Are Open Box PC parts worth it? - This PC is almost ALL Open Box items!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 พ.ย. 2024
- We have talked about used parts before but what about Open Box and Returned PC parts? Let's talk about how NOT to get screwed when saving money by buying open box parts! Thank you to Micro Center for sponsoring this video!
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why do i feel like this is an excuse to hang out in microcenter
I'd hang around there for less of an excuse heh.
Im the same
Of course it isn't.
You don't need an excuse to hang out in microcenter :D
i go there once a month to check on open box stuff =)
At least the wife knows where he is spending his time, and who with.
I loved this video. I recently did the same thing to assemble my PC, but you are creating a doubt for me regarding software and if it is worth buying Windows 11 and Office?
In my humble opinion, if you already spend money on a good PC, then it is better to have everything legal and without any restrictions.
I think it's the best, right? And if you can tell me how you bought it?
If it's better, it's always better and good websites that are dedicated to that. In my experience, BNH software worked for me.
I will continue spending money on the PC hahahahaha thanks for your time
At your service, my friend, I hope everything goes well for you.
Open Box is fantastic if you know what you’re getting (or if you’re just gonna gamble). My Z690 TUF was from a MCenter and was returned 4 times. It’s been running strong with no issues for a year now. I’m betting that people kept returning it because the BIOS wasn’t updated to support 13th gen lol
I had one msi board that would not even power on let alone post with known good parts. So mileage may vary. But microcenter took it back no problem.
Took open box Aorus Master 6900XT for 650usd back in late 2022 when brand new still was 1100usd, only thing was it had bent IO bracket everything else was in the box and even plastic peel was on, it had 3 month warranty but been working since then
The amount of AM4 boards I've seen returned due to people pairing them with 5000 series CPU with an older unsupported bios is mind boggling 😂
@@100500daniel Not at that point ask if they could update the BIOS for a few bucks? Is not like you are not going to microcenter again to do the return.
I gambled bought a used gigabyte aorus RTX 3080ti on Ebay for $600 And it was very clean also and no dust no problems And I was kind of worried because there was no return policy with this seller
Pro tip: for M3 and M4 screws, check out your local hobby shops... A lot of R/C cars use M3 and M4 hardware, if you can't wait to order them
Also places like Digikey and RS have truckloads....
@@RamonInNZ yep, but sometimes you don't want to wait, lol.
And for o-rings. And for CPU fan clips.
I made 2 entire CPU fan mounts from screws and metal bands from hardware store for my 2 xeons on RD450X, for 5$ (40C under load btw)
Or even ace hardware
Ace Hardware has every bolt, nut and unique fastener design, size and composition you can think of if you have one nearby!
Listen take this down I don’t want them to know my secrets
I already know about this, it's too late. 😀🤡
Perhaps this is best called an _open_ secret. . .
I agree, if everyone stops being scared of perfectly fine products. I won't be able to get my amazing deals 😂
shiiii this made me wanna slide on a microcenter and do a build and sell it at cost on facebook because I got that itch to source and build. Nobody is going to buy a pc at sticker price from a john doe so this way I get to have fun and not lose money.
Who's them lol
@@summitmax224 Mannnn shit you got a solid point. I might have to get in on that
Pro Tip for Microcenter fans. If you are unsure about the MB bios being able to support the CPU out of the box, after you make your purchase bring them over to the tech crew there. Super friendly and they will test bench the cpu for you and also flash the bios for you if needed. You can do this after the visit but they may apply a charge, but from my experience they consider this part of the sale and will often times not charge you.
Been a Microcenter regular since the early to mid 90's and will never shop anywhere else. Super friendly and Super helpful this store has outlasted every competitor that has come in to the area, Fry's, Comp USA, you name it Microcenter has beaten them all.
it's the last bastion of retail stores that are worth going into, much less driving hours to go to.
Every computer geek needs to atleast once in their life, Make a journey to a MicroCenter. Its a beautiful experience.
I bought a 3060 ti for $189 open box last year and it was in perfect condition. Not the best card in the universe but saving $75~ was a lifesaver for someone very strapped on cash.
