Microcenter is coming back to the Bay Area!!!

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sfsuphysics

[H]F Junkie
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I know this applies to very few [H] people, but those of us who remember the glory days of not only a Microcenter but also a Fry's in close proximity, well the grumbling about Microcenter deals is now coming to an end. They're supposed to be opening up in Santa Clara "late 2024" so yippee!!

That said I live in SF, so at current gas prices that's easily $12-15 in gas plus time to get there and back so I'll still have to do the math to see if it's worth it versus other sources.
 
I don't live anywhere near there, but I'm glad to see Microcenter expanding and doing well. The Denver store is always packed to the point that there's a long line for the checkout. Hopefully their other stores are like that, too.
 
don't they already have a few stores in California?...I'd rather see them expand to new states/territory
 
I am very excited as I live in the North Bay. I am willing to drive out to Santa Clara and make a day of it. Hopefully will be stopping by there later this year to build a new machine. 😎
 
polonyc2 said:
don't they already have a few stores in California?...I'd rather see them expand to new states/territory
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They have exactly one store in California, in Tustin(?) which is in southern California near Disneyland or so, which is a 7+hour drive one way so effectively not available to me
 
I live about ~20 miles from a Microcenter and was honestly pretty underwhelmed the last time I was in there.

Unless I absolutely need something TODAY, or have to actually handle something in-person to make a buying decision; i'll just stick with Amazon.
 
Stugots said:
I live about ~20 miles from a Microcenter and was honestly pretty underwhelmed the last time I was in there.

Unless I absolutely need something TODAY, or have to actually handle something in-person to make a buying decision; i'll just stick with Amazon.
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Their best deals are in-store-only CPU motherboard combos. Usually everything else usually matches amazon at best.

The last couple computers I built I bought the CPU and motherboard from MC and pretty much everything else from amazon.
 
Their prices are pretty much the same as Amazon, although I like that I can get something today. If I don't like it and want a refund, I can also take care of that right then, too. No dealing with shipping things back and hoping/waiting. Ditto with being able to actually see things face-to-face when needed. Hell, they'll even open up the boxes for some things if you ask.
 
Domingo said:
I don't live anywhere near there, but I'm glad to see Microcenter expanding and doing well. The Denver store is always packed to the point that there's a long line for the checkout. Hopefully their other stores are like that, too.
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They started here in Columbus, Ohio... and I can confirm the store is almost always packed :) They price match online pricing too from Amazon or Newegg, it's so nice. I give them all my PC business unless they simply don't have what I need.
 
III_Slyflyer_III said:
They started here in Columbus, Ohio... and I can confirm the store is almost always packed :) They price match online pricing too from Amazon or Newegg, it's so nice. I give them all my PC business unless they simply don't have what I need.
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Good to know that they're thriving elsewhere. Like you, I buy everything there minus items they don't carry...which isn't much. Occasionally they'll go ham and over/under order certain motherboards, but that's the only major category I've personally noticed. The fact that they seem to have a relationship with Corsair always means they'll have their latest and greatest. They're my de-facto brand for misc. parts, so that's something I appreciate.
 
Cool.. I used to work in Sunnyvale/Santa Clara CA and spent so much time at that Frys omg.. I also visited Microcenter at Stevens Creek Blvd but it closed up. It was a nice store which actually had decent water cooling parts at a brick and mortar! That store seemed to always be packed and was by far the best PC shop I had ever seen. I was shocked when it closed.
 
Microcenter isn't perfect but I try to give them business when I can. Having zero local retail parts available can be a pain at times. My 990 Pro and 7800x3d in my current build were sourced at MC.
 
OFaceSIG said:
Microcenter isn't perfect but I try to give them business when I can. Having zero local retail parts available can be a pain at times. My 990 Pro and 7800x3d in my current build were sourced at MC.
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At the very least you can camp out overnight when you want to try and get the next Nvidia video card!
 
only thing I don't like about MicroCenter is that they don't tell you how many items are in stock for a really popular product (GPU)...they force you to wait outside the store for hours before it opens in the hopes that they might have a particular GPU in stock...I did that with the RTX 3080
 
polonyc2 said:
don't they already have a few stores in California?...I'd rather see them expand to new states/territory
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I don't think you appreciate how large California is. Northern California and Southern California might as well be two different states. Driving from the Bay Area to Los Angeles would be like driving from New York City to Durham, NC.

Even just looking at the Bay Area, it can be over 100 miles to get from the Northern Bay Area to the Southern Bay Area.
 
polonyc2 said:
only thing I don't like about MicroCenter is that they don't tell you how many items are in stock for a really popular product (GPU)...they force you to wait outside the store for hours before it opens in the hopes that they might have a particular GPU in stock...I did that with the RTX 3080
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Out here they pre-allocated them. They gave out tickets the day before and even had a sign on the door that said they didn't plan on having any extras. I don't necessarily love that policy, but it beats camping out for nothing.
 
Domingo said:
Out here they pre-allocated them. They gave out tickets the day before and even had a sign on the door that said they didn't plan on having any extras. I don't necessarily love that policy, but it beats camping out for nothing.
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that's a better way of doing it...here in the NYC store they force you to camp out...the night out I camped out for the 3080 it was one of the coldest days of the winter as well (January 2021)
 
If they still do good CPU/motherboard combos and have a good selection of cases in person I may be interested. Cases are one of those things that are nice to see in person. How is their return policy?
 
