Where to buy PC components

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MikeB4

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#324188 11-Mar-2026 10:09

It has been quite a while since I built my last self build PC or being involved with PC parts procurement. When my grandson returns from his school trip to Europe the two of us are going to build a couple of PC, one for me and one for him. He has never done this before so I am going to guide him through. He will be my hands and I will be his verbal tutor. However, I don't really know who are the best paces to purchase all the components from these days. Any ideas who and where? the locale isn't really important as I will be purchasing online.

Any advice would be very helpful and gratefully received.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

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#3468675 11-Mar-2026 10:13

I've always used Ascent.

wellygary

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#3468681 11-Mar-2026 10:29

Just bring a big chunk of change...

RAMageddon has now spread to SSD and HSS storage prices, and you have to wonder what is the next "shortage" to appear//

xpd

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#3468694 11-Mar-2026 10:56

My current PC was all sourced from PBTech.

Alternatives are Ascent, Playtech, Mightyape, Paradigm PC, Computer Lounge.

Thing is, all the parts are the same, its just the price and service thats different.

And don't fall into the trap of "part xxyz from supplier 123, part abc from supplier 456" because after shipping, price probably work out the same buying it all from a single supplier.

XPD / Gavin

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#3468709 11-Mar-2026 11:16

Definitely check out Amazon Australia as well. When I built a PC a couple of years ago, they had better prices than any of the NZ sellers on Corsair components and maybe one or two other brands. That may have just been some temporary sale of some sort though.

Mehrts

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#3468732 11-Mar-2026 12:07

Earbanean:

Definitely check out Amazon Australia as well. When I built a PC a couple of years ago, they had better prices than any of the NZ sellers on Corsair components and maybe one or two other brands. That may have just been some temporary sale of some sort though.

What's the after-sales support like from components bought from Amazon? Or does it depend on the brand? Does the CGA apply?

cddt

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#3468746 11-Mar-2026 12:25

FYI prices are absolutely insane right now. Memory and graphics cards in particular.

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Earbanean

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#3468748 11-Mar-2026 12:28

Mehrts:

What's the after-sales support like from components bought from Amazon? Or does it depend on the brand? Does the CGA apply?

I've never been through that for PC components, as the Corsair stuff (PSU and RAM) I bought from Amazon have been rock solid. I did go through product support with them for some ear buds that developed a fault and they just replaced them after a small amount of interaction with a chatbot.

I assume they aren't under CGA. If you went later into a product's life where CGA would maybe be the only recourse, then I've no idea how helpful Amazon would be (if at all). Note, with some of the cheaper NZ retailers, CGA claims later in a product's life, aren't aways a walk in the park anyway.

MyFriendAutism

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#3468758 11-Mar-2026 12:51

https://notbadtech.co.nz/ is my goto. Shopping for a cpl years now & always great deals.

WyleECoyoteNZ

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#3468777 11-Mar-2026 13:10

As others have said, prices on RAM, NVMe and Video cards have gone up, in some cases, wildly in price.

I did a build in September last year, and ran a spreadsheet of build items considered.

To note (price in September 2025, Today price and % movement, all prices from PB Tech)

RAM, 32GB (2 x 16gb) DDR5 6000mhz. Was $205.85, now $690.00, up 235%

Samsung 990 EVO Plus 1tb NVMe, Was $194.35, now $343.85, up 77%

Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2tb NVMe, Was $309.00, now $573.85, up 86%

AMD RX 9060 XT 16gb, Was $729, now 861.35, up 18%

Other components purchased (Case, PSU, Motherboard etc) haven't actually moved in price at all, or if they have it's been minimal (4% in the CPU price)

You may get better pricing, PB Tech seem to be a bit like Briscoes, and that they have a different sale every other week, however, from monitoring the PB Tech price prior to my build, what was on sale one week, wasn't the next, or if it was, it was a different discount to the week before.

Good luck!

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#3469002 11-Mar-2026 16:17

1stWave is another one. Amazon AU for easily shipped stuff like ram, cpu, ssd. Returns haven’t been a hassle. Prices are crazy everywhere though.

MikeB4

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#3469030 11-Mar-2026 17:05

Behodar:

I've always used Ascent.

Very good suggestion. I had forgotten about Ascent, I used them a lot in the past.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

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MikeB4

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#3469032 11-Mar-2026 17:07

Good grief the component prices have escalated at higher percentage than during the chip crisis.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

richms

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#3469129 11-Mar-2026 20:43

newegg was good for a while, but now they seem to end up more than anything locally when I have priced up thru them. Worth a look sometimes for storage - at least till that had the same AI buying it all problems. HDDs were about 2/3 the local price inc gst and shipping in the past.

Richard rich.ms

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#3469131 11-Mar-2026 20:45

MikeB4:

Good grief the component prices have escalated at higher percentage than during the chip crisis.

Mike, on Linus's YouTube channel they run a couple of videos on how to build a machine without breaking the bank.

The current market is appalling, but if you don't want to go absolutely top-end (and I don't think you need to), using parts that are a generation older will still be smashing. AM4 boards with AMD 5600G or 5700G is a great place to start and if you squint it will look almost affordable. Of course you can go 2nd hand, and that can be fun if you're confident of parts.

I remember in 1988/89, 512k ram expansions for the Amiga 500s were around $400NZ - $1100 in todays money. it took 2 years before they were down under $200.

AM4 or Intel 12th gen are amazingly powerful still, and with a 3070 graphics card or Radeon 6700 you will have a stupendous gaming machine at 1080p

________

Antoniosk

MikeB4

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#3469246 12-Mar-2026 09:10

The requirements for my PC are not as high as the one I want to build for my grandson. My PC would need 16GB of RAM and 500TB storage. My data is on my NAS and cloud. On board graphics would suffice as I don't game anymore except Simple games.

My grandson is a gamer both PC and PlayStation. He will need Discrete Graphics, at least 32GB RAM and at least 1 TB storage.

Both PCs will run Linux, mine dedicated and my grandson's dual boot with Windows. The Linux Distro I am considering is POP OS as it provides a Nvidia version and non Nvidia version. I feel my grandson's machine is going to cost considerably more than mine.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

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