanted :)
@@panman1964 Maplin did me a few commercial favours over the years.. their swan song was my Corsair RGB keyboard. I wasn't going to get the full RGB version but in their death throes they had it on fire sale for only £20 more than the one I had set my sights on, so they convinced me. Glad they did in retrospect. RIP Maplin.
Yeah - there's the odd little shop left around the side streets of Tottenham Court Road in londan - but mosty of those have gone - even the Hifi and AV ones ... I kind of get why but ...
I knew about all the aisles of pc parts, but as Jay's walking through the rest of the store looking at 3D Printers, school supplies, board games, and 'for dummies' books, I just had a 'Ratatouille' flashback to wondering Fry's Electronics with my dad. I miss those days
MicroCenter is my happy place. The ones where I live in Georgia have entire side rooms for different things. They have a MASSIVE robotics room on top of home theater and 3D printing. It's like babbages/electronics boutique, radioshack, best buy, and more all combined. Huge isles full of how to books, software of every kind and a gaming section that makes Gamestop cry. If they sold metal and metal fab tools I could literally build a UFO from that store. If they had fastfood and coffee shops inside and an arcade room my life would be complete. Working hard to save up for a new build to replace my aging desktop. Been watching your vids to get ready since its been awhile and im behind the tech curve. This video was a real treat.
I love Microcenter, which I call the Home Depot of computer geeks and nerds. With the demise of Toys R Us and Radio Shack being just a shell of its former self, I'm glad to see them selling maker type supplies, electronic parts and toys. Would never expect to find a plastic scale model of a ship there! I have two near me only a subway ride away (Queens and Brooklyn NYC). I love the one in Flushing Queens - I pick an excuse to go there sometimes, and then eat at a restaurant across the street before heading back home.
Toy's R Us not gone they just left the USA they are still in Canada and they've gotten bigger so it sounds like they want to move back into the USA but slowly just a few stores to start. Radio shack is not 100% gone as well They are supposed to have a website they sell on, but i never looked.
I live within a manageable walking distance to the one in Brooklyn. Haven't been to the one in Queens yet but hear it's much, much better. Is that your experience?
First thing I thought when seeing the soldering supplies was a replacement for Radio Shack. Lots of things you'd never expect from what is thought to be a computer and TV store.
Drove 7 hours to the Tustin Micro Center to build my rig earlier this month. So nice to be able to get everything I needed at one place. Well worth the drive. Also reassuring that I got many of the same or similar parts as you for the same reasons. Funny though that was my first time being there in person, and in all the videos its empty like this, so I was quite taken aback at just how absolutely massively crowded it was when I was there on a Saturday afternoon. Good thing I purchased online as that's a separate much shorter checkout from the general in store purchases.
@@disguiseddv8ant486 No came from northern California. We really need a Micro Center in SF or San Jose. Kinda amazing there isn't one in Silicon Valley.
@@singemfrc The MC in Santa Clara closed in 2012. I did see a post on reddit that they won a bankruptcy auction lease of a closed down Bed Bath and Beyond in Santa Clara so they should be returning to NorCal sometime this year.
@@Tweak42 Wow I I had no idea there used to be one in Santa Clara. But I hadn't built a PC since the 90s, I had been using prebuilts until the one I just built this month. I sure hope you're right that they return! Driving 90 minutes to Santa Clara is so much better than driving 7 hours to Tustin! Would be such a great peace of mind to know I can go down there for a part if something needs urgent replacement.
I love having a microcenter 15 minutes from my house! A few weeks ago I pulled the trigger on that 6950 xt, hell of an upgrade coming from a 2060 Super! And for that price it was an easy choice for me.
The Radeon RX 6950 XT sold at MicroCenter is a reference card with reference cooler. One common complaint is that the cooler just isn't capable enough with that card.
I have been watching you for so long now and I just realized that never pushed the Subscribe button! What a goof I am lol. Man! You spread so much have shared me so much knowledge tthat it hassaved my life in so many ways man! Dont even have words to appreciate all you have done. I hope to God I meet you one day! Just watched your video yesterday about your health condition and have been praying for you! I personally go through a lot of anxiety and depression issues myself and my way to get rid of all those feelings is working on my PC, and your videos have played a huge role on teaching me the necessary things plus your energy and vibes lift my confidence way more. The world needs more people like you. God Bless You!
Given that the nearest Micro Center to my home is nearly a full days drive away (and they apparently have no plans to open a location in my state), the more I see of Micro Center, the more I think it looks comparable to the now former FRY'S ELETRONICS with actual stock on the shelf (something Fry's rarely had in its final years).
I appreciate the take from Jay in the beginning. Being able to go into the store and physically see the case is huge. I cant stand buying important items online without seeing them in person.
Reminds me of Frys. Oh how i miss Frys. Micro Center is missing all the single component and supply isles though. Like single surface solder resistors and LEDs. They had a whole isle of single and packs of LEDs and a whole isle of resistors. Other isles had cables and wires, soldering stuff including soldering gun parts like packs of tips, a whole isle of 3d printer parts and a whole isle of filament. Like they had raw PCB and solderless breadboards and chips, you could go in there and get everything you need to make basic breadboard circuits. Lots of other little things im missing, like batteries and chargers and even pro electronics cleaning and waterproofing solutions. Bunch of other stuff. As a hobby maker, i miss that place a lot. Its nice to have Microcenter now though. It has like 85% of the stuff Frys had. Tustin is like 100 miles away though.
I always feel like I always miss you guys being there by a week. The rain was pretty crazy and agreed! We actually bought rain tires when we needed new ones.
Went to Microcenter today. The crowd was nutz. Service was good. We picked out our monitor and went in line. 40 people in front of us!!! The line moved, so it wasn't terrible. I'm glad they're doing well, but OMG, it was like Black Friday. That's my experience every time I go. Jay could never shoot at my MC. I also think my MC is a fraction of the size the one Jay was in.