Saw this news as well. Been itching to do a new build as my E5-1680 V2 definitely can't keep up, especially with my recently acquired RTX 3080ti. Not enthused by the combo options available though. Looking at the 7800X3D and none of the motherboards offered in the combo has a PCI-E x4 slot- need it for my 3.84 TB Fusion-IO SSD.
 
If anyone hasn't seen the inside of a Micro Center before, can check out my January, 2022 Recent visit to Micro Center - what it was like inside thread for some pictures. As previously mentioned, the big draw is the in-store-only CPU-motherboard combos but also the ability to actually see and interact in person with products can't be underestimated. My reason for going in Jan. 2022 was because my son wanted to buy a new keyboard and headphones and felt that he needed to actually touch and use the assortment of available products to help him decide which ones to buy.

polonyc2 said:
don't they already have a few stores in California?...I'd rather see them expand to new states/territory
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According to this Micro Center page, they are expanding into two new states later this year.. North Carolina (Charlotte) and Florida (Miami) for a total of 29 stores in 19 states.
 
Oh, very cool. Any idea where in Santa Clara it's going? Their site put up a pop-up with a link for more info, but it 404ed on me.

I'd hoped they'd return to the region, but figured it was a long-shot even with the loss of Fry's.

revenant said:
Cool.. I used to work in Sunnyvale/Santa Clara CA and spent so much time at that Frys omg.. I also visited Microcenter at Stevens Creek Blvd but it closed up. It was a nice store which actually had decent water cooling parts at a brick and mortar! That store seemed to always be packed and was by far the best PC shop I had ever seen. I was shocked when it closed.
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Their original Santa Clara store (closed about a decade ago) was on Mission College Blvd. (along US-101), in the same center as the movie theater and behind the college. The site is a Walmart grocery store now. It was never on Stevens Creek. However, Central Computer has had a store on that road for a long while now.
 
polonyc2 said:
only thing I don't like about MicroCenter is that they don't tell you how many items are in stock for a really popular product (GPU)...they force you to wait outside the store for hours before it opens in the hopes that they might have a particular GPU in stock...I did that with the RTX 3080
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Yeah, probably because they do not want a rush of people, but at the same time, I'm not going to go unless I KNOW I get can the product. Funny story, back when I got my 3090 there you could view the source of the webpage and find the quantity in stock that way... ;) There was code on top of that to hide what was it, but it was still there... lol. I lucked out though as it was New Years Eve day and they had 25+ eVGA 3090 FTW3 in stock, so I headed right over after checking online (I lived like 20 minutes from MC). I was like a kid on Christmas that day... ha
 
Flogger23m said:
If they still do good CPU/motherboard combos and have a good selection of cases in person I may be interested. Cases are one of those things that are nice to see in person. How is their return policy?
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They seem to take just about anything back within 30 days. At least within reason I'd assume. They'll ask you why for the sake of knowing if they can resell it, but I don't think they care beyond that. I've returned 4-5 things over the years ranging from incorrect adapters to motherboards with bent pins to a power supply I didn't end up needing. No drama with anything at all.
 
GoldenTiger said:
They don't have a second x16 slot you could stick it into?
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The bundled board has two secondary physical x16 slots but both are electrically X1. It seems like only ASRock puts an electrical X4 slot in the budget boards.
 
Domingo said:
They seem to take just about anything back within 30 days. At least within reason I'd assume. They'll ask you why for the sake of knowing if they can resell it, but I don't think they care beyond that. I've returned 4-5 things over the years ranging from incorrect adapters to motherboards with bent pins to a power supply I didn't end up needing. No drama with anything at all.
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This right here. Microcenter really has a "no questions asked" type of return policy if you are within the return window. I have never had an issue. Also, why I buy all my monitors there... I have on several instances returned monitors more than once to get one with 0 dead pixels and no other issues.
 
I pretty much buy all my computer stuff from MC nowadays. I don't even bother looking online anymore unless I am looking for something specific that MC doesn't carry.
 
I live near a MicroCenter in Madison Heights, about 5 miles from me.

I go there about twice a decade when I need to buy a new motherboard and CPU combo lol.
 
BlueLineSwinger said:
Oh, very cool. Any idea where in Santa Clara it's going? Their site put up a pop-up with a link for more info, but it 404ed on me.

I'd hoped they'd return to the region, but figured it was a long-shot even with the loss of Fry's.



Their original Santa Clara store (closed about a decade ago) was on Mission College Blvd. (along US-101), in the same center as the movie theater and behind the college. The site is a Walmart grocery store now. It was never on Stevens Creek. However, Central Computer has had a store on that road for a long while now.
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5201 Steven's Creek is the new location spot
 
Microcenter is awesome! I'm lucky to live within an hour drive to two of their stores and if I expand that to 3 hours, maybe half a dozen!
They definitely need on in Florida. Miami is a stretch, maybe Orlando is next? ;-)
 
cpufrost said:
Microcenter is awesome! I'm lucky to live within an hour drive to two of their stores and if I expand that to 3 hours, maybe half a dozen!
They definitely need on in Florida. Miami is a stretch, maybe Orlando is next? ;
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If Miami with all it's sketchyness turns out to be a great location I can't fathom Orlando not getting one. Orlando is a solid town with a lot of upper middle class residential.
 
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