I am going to say, "results vary by location". I had to upgrade my son's PC. I go to the Chicago location and bought the open boxed Powercolor Fighter rx7600. Figured it was a great price because all he really plays is Roblox and Fortnite at 1080p. When I asked the associate to open the box so I can see the card, they would NOT let me hold it to look at it closely. The associate had to handle it. Besides some finger prints, it looked alright so I bought it to try. When I got it back and installed, it would not run anything without crashing. He would get maybe 10-15 minutes in and game would crash to desktop. Temps were fine, fans were spinning, DDU'ed the drivers, turned settings down to low and lower resolutions, even tried a different system and powersupply, nothing worked. The card was not stable even at desktop with youtube in Firefox.
So i returned it to another location (yes, i live between 2 microcenters, worship me). I explained that the card was broken and would constantly crash. They accepted the return, i got a new ASrock phantom rx7600 instead. Worked flawlessly in anything we threw at it. The other opened box card was a broken card.
And because they didnt have that card previously at the returned location, they did have it listed on their website under the store's inventory the next day. So I assumed they just put it back on the shelf. So im going to call bullshit that they test everything. Maybe it depends on the location, or they just check that it posts, but that card had issues and they just resold it. Granted, there is a possibilty that it *was* a different card, but I highly doubt it.
How dare you live by two. I'm in Wisconsin and it sucks!!!!
I live in Sweden, that sucks way more....
I also live between 2 MC, almost exactly between them. Takes me an hour to each location. Life is good.
LOL. I'm almost midway between three (Brooklyn, N. Jersey and PA St. Davids.
He clearly states in the video that they don't test anything. Now hearing that there was a crashing issue with the card I agree they shouldn't put it back on the shelf, but I've also worked in retail long enough to know that the customer is almost always lying to you about there being a problem with something. So I'm willing to bet they are waiting to get it back a 2nd time with the same reported issue before sending the card back to the manufacturer.
I used to work in the repair department at microcenter…every Monday I would sit in front of a magnifying glass with tweezers and bend pins on motherboards…then test the ones that didn’t break…and the testing was, minimal necessary…if you buy a used LGA motherboard from Microcenter, start by testing it with one stick of ram and move it to each slot and make sure each slot works, then check each and every nvme/pcie slot that is connected to the CPU, because the repair department in the warehouse, doesn’t barely do shit to check em.
So Jay was got tricked into believing MC tests all their open box stuff and benchmarks them?
@@pepedeltoro6647 Jay is a well known shill I don’t think he gets paid for it he just does it unintentionally
@@pepedeltoro6647 only gpus get tested bud, he said that in the video
I bought my EVGA 960 as an open box from Frys Electronics. That was in 2014. It still works.
Sad my frys here in wilsonville, OR closed down a number of yrs ago. It was always a fun trip.
Frys😓
The frys by indianapolis closed like 5 years ago
yup when i was younger i always dug through the open box items at the concord and sacramento fry's.. found some gems for dirt cheap.
@@sirmonkey1985 Frys was so much fun. Did yours have a theme? Down here in Los Angeles, our Frys was Alice in Wonderland themed. Going to Frys was dangerous. It was like letting your wife go into Target.
I picked up a refurb 4090 for $1299 a few months ago. It came in the original box and all the plastic on it 👌🏻 it’s been a great card
Too bad there's no Micro Center near me. 🙁
There isn't one near most people - it's big enough tho that it can be worth a 2-4hr trip, especially to get deals during a full build.
@@hi_tech_reptilez i drive three hours sometimes to get to the one closest to me lol
MicroCenter would probably consider their store as "near" me, even if getting to the store is absolutely horrible, and the traffic there is even worse. I went there *ONCE* and will never go there again.
The Miami one just opened and it's 4 hours from me. I'll make the drove when I've got the cash to drop.
@@hi_tech_reptilez Closest one to me is like 14 hrs away lol...
I love microcenter. About 3 years ago was the first time I went to one. I bought a motherboard, cpu and ram. I later found out that a deal for a better chip and mobo for about the same price. Now I was already using these parts and it was after 2 months at this point, I called them and asked if I could return them for store credit and they were willing to do it no questions asked. Ever since then Ill only buy pc parts from them.
i bought an open box tv from best buy a few years ago. still works great. only things missing was one of the screws for the feet (i wall mounted it) and the paper manual, it has a digital one.