Jay, (and those who don't understand the importance of the Iowa Class) that ship design is the pinnacle of putting cannons on a boat and breaking stuff design. The Yamato was bigger, but it is actually a single-use submarine. The Bismark was sunk by biplanes. The Iowa class was faster, had better computers, and 4 of them were made. They could outrange either of those others with accurate fire. Actually, you should do a video on the mechanical computers onboard that were in use through the early 1990s with minimal upgrades.
I miss having shops like this around me, for the same reasons you talked about. There's a difference between looking at cases online and being able to see them IRL.
6000MT DDR5 with CL30 has the effectively same timings as a 6400MT at CL32. Both kits have a latency of 10ns. You have to keep in mind that the formula for RAM latency is "RL = CL *2000 / DR" DR being the data rate (megatranfers per second).
When I built my 13700K rig in 2022, I wanted 6400 cl32 but I could only find 6000 cl30 at the time. I guess it wouldn't have made much difference, except cost me a lot more. Man DDR5 prices were insane during that time.
The Phoenix market is too risky for a Micro Center. Arizona hasn't even solved its water supply problems. Micro Center hasn't survived for 45 years by taking big risks.
I live about a half hour away from a Microcenter. Its not even in the same state as me, but I go there anyway for my PC parts. Its great. They built my current gaming desktop and did a fantastic job. Its being running for about 3 years now with no issues. Next year I will go back and have them build my new rig.
I have a microcenter five miles away. It’s the best retail store in the U.S. hands down. An insane selection, great prices, AND friendly helpful staff who actually know what the hell they are doing and are passionate about it. It’s really the best.
@6:40 a buddy of mine lost his shirt trying to run a gas station during a declining price market. He felt stuck with gas he could sell only at a loss, but didn’t see that he didn’t need to get back what he paid for it but only what was needed to buy and make money on his next half-tanker of gas. Holding the price high netted him nothing. Same for those cards sell at a “loss” to clear inventory and replace with cards that cost less and can be sold at a profit.
Relying on gas sales to make a gas station profitable is bad business. All you have to do is look at what Kwik Trip does on the Midwest. I’d say at least 3/4ths of all people getting gas go inside and buy other goods and I’d be willing to bet that at least half of all customers don’t even buy gas.
@@johnmoore1495 Pretty much the only time you'll find a station constantly keeping prices higher than competitors is if it's in a wealthy area and there's a dealership or two with fleet cards. The locals don't care about price and the dealership has to pay it no matter what. Convenience store items may have higher margin too. Of course this is an outlier and not how most gas stations operate, but it's definitely not uncommon in big cities.
Looks like we have a winner for the best odd thing (the Otamatone) But would be interesting to see if the...RC paper plane? can be modded with better designs to compensate weigh and also wind pressure to fly better. Amazing things you can find on a Micro Center. Too bad i don't live in the US, but it'd be fun to make a stop in between a trip on one to see the things they have to offer, when i have the chance.
I wish internet Karens would stop demanding MicroCenters in their area. If you don't got a Micro Center, your local market isn't a solid choice. Phoenix needs to solve its water supply problems way before it needs a Micro Center.
First of all, the Phoenix area has been aggressive in giving incentives for converting water hungry landscaping into low water use plants and using water basins to capture rain. You are not informed. Second, this area supported TWO Fry's Electronics before they imploded due to the internet stealing their sales (among other things). Third, you are stretching the definition of a "Karen". Really... If Microcenter is not interested in this market, I will just keep ordering parts from Amazon, NewEgg and Monoprice.
Love Microcenter. Always fun looking through the aisles and finding random things. You can get pc components, a random hard drive to hard drive transfer dock, a telescope, cleaning materials, and a bunch of snacks. Also one of the few stores where you can get each flavor of Bawls.
All these RUclips videos about microcenter makes me feel old and lucky to live in the city where micro center started. Upper Arlington Ohio. Been goin since 1988. They used to have a dot matrix printer to print your receipts. Still have a few from 1992
CD-R isn't "stuck n the past". It's a viable format for car stereo or home stereo for those that want a physical copy of their music that won't disappear in the Cloud when the powers that be decide you don't really own your digital downloads anymore.
I think Nick's find was the weirdest. Like sure, that instrument is absolutely silly and kind of weird to fin in MC. . . but absolutely NOWHERE would I have expected to see an RC PAPER AIRPLANE. This video gave got me wheeze laughing so much, I loved it!
I was in Japan recently and all of their tech/electronics stores had a plastic / glued modeling section. Not surprised Micro Center would carry some. Has to be some overlap in hobbyists
This was a lot of fun, thanks Jay! I've never been to a MicroCenter before but there's one opening up a few hours away in Charlotte, NC that I'll have to check out.
I think it was a great job picking parts, double checking your numbers and giving us some great insight on how you choose your parts. just because you can over spend doesnt mean you should. I always believed buying smart was the meta for system building, then making the build look cool
Personally, I'd rather lose $60 per unit than the full wholesale cost per unit that does not get sold. I've also been waiting for someone to do an updated comparison of the 6950 XT to current offerings. Micro Center has had them available for $550 for several weeks now.
Even before that, they had them at $600 if you bundled them with an AMD CPU or motherboard. I almost considered it but the cost of gas getting to the store would have taken up any savings I would have gained.
I read your comment 3 times before responding, but RUclips and lag, sometimes it's like, not sent, but it was sent on repeat, lol.@@g00bergob94 Anyway, in retail there's also a concept where the manufacturer changes how much the retailer is on the card, so they can sell it for less when the manufacturer adjusts the deal.
