I was pleasantly surprised by Microcenter in November of last year. I was looking for a laptop and apparently Microcenter has a house brand called Powerspec. It turns out they are a very user-focused brand that a) has no bloatware preinstalled and b) has high performance and every single port you could possibly want.
When I went, there was a little bit of hovering but overall the staff were nice.
Protip: whenever you shop there, even if no one helped you, choose an employee and let them put their sticker on the merchandise you are buying. They track who helped which customer by a sticker the staff can put on your item. If you like to be left alone to shop, find an employee who left you alone on your way to the registers!
I was in a Microcenter over the holidays, and was pleasantly surprised by the variety of things they stock. And the pricing was unexpectedly, for me at least, the same as or better than NewEgg on the items I checked.
Best of all, they weren't pushy and hostile when I refused to give my phone number, a pleasant change from years back.
I was also pleasantly surprised by MicroCenter recently. There's one in Brooklyn I had no idea about until I was searching online for places to buy a Raspberry Pi and accessories. Walked in there and it was like a (pleasant!) throwback to the computer store of the 90s.
Since radioshack went out of business Microcenter is the only place I can get last minute electronic components if I'm trying to follow some tutorial that calls for something specific. The problem is that its 45 minutes away, and I cant seem to spend less than 3 hours and $300 every time i go there.
I'm on a powerspec right now. I couldn't build this PC with the same parts this cheap and it comes with a windows license and as you stated, no bloatware. They are fantastic little machines.
I was maining a ThinkPad a few years back and wanted to switch to a beefy desktop. I went into Micro Center and, instead of doing my own build which I totally could have done in Micro Center also, bought a PowerSpec PC with a Ryzen for not much more money and considerable time savings, under the rubric that I could always upgrade it later.
I couldn't be happier. Their machines are pretty much white-box builds. Some of the cases are a little ricey but they are fairly easy to take the covers off of and the internals are nice to work with. The motherboard is a bit weak, but like I said, it can be upgraded, and it comes with enough power supply to support all but the most extreme loads. Not a bad starter choice if you want a new gaming or otherwise tweakable PC.
I’ve always enjoyed micro center, other than a few of the employees trying to force their stickers on stuff. Similarly I’ll find someone I like to load up my items.
I’ve found they often have the best prices, even beating online retailers. At least on mobo/cpu combos.
Huh. I’m not sure about PowerSpec but they do have an in-house laptop and tablet brand: “WinBook”. I’ve owned 2 and had challenges with both. Most recently:
- Touchscreen driver wouldn’t shut off when lid closed
- Inadequate cooling leading to overheating
- The worst touchpad I’ve ever had the displeasure to use
I really do love MicroCenter, I built a gaming PC there myself, but I recommend using the known brands when it comes to systems.
When I went, there was a little bit of hovering but overall the staff were nice.
Protip: whenever you shop there, even if no one helped you, choose an employee and let them put their sticker on the merchandise you are buying. They track who helped which customer by a sticker the staff can put on your item. If you like to be left alone to shop, find an employee who left you alone on your way to the registers!