I bought a toshiba 46" LED that was the display model from best buy. 14yrs later it still works fine
BestBuy open box is really nice. They massively discount because they want it out of the store. I got $400 165Hz 1440p monitor for ~$200 before tax. Got multiple TV's from them in the same fashion over the years.
I also got an open box tv from Best Buy. Same as yours, missing the feet and no remote. I just use the LG app and wall mounted it. Saved $1000 and I’ve used it daily for the last 5 years 👍🏻
Took a huge risk with doing am open box purchase of a Z790 motherboard at a local Microcenter last year. The better Z790 boards were very hard to come by early on & they had one on the better boards available but as an open box. The entire experience was excellent. They had no issue testing the board with no guarantee that I was going to purchase it. Ended up saving around $80 from the MSRP of the board if it was purchased new.
Micro Center is a rare unicorn, and I love it. My only problem with open box is the cost at some places. If a new product is $100 the open box version should cost $70, not $95. That and some products will not honor the year(s) long warranty if it's an open box purchase.
oh so there is some catch after all... well warranty is 2 years either way, question is more like if Micro Center will deal with it themselves or you have to, since you live in America don't see how doing it yourself would be complicated, then again never dealt with warranty stuff, maybe transportation is truly that costly even in US.
As Linus once open my eyes a bit... "customer support isn't making any money for the company" and so is RMAing stuff... just loss and when you send 100 dollar item to repair for 40 dollars, yeah... :/ almost not worth it.
oh I've saw laptops that were selling for say $699 but the open box one was like $799, like why?! lol
Yep no discussion of manufacturer warranty is pretty glaring
I bought an open box LG 32" 4K 165Hz HDR monitor at Micro Center several months ago for less than half of the sticker price. It had been sitting and the store was doing inventory, so it was drastically marked down. The manager told me that the guy who bought it had bought three of them, and his girlfriend/wife made him return one of them. I brought it home and turned it on and it only showed 30 hours of power-on time logged. The picture is amazing and I've had absolutely zero issues with it. Probably one of the best deals I've ever gotten.
Careful with the Openbox from other shops though. Specially Newegg
e-tailers are a whole different risk but you just need to educate yourself on what to look for. but if getting screwed on a deal is the difference between paying rent/bills or not then don't do it.
I bought an open box Noctua cooler once to save a few bucks, an NH-U14S, coincidentally from MicroCenter. The person who returned it had only used it to use the thermal paste that it came with. That's right, they took (i.e. stole) the Noctua thermal paste, used it in whatever they were building, put the cap back on, boxed it all back up and returned it. The syringe was mostly pressed in, and there was just BARELY enough paste left in the tube for me to do my build. Everything was present and functional, so I wasn't going to bother with an exchange, but still. Someone used the return policy to steal thermal paste
I live 10 minutes from micro center and I buy open box stuff all the time I literally go there once a week just to see what deals I can find. Definitely thankful for the open box stuff 👌🏻
Bought many open box items including my Moza R5 bundle for like 65% original price and have never had any problems. Been going to my local Cincinnati store for 25 years and love it. Their headquarters are in Columbus Ohio.
When I got all my parts for my 4090 build at micro center they had an open box deal for the Alienware AW3423DW 34" and it was $800 loving it and no problems after a month
Built my current computer as an open box special for less than $600 (at the same store in Tustin). 5600x bundle added open box ram matched to what came in the bundle and added an open box RX 6600($150).
Then i slowly upgraded it and flipped all the parts over to my nephew for his first PC.
Currently upgraded it to a 5800x3d and a 7900 GRE. Best thing about PCs, you can upgrade it as you go.
I was in Dallas recently and made a pilgrimage to Micro Center. It was a religious experience. I wish I had one near me.
such wonderful pilgrimage x) wished I could do the same far away in Asia xD
anyone who says they made a pilgrimage to Micro Center...legit needs to touch grass, smell the roses, and ...just be alive in general...
A church for hardware nerds. 😂
@@itwasntmebro2669says the guy with that pfp
@@itwasntmebro2669cringe
Open box deals are incredible if you search hard enough.