I used to work at the microcenter that Jay goes to. I actually ran into him once which was super cool! He is a super nice guy just like you’d assume in the videos. I felt bad for bothering him
This made me miss Frys and also confirmed exactly why we are skipping the entire AM5 chipset and DDR5- the prices are all over the place and far too expensive for an upcoming chipset that the AM4 will carry over smoothly. Glad you guys are doing well and Jay looking healthy with some indecisive energy.
build 5800x and didnt think it would run that hot!after 3 hours of super high temps and actually made my aio whistle due to the high rpms, it damaged the fans so they were extra noisy!AM5 is Nowhere near my future builds!the Not so cheap parts for any of that platform, makes me want to build a 14600k build before june with ddr5
As someone who's helped some NA friends pick out builds and stuff, I boil with envy at how much value you can get out of their cpu and motherboard bundles. No option I have here can compare in price to performance
I love these microcenter vlogs. It really shows how much some of us are missing out on. The closest thing to Microcentre we have in South Africa is Evetech which iirc does not have a show room like this. Its pretty much just a warehouse with a front office where you place your orders
This video was way more engrossing than I was anticipating. I have to put this channel on the list of channels I check manually because lately youtube sucks at notifying me!
Jay!!!!we NEED a micro center in Lee County Florida. Our beach got blown away in Ian all our jobs are getting cut because we are a snow bird area and they aren't coming because we are still wrecked. We need jobs and nerdy stuff to do!
On a side note oh the novelty of going to a store and just grabbing the thing you want, I miss it. Websites like Amazon, Newegg etc. have really decimated small town stores. They are great sites to have but it's gotten to the point that it's now nearly the only way to buy anything there is nearly nothing local anymore. Bigger cities may have a mix of online and actual physical store but I can think of a maybe a dozen computer stores that closed in my small town (not including clothing, general crap like Sears, Target it - they're all gone).
I'm glad they build a Micro Center like 40 minutes from my house. I did snag one of those 6950 XT for $550. Even the Micro Center employees were shocked that it was $550.
I am fortunate enough to live within driving distance of 3 Microcenters. (Rockville, MD, Fairfax, VA and Parkville, MD.) I couldn't image not having one. Kind of like Hell for Geeks.
I had the opportunity to briefly visit this store last April and I felt like a kid on Xmas day - I've never seen all that cool PC hardware and computers in the same place in my life! (If you're asking I live in Brazil and we don't have stores like MicroCenter here and this was the first opportunity I had to visit one of their stores - they have none in Orlando where I use to go for vacations)
Now I want to build another system after seeing you guys at MicroCenter with all the shiny new goodies. Guess it's road trip time after the rains stop. Also, you three have now been upgraded to my favorite dorks on YT. Keep up the good work fellas.
Right here is proof that advertising can be entertaining. If Microcenter ever launch in Australia, I hope it's near me because I will be going at my earliest convenience.
I can say I am jealous of the room in your isles in your Micro Center vs the one in St. Louis Park MN. It is rather cramped, but still worth the visit.
have to take a moment to mark that '32 gigs will be way more than enough' somewhere, billgates chuckled..then shed a tear. cool vid jay and crew! thanks! godspeed o7
I used to live in Houston and took for granted that I could pop over to Microcenter on a whim. Now, I'm waiting for the Miami store to open. Still a long drive, but not as long as driving to Georgia.
I really like the "find weird items" challenge ya'll did on this one. It was fun to watch and is really good for microcenter. Would really like more of these shenanigans ❤
Going to Microecnter is a true pilgrimage for me. I have a blast every single time just walking around and thinking about what I could do with so many items, and the scenarios inspired in real-time. It's truly a store that brings out PC Builder creativity! Oh, and pick up a C3 Jay, great TV!
You are lucky to have a Micro Center! In the Phx area, 6th largest city in the country, we have NO stores where you can buy computer parts, unless you count Best Buy, and the closest Micro Center is almost 400 miles away. We need one in the Phoenix area!!!
This was the Microcenter I visited when I was on my holiday from Australia late last year. Great store, absolutely blew my mind, we have nothing like that here. Can't wait to go back!
It's awesome that they let you in before/after store hours (no one else in store) and unlocked all the cabinets for you (customers NEVER get to rummage around in the CPU/memory/store/videocard cabinets). I just hope it's a long time before Microcenter follows Frys into oblivion.
In the almost 30 years that I have been driving the 91 freeway has always been a nightmare! And getting onto the 55 can be a PITA also. Great video as always and I wish I lived closer to that microcenter because I am like a kid in a candy store in there!
I have Microcenters 5 min, 30, min, and 180 min away. Plus closed Fry’s 5 min and 180 min away. It was nice having Microcenter and Fry’s about 10 min apart to compete on price. Other computer stores that are now gone from the area were CompUSA, Tiger Direct, and Elek-Tek.
Another thing you have to remember is that all GPU (especially AMD) tend to get 8-10% faster as the drivers get perfected, meaning that RX 6950 XT is probably closer to 153-156 by now
i hope big box stores don't disappear. tbh, I miss the early/mid 90s - that was the peak of everything - just the right amount of tech, but still way more analog, plenty of big box stores........that was the best era.
Glad you’re partnering with MicroCenter, after the fall of Fry’s we need to support brick and mortar stores like these!
Yeah Fry's was the place you would go to BEFORE you went to the Micro Center!
wish i had something other shitty BestBuy closes Micro Center is 7 hours away
The thing I hate about MicroCenter is that the closest one to me is in Colorado. A 2800 mile round trip from WA. I just look at all those crazy in-store only deals as a single tear rolls down my cheek. Used to have a Fry's to the north about an hour away and one to the south 3hrs away. RIP.
@@myrealnamedoesntfit Before I moved I was 30 minutes from a MicroCenter. Now its over two hours. I tried Best Buy for my recent upgrade. Next time I just taking the long drive.
USA is lucky to have this shit. In Denmark we only have 2 chain stores that are more general from kitchen stuff to laptops. 1 of them I noticed recently did get some PC desktop parts, but its very little.
