Local Computer Stores for the Geeks Part 2
This post was written by gloriakt
As you can see from the picture above, I can often get a little excessive when it comes to computing, but it is all in good fun. So now that we have covered Fry’s, and I will admit, I did go and get that Tuna sandwich and it was great, lets talk about some other stores in town:
Discount Electronics- Ah Discount, well this place has been a main stay for Austin, for some time. It offers buys outs, used computer parts and in general weird and odd things. One time my cousin bought a scuba diving camera enclosure for his Nikon from there! I think my most memorable purchases were when they were located in San Antonio, Tx and I picked up some ATI 9700’s for like 40 bucks each, I felt so cool.
Best Bytes Compters- Best Bytes computers is a pretty interesting place to say the least. I will leave it at that. But they do have all types of weird new/used parts that could help you fix an old computer you are trying to give to a family member.
GoodWill ComputerWorks- Ok, so GoodWill ComputerWorks has become less and less interesting for me over the years (here in Austin, in San Antonio, they still have good buys), but I have to give it credit. I remember when they were located off 183 over by Vans Auto Parts (yeah remember Vans?). The one saving grace for GWCW is the computer museum, now if only it was open more often:)
Altex Electronics- Altex actually started in San Antonio, it used to be a true electronics store, with capacitors and that sort of stuff, but then slowly turned into a computer shop, now it is more of a network/home theater/small business computer installation store. Yeah that was a lot of slashes! But that is what it is. If you are ever looking for good quality inexpensive cables this is the place to go, they pretty much have it all. Need a rackserver case or rack mount gear, altex is your place.
So what do you do with all this “old” gear?:
Project Skype Box-
I built this box two years ago for a friend of mine to be able to skype with her boyfriend who was going to Italy. It is a Dell GX110 that I painted a nice solid green, added a DVD-ROM, USB 2.0 (gotta have it for her ipod), webcam, mouse, speakers, mic and keyboard. All in all everything was like 100, except for the fact that I decided to buy a new webcam, as the latest ones have superior low light coverage. Anyway, I got most everything used from Discount Electronics and GoodWill ComputerWorks, which are great places for when you are working on a really small budget. As you can see I had to add a video card as the built in video card didn’t seem to play nice with skype (imagine that, an intel integrated device not playing nice). I “upgraded” it to an ATI rage 128 (16mb) which seems to get the job done. So yeah, there are all types of projects to be made, anything from file servers, skype boxes to kids computers, you can have a really good time on the cheap.
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