My local Micro Center stores usually let me test out MB/CPU/RAM bundles and other parts before I take them home. It's a nice perk for being a former service technician for them. They let me use their test PSUs and a monitor that isn't being used. I dunno any other store that is that generous. This is one of the reasons I keep coming back to their stores.
I cant count how many times ive almost pulled the trigger on a open box monitor or GPU to save a few hundred but just worried about getting someones broken return so I never have.
I've probably bought 4 or 5 open box CPU's, 3 motherboards and at least as many GPU's over the years. The only time I'll buy open box is the store has a return / exchange policy for defective items. I've even bought open box and registered the original warranty all but one time where the original buyer has registered it, but Gigabyte still allowed RMA as long as I showed the store receipt proving I bought as open box.
Most computer parts can be safely purchased open box as long as you can visually inspect for abuse / missing parts / bent pins and make sure that you can return to store if it was DOA so you're not stuck having to deal with OEM RMA (I'm looking at you Asus!)
I bought an open box Alienware monitor this year and it has been perfect
@@harleyhines7085 awesome.
@@racerex340 ya the solid return policy for things like that is a must!
Ive gotten so many open box items over the years and have never been burned by it yet, but I do go over the items thoroughly before I get them and inspect at the store. if they wont let me then I wont buy it
Thanks Jay for keeping us budget people in mind with your content! Those $8 here and $20 there add up FAST for those of us who just want to save up what we can then treat ourselves to a new gaming rig, or anything else for that matter. That was A LOT of money you saved. It's fantastic MicroCenter has such great deals!
every state needs 2-4 microcenters
I'm gonna say upwards of 5, or 6 depending on the size of the state, as I'm about 3 1/2 hours from the Atlanta location, then add in the extra time for horrible Atlanta traffic, my gas cost, food stops, etc.. then it ends up being a full day trip to risk the gamble of finding anything good, and maybe not saving that much money, vs. just ordering it online, or picking it up from a store like Best Buy that's 30 mins away, or their really fast sometime free shipping till they go out of business.
Sure, if you want them to go out of business.
I'd go with a single one per major city, don't need them trying to eat each other's lunch.
No! Microcenter limited stores is just fine the way it is.
@@spankbuda3769 I'm sure you're not one of us that have would have to make an entire day trip, and use a full tank of gas to get to one of their stores am I'm correct? there should be enough Micro Center locations to where the majority of people don't have to drive more than an hour, or so to get to one, otherwise their in store deals, and saving aren't worth a damn, or they could just start selling more of their products online like most retailers, but as is, Micro Center is worthless to a vast majority of the country!!
I'll take those open box in a second.😂 That's crazy. As I have just some ram and msi gtx 970. Any build with like a lga 1700 is high end. Or crap even $1500 or so give or take. Like Jay I learned a lot from u and been doing pc stuff for like 11 months and can now build pcs. Your videos where the 1st I came across. Thank u. Jusr cloned a hdd to m.2 and helped build my roommates PC with a 3060. Good stuff Jay keep it up. Your one of the very few I sub to.
One of the scariest sights in all of PC building used to be the discounted returned merchandise tags at Frys. If you know, you know.
Never shopped at Frys as I was told early on that they simply throw returns back on the shelves, then again the only used item i've ever purchased was a gtx 550 back in the day for half the retail price that worked flawlessly until i replaced with a 1080ti, tossing the 550 simply because it was an old outdated power hog.
Still have nightmares.
Yes dude. I'm on the 3rd iteration of my PC, and it's 90% open box from microcenter. Literally only ever had 1 item out of dozens that didn't work, RAM, and that return was no problem! Great deals!!!
Love the PGA icon on the pin difference explanation, gave me a laugh
Even if this applies to me exactly 0% (I'm in Sweden) these videos are really interesting to me, please keep making them!
I have definitely bought some great open box items at Microcenter
Just did this exercise myself. I put together a parts list with an Intel i7 13700 with 32 GB ddr5 ram and 1 TB M2 drive. I put my own NVidia 3080 Ti in the build. Total price would have been $1480, build it myself. I went to Microcenter here in Dallas, and they had almost the same build in the PowerSpec pre-built. Bonus Intel i9 14900, 64 GB ddr5, and a 2 TB M2 drive. I install the latest BOIS from ASUS with the microcode patch and my graphics card. The system runs like a champ. Microcenter's price $1489 all in. I added the $200 return to store for any reason warranty. I cannot complain, beautiful looking system.