Jay seems a lot better in this video. I hope things goes well health wise for him.
Remission before final goodbye lol
@@Diegoshadow85damn
@Diegoshadow85 don't be an asshole.
@@Diegoshadow85 hopefully not...
I rarely comment, but I wanna thank you. I live in France, where there is no Micro Center. I felt like vising the store with you guys, and discovering a paradise I can hardly access haha. Thanks again !
same, this is one (little) thing i dislike about living in eu, i would gladly swap the starbucks franchise for the microcenter one. just last month i went to one of our physical store here (Italy), and i remembered the feeling of see things with my own eyes, I mean you can judge and oled display from a youtube video, there were also the rog ally, so i tried and actually see how it was, same thing for phones like the foldable ones. just in the first minute in this video i was literally amazed by the possibility to see and touch the case, for us pc gamers it's everything 🤤🤤
We all cry in Euopean😂
I'm in South Africa, nuff said right?
Between Microcenter having a bundle deal for the 5800x3d w/ mobo and ram for $349, and this 6950xt shown in this video, you could make one HELL of a price to performance build for right around the 1k mark. Incredible job, Microcenter!
I would spend the extra $50 and get the $399 bundle - AMD Ryzen 7 7700X, MSI B650-P Pro WiFi, G.Skill Flare X5 Series 32GB DDR5-6000 Kit for future proofing.
They might as well not exist for 80% of the US PC building public. Their online pricing is not competitive at all and I am still pissed off about them getting 5600X3D exclusivity because they said 'f u' to the vast majority of gamers. Neither of these deals are available unless I drive 622 mi to Denver, making it absolutely not worth it. Microcenter literally has 3 GPUs listed for sale on their website. They could put a Microcenter in my back yard and at this point, I'd just ignore it. They're not the only retailer with deals and everyone else makes their deals available online. Their business model sucks. It is like a pre-internet store. Buying the parts to finish out a build at Microcenter will eat up the savings from any special deal they have on a GPU or CPU because 98% of their stuff is overpriced. The deals are a come on so they can rip you off in the end.
How is it an actually useful PC parts store like Fry's could go out of business but Microsucker is still going strong?
@@Lurch-BotNo one likes a whiner.
@@Lurch-Bot You need to understand about the retail stores like Best Buy, Walmart, Micro Center, etc. on how they operate and make money. Most products are not purchased from the manufacture. The manufacture pay the box stores to lease space/storage space at their location to sell their products.
The reason why Micro Center are still around for so many years is because of limited locations in particular areas near corporate businesses that they have established accounts with. We have to also look at what Micro Center sell in their stores. It's specific items and their stores are not over saturated like Fry's was.
Fry's having a huge store with a huge overhead like a daycare, a mini bar, tons of employees just standing around, 20 cash registers, way too many products, and competing with online shopping.
The 2008 recession destroyed Fry's because of the mismanagement, bad reputation, overhead, lost of business contracts, massive layoffs, etc.
@@Lurch-Bot waaaa waaaaaa
I'm just glad to see all three of you doing well and happy
i used to work for micro center in Brentwood MO. not only are they super awesome with the stuff they have and good CS but i honestly was hesitant on leaving. the Brentwood people and management made you feel welcomed and valued as a employee ( special shout to Jim R and Thomas O, MC supervisors) so all around i could 100% recommend micro center. either as a customer or if you are looking for work.
Why did you leave?
@@sammiller6631 I was pursuing the education and training needed for the IT field and a opportunity opened up to further my career in IT so I took it.
As someone who has never stepped foot inside a Microcenter (They don't have any near me sadly..) this was awesome to see a nicely recorded walkthrough of the store, awesome stuff as always Jay.
Yep, live in Florida and would love to have a microcenter here. Best buy is... Ok... But they are for the everyday consumer and aren't the PC/electronics nirvana that microcenter seems to be.
If you go to their website and select a location you can take a google street view style tour of the store, If you wanted to see more for yourself.
Meanwhile in my area there are 4 within driving distance with one being 7 minutes away... They could close one of them and open it elsewhere as this particular location doesn't get as much business as the others.
@@NightMotorcyclist 4 that's crazy, I think there's 1 in the next state over from me lol
@@NightMotorcyclist I'm guessing you're from ohio as well? 😂😂😂
Whiskey build!!!! With liquor bottles as reservoirs!!!!!!! Can't wait for that to start!!!!
yessss
Make it look like a distilllery inside a pc.
@@paulluce2557 heck ya!!! Copper pipes n all!!! This would look awesome!!!
didn't Kyle already did that with Jägermeister?
@@michealfarley9423 Problem is there no side panel windows but that can be added on to show what is in it. :)
I hate that I live 13 hours from the nearest microcenter.
Edit: Where are all of you located? I’m in Boise, ID (US)
Me too I live like 14 hours away it sucks
They're expand just wait
live ? lol i know what you meant i am just trolling , lol
smiles in 50 mins from MC
It's a flight for me!
Working as a service tech for Micro Center for a year, I found some of the wildest stuff in the store shelves whenever I needed to SUM out something for a repair. If you live near a Micro Center, you pretty much have access to every part you could possibly need without having to order anything on an online retailer.
Its a bittersweet experience watching these Micro Center walkrounds.. love it all, but since the UK is regressing into the 17th century the likelihood of a Micro Center popping up here ever is slim to zero..
indeed. About th enearest experience you can get is if you're fortunate enough to live near Horwich and can browse around Scans sole outlet (and then buy elsewhere online lol).
@@panman1964 About the closest we've ever had generally I think is the Currys PC World merger, but it's still very generic compared to the granular experience of Micro Center. We've also lost a lot (Maplin, Tandy). Every town seems to be able to quote the existence of an independent store that served the community well for things.. We had a store called Bardwells which was the tiniest shop but had everything for electronics. That went to the wall eventually, as have so many. That ability to get hands on is the single greatest problem which places like Micro Center solve.
