Around Black Friday 2024 I purchased most of the components for a new PC build. My old system, sporting an Intel i7-6700 from around 2015, has been a reliable workhorse, but it's showing its age for creative tasks like video editing. I did throw in an RTX 4060 8GB back in March of 2024. At the time, there weren’t a lot of other appealing options that supported hardware based AV1 encode/decode, but it did hold me over for a while in the old PC.
Watch the full video on the related YouTube channel.
The video covers this topic in more detail. This website article is a summary of the video. I used AI tools to analyze and summarize what was said. I've heavily edited the text because it's not good at following my usual tone and word choices, but there's still a bit of it where I sound more dramatic than I'd normally be.
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| The RTX 4060 GPU I carried over from my old build. |
Anyway, the shipping experience has been... an adventure. And not the good kind! Let's dive into the mess.
MSI's online store needs help with their shipping policies.
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| The package from MSI's Official Website store: Zero Padding. |
First up, I ordered a couple of things directly from MSI's official website shop. They had decent prices. The package had padding inside. The motherboard was just flopping around.
Now, that's not necessarily the end of the world, motherboards and their boxes are somewhat durable. But then I picked up this really heavy motherboard box...
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| How is that acceptable packaging? |
...and found the SSD half-hanging out of a FedEx mailer! Seriously, how is this acceptable? Glad to say that it does work, because dealing with a return would be a pain. Especially true if shipping choices were to blame.
Part of the issue with this and building PC components from online sources is that you need most of it to get to a state where things can be tested. If you wait too long getting everything then it could cause issues getting an exchange. Otherwise, you have to deal with the manufacturer's warranty which could be another extended hassle.
Amazon: Empty Boxes and Damaged Boxes
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| The RTX 4060 was sent by itself without a box to protect it. |
Amazon is doing a lot of cost cutting. I'm an affiliate of theirs and do use it a lot, but I realize some of their policies are a bit much.
Let's talk about my GPU purchase from back in March. I bought the RTX 4060 from them and didn't realize that you had to opt-in to have it sent in a box. Otherwise they send it bare. In this case it survived, but the manufacturer's box was torn up. Not ideal if I want to sell it a few years from now. Having a good looking box would indicate to the buyer than the GPU was handled with care.
But the worst Amazon experience so far? When I ordered my CPU. The first time the package arrived with an empty box. I feel pretty confident that I had selected Amazon themselves as the seller, but they still fulfilled it from a random 3rd party company that is doing some sort of scam. Looking at reviews of the seller on there, they have done this empty box thing multiple times. Amazon seems complacent.
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| It's just an empty box that should have been an expensive AMD CPU. |
To their credit, they quickly sent a "replacement" (aka. they actually sent the product this time), but it's a disconcerting situation and requires the time of the customer to deal with their service department. What if they fought me on it?
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| The second CPU package was legit, but again... no padding. |
The "replacement" CPU came in this box, but guess what, no padding. At least the CPU is less likely to be damaged because it doesn't have pins on it anymore but with some components I think they should opt to have it well packaged. The AMD box was crushed on one side so it didn't arrive to me perfect, but I suspect it was sent to me in that condition.
The Build Plan: Going Old School!
Despite the shipping order fulfilment chaos, I'm excited about this build. I’m going a bit old school, with a case that has two 5.25" expansion bays. My build is centered around a UHS-II memory card reader from StarTech.
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| Parts to be installed into the 5.25" bays. In this case a memory card reader. |
I do a lot of photography (check out my main channel!), so I got a UHS-II SD card reader for one of those bays. And I'm also adding a Blu-ray drive. I've never messed with writeable Blu-rays before, but I'm looking for alternative photo backup solutions.
StarTech USB 3.0 Internal Multi-Card Reader with UHS-II Support:
- Amazon: https://amzn.to/3Pb4MK2
- ebay: https://ebay.us/uBV73I
As an affiliate of these shops, I earn from qualifying purchases!
Micro Center vs. Online Ordering
Ideally, I'd be shopping at a Micro Center. But the closest one is an hour and a half away. Gas cost and tolls do add up, so the overall cost of the PC would go up if I went this route. Especially true if I had to return something. It is a fun trip, so I still do see it as an occasional option.
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| Microcenter's website is cool, but most of the equipment can't be bought online. |
There is a Best Buy in town, but their PC component selection and pricing are not great.. They had some AMD CPUs, but the closest option was an eight-core that was more expensive than the 12 code CPU I got from Amazon. They do price matching, which might have worked but that adds to the hassle.
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| Best Buy's website is pretty decent. |
It's a trade-off. The better in-person experience locally, or saving money online. Right now, saving money is key for me. I also timed it specifically around the time of Black Friday week which meant somewhat hectic either way.
It's all part of the hobby, I guess, but I just need this thing to work so I can make videos and, you know, do my self created job as well as possible.