There's a simple fix for computer parts you don't like the looks of. Don't buy a case with a glass side panel.
What I always do, Solid/mesh panel FTW
When I bought mine the only ones with a solid side panel were basic office ones with bad airflow, I ended up getting the cheapest one with proper airflow and even then it has tempered glass, by how cheap it was I'm shocked that it's not even acrylic, my pc is to my left side I can't even see it lol. There's no running from the glass side panel!
@@brenomedeiros8460 That is kind of how the market has been lately unfortunately. Fractal Design and Be-Quiet! still make mid-high end cases with solid panels. And if you like SFF nearly all of them have mesh panels. There is also the option of just going with an older case from back when they were more popular, like some models of phanteks enthoo that are still for sale.
@@brenomedeiros8460the corsair 4000 series has panels you can buy online, you can get replacement glass or metal panels in either black or white :D
@brenomedeiros8460 be quiet, Silverstone, Thermaltake, and Fractal have all had solid non glass panel cases for the better part of 2 decades now...
I drove 5 hours to buy a Powerspec PC open box at Microcenter Detroit December 2021. I got an awesome deal on it and still use it to this day and love it.
Ackshully, it is Madison Heights 🤓
Helped my younger brother build his first pc earlier this year. We took a trip to Microcenter. I convinced him to save himself some money and get a msi z690-a wifi ddr4 open box. When we got home I discovered thermal paste on some pins, a couple of slightly bent pins, and the pci-e locking mechanism for the gpu was broken off. Lil bro was furious. I cleaned off the thermal paste by drowning it in 91% alcohol, bent a couple of pins back into place. Mobo works fine even 10 months later. We live like an hour away from MicroCenter so I wanted to atleast check if I could save myself 2 hours of driving lol. Moral of the story, I wish I would have thought about asking to see the actual mobo first. Make sure yall inspect open box items!!
Always worth a try if it has free returns. I just bought a new gpu water block from Amazon that was Used Like New, and everything was good to go!
Saved me almost $100
Jay I've followed you for many many years, since the GTX 970 was the new kid in town if I remember. All that to say I'm glad I'm still watching. Thanks man. Thanks to both you and your team.
one of my 4090s was $976 open box from amazon... killer deals can be had open box.
wtf
Why do you more than one?
yep! got a $300+ motherboard for my sister for only $99 open box on amazon
@@MaskedChief damn
@@kevinerbs2778 i have a gaming rig at work and at home. already had the home 4090 and i was shopping 4080s for the work pc when i found the OB 4090. no brainer.
My last 3 builds were built with open box motherboards from NewEgg, all $200+ boards when new, 2 bought for less than $100 and one for $109 or so, all work absolutely fine.
I wish in my country something like Micro Center existed.
We have similar stores here but some year ago amazon came here, priced pretty much everything at 2/3 of all other stores just because they can and now the local stores are struggling. Amazon pretty much kills the competition and quality stores.
@@lidororiI've had great customer service at the Mass Microcenter and pricing is fine. Their prices are generally the same as Newegg and Amazon within a small percentage.
Wait? Amazon has physical electronics stores now?
I agree with the comments that you are exposing what many of us have used for years to get the best bang for our buck. Microcenter open box items are always a good deal. As you stated if something is not working (motherboards mainly) you can return if for a refund to select another item. I have used open box items for years, and love them.
I bought an open box 7900XTX for 800 plus tax from Microcenter and they will give me 799 trade in value for it.
Yup! I traded in a gpu, benched it, gave me the thumbs up and I used the credit for an open box 7900xtx. Been a win win for me! Mileage may vary but their return/exchange is awesome (for those who dont abuse it)
I recently bought a bunch of stuff to build several PCs at Microcenter. A few of the things that I bought literally didn't fit, or were wrong. They traded everything out and made my day. I've been a loyal customer for over 30 years now and I assure you that I have returned much less than I have spent over the years. They are my go to for PC building every time.
I have brought open boxed from Micro Center and for the most part it was a fantastic experience. While the part in question (motherboard) wasn't functioning I was easily able to come back in and exchange it no problem.