@@Gavrev at a general level yes and DIxons|PC World|Currys are nowhere as near broad as MicroCentre. Maplins was a great place for all those odd things you never knew you wanted :)
@@panman1964 Maplin did me a few commercial favours over the years.. their swan song was my Corsair RGB keyboard. I wasn't going to get the full RGB version but in their death throes they had it on fire sale for only £20 more than the one I had set my sights on, so they convinced me. Glad they did in retrospect. RIP Maplin.
Yeah - there's the odd little shop left around the side streets of Tottenham Court Road in londan - but mosty of those have gone - even the Hifi and AV ones ... I kind of get why but ...
I knew about all the aisles of pc parts, but as Jay's walking through the rest of the store looking at 3D Printers, school supplies, board games, and 'for dummies' books, I just had a 'Ratatouille' flashback to wondering Fry's Electronics with my dad. I miss those days
RIP fry's. MicroCenter here to hold the torch!
So miss Fry’s. My favorite place to browse. Rip
"Wandering" not "wondering."
I was laughing at that C++ 2015 book. I'm guessing that's outdated now.
I miss frys too, they just had too many for the type of stuff they sold, at one point they had 3 of them within a 1hr radius near me lol
I loved this video! It's like hanging out with friends at the computer store. Thanks Jay for sharing this.
MicroCenter is my happy place. The ones where I live in Georgia have entire side rooms for different things. They have a MASSIVE robotics room on top of home theater and 3D printing. It's like babbages/electronics boutique, radioshack, best buy, and more all combined. Huge isles full of how to books, software of every kind and a gaming section that makes Gamestop cry. If they sold metal and metal fab tools I could literally build a UFO from that store. If they had fastfood and coffee shops inside and an arcade room my life would be complete. Working hard to save up for a new build to replace my aging desktop. Been watching your vids to get ready since its been awhile and im behind the tech curve. This video was a real treat.
I love Microcenter, which I call the Home Depot of computer geeks and nerds. With the demise of Toys R Us and Radio Shack being just a shell of its former self, I'm glad to see them selling maker type supplies, electronic parts and toys. Would never expect to find a plastic scale model of a ship there! I have two near me only a subway ride away (Queens and Brooklyn NYC). I love the one in Flushing Queens - I pick an excuse to go there sometimes, and then eat at a restaurant across the street before heading back home.
Toy's R Us not gone they just left the USA they are still in Canada and they've gotten bigger so it sounds like they want to move back into the USA but slowly just a few stores to start. Radio shack is not 100% gone as well They are supposed to have a website they sell on, but i never looked.
If you know enough about home depot, you'd stop referring to it as a competent hardware supply chain.
Definite Fry's Electronics vibe for me, I miss that store, they pretty much had everything you would need, and a lot of stuff you didn't lol.
I live within a manageable walking distance to the one in Brooklyn. Haven't been to the one in Queens yet but hear it's much, much better. Is that your experience?
First thing I thought when seeing the soldering supplies was a replacement for Radio Shack. Lots of things you'd never expect from what is thought to be a computer and TV store.
Drove 7 hours to the Tustin Micro Center to build my rig earlier this month. So nice to be able to get everything I needed at one place. Well worth the drive. Also reassuring that I got many of the same or similar parts as you for the same reasons.
Funny though that was my first time being there in person, and in all the videos its empty like this, so I was quite taken aback at just how absolutely massively crowded it was when I was there on a Saturday afternoon. Good thing I purchased online as that's a separate much shorter checkout from the general in store purchases.
Sounds like that you drove from around Phoenix Arizona.
@@disguiseddv8ant486 No came from northern California. We really need a Micro Center in SF or San Jose. Kinda amazing there isn't one in Silicon Valley.
@@singemfrc The MC in Santa Clara closed in 2012. I did see a post on reddit that they won a bankruptcy auction lease of a closed down Bed Bath and Beyond in Santa Clara so they should be returning to NorCal sometime this year.
@@Tweak42 Wow I I had no idea there used to be one in Santa Clara. But I hadn't built a PC since the 90s, I had been using prebuilts until the one I just built this month.
I sure hope you're right that they return! Driving 90 minutes to Santa Clara is so much better than driving 7 hours to Tustin! Would be such a great peace of mind to know I can go down there for a part if something needs urgent replacement.
Love when Jay walks around and shows what can be found in the store. Microcenter is a dream for me. There is nothing like that in Sweden. Thanks Guys.
Micro Center are only for Americans.
It's good to see you doing better, at least it seems like you've gotten some of your energy back. Keep it up, whatever it is you've been doing!
Jayz is screwed. His "health team" only know how to manage disease not cure it.
I love having a microcenter 15 minutes from my house! A few weeks ago I pulled the trigger on that 6950 xt, hell of an upgrade coming from a 2060 Super! And for that price it was an easy choice for me.
I have one 15 mins from me as well. I go there all the time. I've bought so much stuff from them it rivals my Amazon purchases 😉
The Radeon RX 6950 XT sold at MicroCenter is a reference card with reference cooler. One common complaint is that the cooler just isn't capable enough with that card.
I have been watching you for so long now and I just realized that never pushed the Subscribe button! What a goof I am lol. Man! You spread so much have shared me so much knowledge tthat it hassaved my life in so many ways man! Dont even have words to appreciate all you have done. I hope to God I meet you one day! Just watched your video yesterday about your health condition and have been praying for you! I personally go through a lot of anxiety and depression issues myself and my way to get rid of all those feelings is working on my PC, and your videos have played a huge role on teaching me the necessary things plus your energy and vibes lift my confidence way more. The world needs more people like you. God Bless You!
