PCPartPicker

If you’re often replacing hardware or building custom computers, check out PCPartsPicker.com. As the name implies, the site provides assistance in choosing parts, making sure they’re compatible with other hardware, and provides pricing guides so you can make sure you’re getting the best performance for your money. It also provides up-to-date pricing from many online retailers, such as OutletPC, Amazon, and TigerDirect.

One of the useful features of PCPartPicker is the ability to use the site to pick each part for your build, generating a virtual build on the site. You can find this under ‘System Build’. The webpage will check compatibility and alert you if you’ve chosen incompatible parts. Just browsing the site, you can check lists for all the basic hardware you’ll need, starting with CPU, motherboard, memory, storage, video cards, and then on to power supplies, cases, and other custom parts.

For each hardware part, there are useful graphs such as the CPU ‘Price vs. Performance Plot’, which can help you determine what you’re spending and the type of performance you can expect. On the ‘Storage’ tab, you can check value vs. capacity. For power supplies, you can check price vs. wattage. This can save you a lot of time as all the information is right here, rather than having to search all the specifications yourself on different websites. It’s an excellent way to get the best value for your money and for your clients, at different tiers of performance, which not only maximizes your profits but streamlines your workflow as far as getting information together for the machine you’re building for your client.

Another useful feature of PCPartPicker is the ability to set price alerts on product categories with customized filters, so you can get the best deal on certain parts you’re watching. Thresholds can be set on specific parts so you can be notified by email when there’s a special deal on a part. You can also check on price trends per category to get a better estimate of which path you might want to take. Price history charts give you a good idea of where the current trend is. The prices are continuously updated, so don’t worry about having to continually check the parts at the retailers’ sites.

One of the features I personally enjoy about PCPartPicker is the ability to show off your builds to other users, and see what others have built. A manifest is provided for each build, so you can see exactly what went into the project as well as order the exact same parts yourself. For instance, if someone has built a system for a client or for themselves, and it meets the specifications you need, you’ll know what to expect, and it could save you a lot of time figuring out which parts you need and where the best deal would be, on your own.

Not to be left out is the benchmark section where you can check performance of the different CPU’s and pricing. If you ever need advice or would like to offer advice regarding builds and customizations, there is a forums section as well with an active community of experts and advisors. It’s a very well rounded site, and it can save you a lot of time when you need to check on hardware or build your own custom machine for clients.