Jay, a few videos ago, you asked your viewers if they would like videos subjects of this type. Yep - GOOD stuff, and very interesting. You walked through your purchases and explained your reasoning in why you chose the items you did. Now, I just wish that Microcenter would open a store in Central Florida. It's been many years since we've had a PC equipment store like Microcenter here (Best Buy doesn't count!). Makes me want to build again... 😛😛😛
I used to work at Fry's electronics in the 90s when the 486DX4 was THE SHIT. We did open box all the time and this was true even back then. This feels like a walk down memory lane, glad to see computer stores are still a thing!
Microcenter here in KC has been awesome, I built an amazing PC a few years ago and bought most of my stuff Open Box. My motherboard ended up having issues with the CPU socket which sucked cause it was a Tai Chi board and I wanted it, but they took it back and I replaced it no problem.
Another thing is that I was looking for a Ryzen 9-3900X and they went to the back to get me one. The employee brought me back an Open Box one which saved me a good deal of money and worked flawlessly! I'm not sure how their sales commission works but it's epic that they care about their customers wallets!
This is only one instance of my open box successes though, I go back all the time and that's typically the first place I look for things I need
I bought my motherboard as an open box from Micro Center. Worked perfectly.
My mobo, ram, and GPU are all microcenter open box and have been going strong for years. It's my go to when doing a build.
On my latest build I got 2 open box items in like new condition, a LG OLED monitor and a Powercolor Hellhound 7900XT. Saved a hundred at least on each one. Parts have been working great.
I'm building my sons first gaming PC for his bday. I priced everything off Amazon and was able to get an RX7600 GPU for $209 open box. Everything else was new. Ryzen 5600X, B550M, EVGA 650w, Tforce ddr4, MSI Spatial M.2 1TB, ect... came in at $680 before taxes. Super stoked not only for the build price but for him to enjoy some really nice 1080p PC gaming.
I bought an open box 4090 last year from Microcenter. Zero issues at all, brand new was $1800, I got it for $1600. Now they are $1900 new!
I got a used X670E-F, 32gb of Teamgroup 6000c30, and a 7800x3d from Microcenter for $500! Microcenter is the GOAT. I'm currently running the ram at 6400c28 with 2133 fclk.
I´m from Germany and we have a few big Online Retailers (Amazon excluded) with physical locations that sell open box and B-Tier (slightly damaged packaging and missing parts etc.) online. Usually the stuff is well tested and comes with a 1 year warranty, I have done it a few times already and saved quiet a bit of money! Saving perfectly good electronics for cheap is always a win for everybody ^^"
I buy refurbished products when available.
I've had pretty good luck so far.
Thanks, Jay! Love you!
Bought an open box RM750 loke 7 years ago. Still runs like a champ in my wife's rig.
Also got an open box Red Dragon 6700XT just over 300 back when in box brand new was 425-450ish.
Both purchases were worth it.
My best Microcenter find (and probably the best deal I'll get the rest of my life) was some boxes of loose parts for RPi 3 "arcades." They had 2 boxes left, missing some of the parts, but each both still had the RPi - a great value for the $15 each box was on clearance for. HOWEVER - shoutout to the management at Microcenter as each box rang up at $0.01, and they honored the price in the system. Ended up getting 2 Pi's and a bunch of tinker stuff for two cents (and not Jay's! lol)
I found an open box alienware r15 w/ rtx4080, retails around $2700, walked out the door with it for $1390. only thing missing were the wifi antennas, so found a pair on amazon for $8. also snagged a couple open box tvs. dont forget they will price-match amazon and newegg. Love MC!
Here in the UK, open Box still carries the 12-month Manufacture's Guarantee, which is the responsibility of the retailer to deal with online or shop. Certified refurbished, which means it must be done by a qualified person within the field it's from, either a retailer (must be qualified, not just an electrician) or manufacture, again comes with a standard 12 months manufacture's guarantee (Warranty in the USA) Under the law, the customer is reasonable well protected. Nice video guys. More lie this.
The one thing i love about microcenter'd open box motherboards is you can pull them out of the box to literally check on things like number of pcie slots, m2 slots and positions, where things are located on the board. lots of that stuff is hard to find online
My current rig is using an open box MB and GPU. Worked out great and saved some money.