Given that the nearest Micro Center to my home is nearly a full days drive away (and they apparently have no plans to open a location in my state), the more I see of Micro Center, the more I think it looks comparable to the now former FRY'S ELETRONICS with actual stock on the shelf (something Fry's rarely had in its final years).
That was because employees were stealing from fries so they could not keep the shelves stocked.
@@Bigdog1787 No reason for MC to stock bad value. HNvidia is going to have to makes products people want.
better than Frys because they only focus on computers, not washing machines etc
I appreciate the take from Jay in the beginning. Being able to go into the store and physically see the case is huge. I cant stand buying important items online without seeing them in person.
I swear... Phills giggle/laugh is an anti-depressant! 😂
Reminds me of Frys. Oh how i miss Frys. Micro Center is missing all the single component and supply isles though. Like single surface solder resistors and LEDs. They had a whole isle of single and packs of LEDs and a whole isle of resistors. Other isles had cables and wires, soldering stuff including soldering gun parts like packs of tips, a whole isle of 3d printer parts and a whole isle of filament. Like they had raw PCB and solderless breadboards and chips, you could go in there and get everything you need to make basic breadboard circuits. Lots of other little things im missing, like batteries and chargers and even pro electronics cleaning and waterproofing solutions. Bunch of other stuff.
As a hobby maker, i miss that place a lot. Its nice to have Microcenter now though. It has like 85% of the stuff Frys had. Tustin is like 100 miles away though.
I always feel like I always miss you guys being there by a week. The rain was pretty crazy and agreed! We actually bought rain tires when we needed new ones.
Went to Microcenter today. The crowd was nutz. Service was good. We picked out our monitor and went in line. 40 people in front of us!!! The line moved, so it wasn't terrible. I'm glad they're doing well, but OMG, it was like Black Friday. That's my experience every time I go. Jay could never shoot at my MC. I also think my MC is a fraction of the size the one Jay was in.
These videos are great - It doesn't matter what the content is, it's just fun to watch the three of you goof around.
Jay, (and those who don't understand the importance of the Iowa Class) that ship design is the pinnacle of putting cannons on a boat and breaking stuff design. The Yamato was bigger, but it is actually a single-use submarine. The Bismark was sunk by biplanes. The Iowa class was faster, had better computers, and 4 of them were made. They could outrange either of those others with accurate fire. Actually, you should do a video on the mechanical computers onboard that were in use through the early 1990s with minimal upgrades.
It's a shame battleships as a concept were obsolete by the time the Iowa was launched.
Would love to see a whisky themed build. You could make the reservoir like a barrel...
I miss having shops like this around me, for the same reasons you talked about. There's a difference between looking at cases online and being able to see them IRL.
6000MT DDR5 with CL30 has the effectively same timings as a 6400MT at CL32. Both kits have a latency of 10ns. You have to keep in mind that the formula for RAM latency is "RL = CL *2000 / DR" DR being the data rate (megatranfers per second).
When I built my 13700K rig in 2022, I wanted 6400 cl32 but I could only find 6000 cl30 at the time. I guess it wouldn't have made much difference, except cost me a lot more. Man DDR5 prices were insane during that time.
You ideally want 6000 for Ryzen because of the infinity fabric.
CL timings are kind of meaningless for DDR5 though, check out Buildzoid's (Actually hardcore overclocking) videos about DDR5 OC and timing tweaking
you look a lot better Jay! still praying for you for continual healing.
I would love for Micro Center to open a store in Phoenix. We need them sooo bad.
The Phoenix market is too risky for a Micro Center. Arizona hasn't even solved its water supply problems. Micro Center hasn't survived for 45 years by taking big risks.
I live about a half hour away from a Microcenter. Its not even in the same state as me, but I go there anyway for my PC parts. Its great. They built my current gaming desktop and did a fantastic job. Its being running for about 3 years now with no issues. Next year I will go back and have them build my new rig.
Nerds in a Microcenter = Kids in a candy store
Visited the SoCal location once and wasnt disappointed.
I have a microcenter five miles away. It’s the best retail store in the U.S. hands down. An insane selection, great prices, AND friendly helpful staff who actually know what the hell they are doing and are passionate about it. It’s really the best.
@6:40 a buddy of mine lost his shirt trying to run a gas station during a declining price market. He felt stuck with gas he could sell only at a loss, but didn’t see that he didn’t need to get back what he paid for it but only what was needed to buy and make money on his next half-tanker of gas. Holding the price high netted him nothing. Same for those cards sell at a “loss” to clear inventory and replace with cards that cost less and can be sold at a profit.
But surely he needed to continue to make a similar profit per gallon if he depended upon that to keep the lights on.
Relying on gas sales to make a gas station profitable is bad business. All you have to do is look at what Kwik Trip does on the Midwest. I’d say at least 3/4ths of all people getting gas go inside and buy other goods and I’d be willing to bet that at least half of all customers don’t even buy gas.
@@johnmoore1495 Pretty much the only time you'll find a station constantly keeping prices higher than competitors is if it's in a wealthy area and there's a dealership or two with fleet cards. The locals don't care about price and the dealership has to pay it no matter what. Convenience store items may have higher margin too.
Of course this is an outlier and not how most gas stations operate, but it's definitely not uncommon in big cities.
@@johnmoore1495 This is correct, gas is the loss leader to get people inside the store, buying profitable items.
Looks like we have a winner for the best odd thing (the Otamatone)
But would be interesting to see if the...RC paper plane? can be modded with better designs to compensate weigh and also wind pressure to fly better.
Amazing things you can find on a Micro Center. Too bad i don't live in the US, but it'd be fun to make a stop in between a trip on one to see the things they have to offer, when i have the chance.
We need a Microcenter in the Phoenix Arizona area. MICROCENTER, ARE YOU LISTENING! We are in a desert of computer stores since Fry's folded.
I wish internet Karens would stop demanding MicroCenters in their area. If you don't got a Micro Center, your local market isn't a solid choice. Phoenix needs to solve its water supply problems way before it needs a Micro Center.
First of all, the Phoenix area has been aggressive in giving incentives for converting water hungry landscaping into low water use plants and using water basins to capture rain. You are not informed.
Second, this area supported TWO Fry's Electronics before they imploded due to the internet stealing their sales (among other things).
Third, you are stretching the definition of a "Karen". Really...
If Microcenter is not interested in this market, I will just keep ordering parts from Amazon, NewEgg and Monoprice.
Love Microcenter. Always fun looking through the aisles and finding random things. You can get pc components, a random hard drive to hard drive transfer dock, a telescope, cleaning materials, and a bunch of snacks. Also one of the few stores where you can get each flavor of Bawls.
Jay Phil and Nick you three have one of the most fun tech channels out there.. Keep it up!
The Top Gear of the computer world.
All these RUclips videos about microcenter makes me feel old and lucky to live in the city where micro center started. Upper Arlington Ohio. Been goin since 1988. They used to have a dot matrix printer to print your receipts. Still have a few from 1992
Those are some funny purchases you got. That plane looks great 😂
Thanks for the Micro Center preview. I live in Charlotte which will soon open a new store. Can't wait!
CD-R isn't "stuck n the past". It's a viable format for car stereo or home stereo for those that want a physical copy of their music that won't disappear in the Cloud when the powers that be decide you don't really own your digital downloads anymore.
Yup. I've still got about 200 blank CD-Rs in a drawer. They've come in handy over the years.
and you find that funny? grow up.@@zzz-x7p
Hearing Phils laugh makes me not so depressed about going deaf.
"Lets see if we can find the weirdest thing in the store" Phil proceeds to follow Jay.... "fount him!" 😂
I'll be moving in a few months, and I hope that wherever that is, will have a Microcenter closer than 12 hours away.
I think Nick's find was the weirdest. Like sure, that instrument is absolutely silly and kind of weird to fin in MC. . . but absolutely NOWHERE would I have expected to see an RC PAPER AIRPLANE.
This video gave got me wheeze laughing so much, I loved it!
omg Jay that was so much fun to watch. I needed that laugh in between my work.
for that Whiskey build.....it MUST be liquid cooled using whiskey!!!!
with a whiskey tap
@@NaterNorris Who doesn't love the taste of nickel or copper in the morning?
A whiskey drink, a vodka drink, a lager drink, a cider drink then when it boots up it plays the songs that remind him of the good times.
When it shuts down it plays the songs that remind him of the better times.
Oh, Danny boy, Danny boy, Danny boy...
I was in Japan recently and all of their tech/electronics stores had a plastic / glued modeling section. Not surprised Micro Center would carry some. Has to be some overlap in hobbyists
10:28 Thank you on behalf of all Europeans for using the metric system :)
10:28 When will Europeans start doing the same courtesy of including US Units alongside metric in their videos as well?
This was a lot of fun, thanks Jay! I've never been to a MicroCenter before but there's one opening up a few hours away in Charlotte, NC that I'll have to check out.
I think it was a great job picking parts, double checking your numbers and giving us some great insight on how you choose your parts. just because you can over spend doesnt mean you should. I always believed buying smart was the meta for system building, then making the build look cool
It's a long drive, but we're blessed to have a Microcenter in Minnesota.
3 hours from iowa for me to get to yours and its the closest one :(
Yes!! Its 2.5 hour drive from very south central border town!!
Feels good to only be 15 min away from it didn’t know so many people are willing to drive out for one
Watching Jay walk around Micro Center are some of my favorite videos.
Microcenter needs a Northern California store 🙏
Florida too
You guys need to record more videos of you having fun. These make my day!
Personally, I'd rather lose $60 per unit than the full wholesale cost per unit that does not get sold. I've also been waiting for someone to do an updated comparison of the 6950 XT to current offerings. Micro Center has had them available for $550 for several weeks now.
Even before that, they had them at $600 if you bundled them with an AMD CPU or motherboard. I almost considered it but the cost of gas getting to the store would have taken up any savings I would have gained.
Yeah that is a great point actually. They need to cut their losses and price drop. Because no one is going to buy a less powerful card for more.
Yeah that is a great point actually. They need to cut their losses and price drop. Because no one is going to buy a less powerful card for more.
Yeah that is a great point actually. They need to cut their losses and price drop. Because no one is going to buy a less powerful card for more.
I read your comment 3 times before responding, but RUclips and lag, sometimes it's like, not sent, but it was sent on repeat, lol.@@g00bergob94 Anyway, in retail there's also a concept where the manufacturer changes how much the retailer is on the card, so they can sell it for less when the manufacturer adjusts the deal.
I used to work at the microcenter that Jay goes to. I actually ran into him once which was super cool! He is a super nice guy just like you’d assume in the videos. I felt bad for bothering him
That paper airplane had me dying with laughter. You guys are always entertaining. Keep up the great work.
Love seeing your shopping trips! You didn't mention your health, so I am hoping all is well with you, brother.
This made me miss Frys and also confirmed exactly why we are skipping the entire AM5 chipset and DDR5- the prices are all over the place and far too expensive for an upcoming chipset that the AM4 will carry over smoothly. Glad you guys are doing well and Jay looking healthy with some indecisive energy.
build 5800x and didnt think it would run that hot!after 3 hours of super high temps and actually made my aio whistle due to the high rpms, it damaged the fans so they were extra noisy!AM5 is Nowhere near my future builds!the Not so cheap parts for any of that platform, makes me want to build a 14600k build before june with ddr5
Who is skipping ddr5? Lmao your whacked
I miss Fry's too, they also had some random stuff in their stores.