I have been waiting for years for someone to do a video about Microcenter Open Box. I am especially glad it's Jay. I still buy parts from their open box section to this day.
Great Video. I bought almost all of my most recent system with open box parts. Looking back, I might've fallen victim to the CPU issue as its unreliable at full RAM speed, but the money I saved more than made up for clocking my RAM from 6000 to 5800.
This is how I built my first PC! And watching your channel ! Keep it up guys. Love the content.
Back in 2017 I got an open box H110 motherboard to use with a G4560 for $35 from MicroCenter. The board still works flawlessly. Even got a bios update to support faster ram.
I totally relate to this video. I visit Micro Center almost every other day for tracking clearance items and separating the wheat from the chaff. Open box items can offer great deals, but the biggest caveat is that you should test thoroughly and carefully, and not everyone has the resources or know-how to do so themselves.
I recently picked up a Gigabyte AERO RTX 4080 Super that has exchanged more owners than it was tested by the service department, and it even had a description saying "INCOMPLETE: GPU ONLY - BURNT SMELL FROM GPU". It was an electrical fire waiting to happen, and I'm kinda proud that I kept this from falling in the hands of another customer. I tried testing the graphics card at home and thanks to a CyberPower UPS and a Seasonic PSU, I only experienced short power surges each time I pressed the power button on my test system. I brought it to the service department the next day. Guess what happened: it popped on their test bench and orange flames spewed out the side of the graphics card. I am so glad that I didn't have to deal with the smoke and the burnt electronics aroma at home.
U can get amazing deals for open box. 6 months ago I got a open box lg c3 48 inch for $800 from bestbuy. Perfect condition no damage and still had its stickers to pull off. Kingpin is back.
This why I love Microcenter, bought a used MSI board, and memory channels died on it after 6 months, be sure to get the warrenty, I was able to return it, get a brand new board for even cheaper.
Granted it was an Asus *Shrug* but not to many X570 boards out there now.
Years ago I built a PC with nothing but Microcenter open box parts. It's still working fine.
I bought my current AMD RX 6750XT as an open box and got it from the Denver Tech Center MicroCenter.
Got it about 8 months ago for $325,
Works just fine when AMD can get their drivers to work.
But that's another story.
The card was at the time priced at $425.
So a win win
Every PC part I've ever bought, outside of storage, has been open box from Micro Center. Maybe my locations in Chicago are just super thorough with testing post-return, but I've never had an issue with anything except one kit of memory that they were very quick and happy to swap out with a brand new kit for the same price. Can't swear by MC's Open-Box program enough
Absolutely worth it. What I personally do when it’s time to upgrade is buy used last gen GPUs on eBay that were used for like test benches or something like that. For example, I bought a 3070 right before the 4070 cards came out. It was way cheaper and it still runs amazing a year and a half later
Ive been doing well on open box stuff. My moto edge+ 2023 250 off, 4070ti for 669(normal msrp 900+), and my latest pickup s24 ultra for 900$. Everything has been great! All purchased through best buy.
I'd love to see you do a video on refurbished parts, your budget building videos have come at a perfect time for me contemplating a new build, and finally laying my i7 2600 to retirement!
I bought open box hardware online in the past and had no problem with it. However, before I bought it I contracted the manufacturer of said product and told them what I was planning on doing. They ended up telling me I would have a warranty even though it was open box. I ended up buying a motherboard that came with a 5 year warranty and after owning it for like 3 years had to RMA it and they honored it.
I just got a Z790 MAG Tomahawk wifi DDR5 open box for $171 with a two year warranty through micro center. They said if I had any issues, they would give me a NEW unit. Pretty good
Sometimes the little things are so helpful. I had been trying to think of a way to mount my noctua fan on an old thermaltake CPU cooler for months. Your zip tie trick worked like magic and looks very nice. Thanks so much!
When I rolled for my Life skills, I ended up with a Microcenter that's about 15 minutes away. I won that little lottery! My Toy store!
That zip-tie trick is very clever- I'll certainly be using that idea in the future for many things!
I got an open box Strix 4090 at Microcenter for $500 off when I built my new PC last year. Thing has been rock solid and I don't regret it one bit
Used some open box items when building my brother's computer earlier this year. Some of them did, some of them didn't. But the ones that didn't were no issue to return.