@@johnbernhardtsen3008 a 14600k build will be even higher temps. You will need a larger AIO.
looking at the 12600k instead with ddr4 ram! I wanted the 4070ti but it would max out this 750w psu @@sammiller6631
Living vicariously through your Micro Center experience. Thx Jay hope all is well.
I need to make the pilgrimage to Micro Center one of these centuries. Also, Jay with an Otamatone is a recipe for headaches.😂
Just be careful, I go in there looking for 1 item and walk out with a new computer. This has happened more than once.
14:50 "weaponize paper airplanes" 40 years ago my brother and I were putting tooth picks in the nose and lofting them at each other.
phil creeping behind jay was hilarious. i love phil's vibe, and your guy's goofiness in general. fun video.
Loved the 2001 space odessy bit at the end. great video guys, laughed so much.
As someone who's helped some NA friends pick out builds and stuff, I boil with envy at how much value you can get out of their cpu and motherboard bundles. No option I have here can compare in price to performance
I love these microcenter vlogs. It really shows how much some of us are missing out on.
The closest thing to Microcentre we have in South Africa is Evetech which iirc does not have a show room like this. Its pretty much just a warehouse with a front office where you place your orders
This video was way more engrossing than I was anticipating. I have to put this channel on the list of channels I check manually because lately youtube sucks at notifying me!
Jay!!!!we NEED a micro center in Lee County Florida. Our beach got blown away in Ian all our jobs are getting cut because we are a snow bird area and they aren't coming because we are still wrecked. We need jobs and nerdy stuff to do!
On a side note oh the novelty of going to a store and just grabbing the thing you want, I miss it. Websites like Amazon, Newegg etc. have really decimated small town stores. They are great sites to have but it's gotten to the point that it's now nearly the only way to buy anything there is nearly nothing local anymore. Bigger cities may have a mix of online and actual physical store but I can think of a maybe a dozen computer stores that closed in my small town (not including clothing, general crap like Sears, Target it - they're all gone).
THIS is what I love about you guy's down to earth, funny and informative at the same time. Can't wait to see, what you guy's find next time.
I'm glad they build a Micro Center like 40 minutes from my house. I did snag one of those 6950 XT for $550. Even the Micro Center employees were shocked that it was $550.
I am fortunate enough to live within driving distance of 3 Microcenters. (Rockville, MD, Fairfax, VA and Parkville, MD.) I couldn't image not having one. Kind of like Hell for Geeks.
God I miss fry’s. All yall that live near a micro center please shop a lot for expansion.
I had the opportunity to briefly visit this store last April and I felt like a kid on Xmas day - I've never seen all that cool PC hardware and computers in the same place in my life! (If you're asking I live in Brazil and we don't have stores like MicroCenter here and this was the first opportunity I had to visit one of their stores - they have none in Orlando where I use to go for vacations)
I got the 7900XTX and absolutely love it. No regrets!
Now I want to build another system after seeing you guys at MicroCenter with all the shiny new goodies. Guess it's road trip time after the rains stop. Also, you three have now been upgraded to my favorite dorks on YT. Keep up the good work fellas.
Right here is proof that advertising can be entertaining. If Microcenter ever launch in Australia, I hope it's near me because I will be going at my earliest convenience.
I can say I am jealous of the room in your isles in your Micro Center vs the one in St. Louis Park MN. It is rather cramped, but still worth the visit.
I built my mom a PC for Christmas and I used the fractal north case that jay’s drooling over at @2:30. She loves it!
have to take a moment to mark that '32 gigs will be way more than enough' somewhere, billgates chuckled..then shed a tear. cool vid jay and crew! thanks! godspeed o7
I used to live in Houston and took for granted that I could pop over to Microcenter on a whim. Now, I'm waiting for the Miami store to open. Still a long drive, but not as long as driving to Georgia.
I really like the "find weird items" challenge ya'll did on this one. It was fun to watch and is really good for microcenter. Would really like more of these shenanigans ❤
Going to Microecnter is a true pilgrimage for me. I have a blast every single time just walking around and thinking about what I could do with so many items, and the scenarios inspired in real-time. It's truly a store that brings out PC Builder creativity!
Oh, and pick up a C3 Jay, great TV!
You are lucky to have a Micro Center! In the Phx area, 6th largest city in the country, we have NO stores where you can buy computer parts, unless you count Best Buy, and the closest Micro Center is almost 400 miles away. We need one in the Phoenix area!!!
That micro center has saved my ass! Great people there!
This was the Microcenter I visited when I was on my holiday from Australia late last year. Great store, absolutely blew my mind, we have nothing like that here. Can't wait to go back!
That’s a fancy Microcenter. Ours has been around since the 90s and it’s a cave, but it’s still full of the same stuff 👍🏻.
Hanging out with Jay looks like a fun time.
It's awesome that they let you in before/after store hours (no one else in store) and unlocked all the cabinets for you (customers NEVER get to rummage around in the CPU/memory/store/videocard cabinets). I just hope it's a long time before Microcenter follows Frys into oblivion.
In the almost 30 years that I have been driving the 91 freeway has always been a nightmare! And getting onto the 55 can be a PITA also. Great video as always and I wish I lived closer to that microcenter because I am like a kid in a candy store in there!
love the dad mode at 15:27 and then jay goes with it because he wants to be a good dad. love...
I have Microcenters 5 min, 30, min, and 180 min away. Plus closed Fry’s 5 min and 180 min away. It was nice having Microcenter and Fry’s about 10 min apart to compete on price. Other computer stores that are now gone from the area were CompUSA, Tiger Direct, and Elek-Tek.
Another thing you have to remember is that all GPU (especially AMD) tend to get 8-10% faster as the drivers get perfected, meaning that RX 6950 XT is probably closer to 153-156 by now
i hope big box stores don't disappear. tbh, I miss the early/mid 90s - that was the peak of everything - just the right amount of tech, but still way more analog, plenty of big box stores........that was the best era.