Most all PC's that I have built utilize open box parts. Good way to save money! This not only applies to Micro Center, as the closest one is 3 hours from me, but Amazon and other companies as well. They all have their "open box" and refurbished items.
For a solid few years, I worked across the street from my local Micro Center, and, yeah, bargain shopping is super fun.
Hey Jay. Just want to make a clarification note here for the community.
Micro Center does have a 30 day return policy on components, but for open box components it is actually 15 days (unless they changed that policy from around a year ago, and this was at the Dallas, TX store).
I did a build and bought an open box motherboard and GPU form Micro Center, and got the rest of the components from them as well, but new. I went a little manic trying to get the build done as fast as possible because I knew I only had 15 days, and I'm glad I did, as the system would sadly not post for me, no matter what troubleshooting I did, includimg multiple ram brand swaps as well.
I ended up having to disassemble the whole build and return it all (not gonna lie, got pretty emotional over it), but I was fortunate enough to get a nearly identical build of what I was trying to make from Skytech after that (obviously at a higher cost, but I wanted a very specific case for my desk setup).
I know my experience won't be everyone's, but I thought I should mention it to help. Thanks for the great video though, awesome to see it work well!
Shout out to micro center, that exact one for letting me return my mini ITX AM5 board. I bent pins on accident and wasnt sure how to bend them back. The associate was cool as hell and let me return the board for an exact same one. I honestly think bent pins on the CPU is easier to bend back then the board itself. Best place to shop for PC components, its my new frys, although a bit futher then it still worth the drive and supporting my local PC store. Cannot wait to go and see some monitors and hopefully soon the new AM5 chips and boards want to build a new RIG soon.
No Micro Centre in the UK ...but I have purchased an open box big TV in Currys it's great with no problems and saved me £100..
No, you can only really buy PC parts online, where occasionally you might be sent some open box stuff for the full price (they gamble that you will keep it if it works rather than go through the hassle of returning)
I actually bought my EVGA 3070ti open box and it’s been serving me strong ever since. No damage or signs of use on the product. Hell, it didn’t even come in a box, I brought it home wrapped in bubble wrap.
I buy all my stuff open box and have had no issues and can usually make a profit. Got a 4080 RoG Strix for $450 and that’s probably the best deal I’ve found.
3 weeks ago I bought a laptop at MicroCenter just before closing. In the rush I went with a model I didn’t have time to fully check out. Next morning, buyers remorse kicked in (it was too big and heavy). Went back to MicroCenter expecting a big hassle. They exchanged it for a (cheaper) lighter weight smaller rig, no questions asked. No hassles at all. They didn’t even really ask for an explanation, although I was a bit embarrassed and crowbarred my reason into the discussion. Anyway, that’s at least one “open box” item at MicroCenter that is in perfect mint condition. Never even been booted up.
I buy open box from Micro center all the time , I have had only one issue with a motherboard not posting.
Even for clients (get permission from them first) I buy open box and was able to (for one client who does photo editing) 2x ram capacity and higher speed, 2x m.2 capacity, better cpu, and ti over none gpu for $50 more total.
And there it goes. Jay just ruined how I get my "new" PC parts for cheaper. Thanks Jay.
😂😂
I aint shoppin open box anyway fam
This was very useful. Now I just have to wait until they open a Micro Center in BFE. But seriously, it really was useful to see all the stuff that comes with each given component, as well as hear you talk about what should be there and what wasn't. Thanks Jay.
wish we had a shop like micro center.
i have seen loads of videos from you and a lot of other youtubers talking and shopping there it is such an amazing place.
In my experience with the Microcenter I shop at, the associates have always offered to open the box up and look at it together before purchase. They also test every item that is returned before they let it be sold. They are very open about missing items and any issues with open-box items as well.
Dude I LOVE the open box steals at MC. I got 8 Lian Li Uni fans for $1.96 a piece!!!!! Also an ASUS motherboard for a spare build. I always check the open box section now, its such a fun experience perusing the area.
I usually buy high end used components from the FB marketplace, so far I have gotten 0 negative experiences, there are ppl that are clearly trying to scam or that refuse to test the components, as long as you avoid them I think you are good for the most part.