My new desktop build was assembled from components purchased from B&H, Amazon and BestBuy. My preference was to use B&H where possible, but had to turn to BestBuy to get a retail new GPU. At Amazon I will only buy products that are Ships from/Sold by Amazon.com. I do not live near a Microcenter so can't make much use of them.
For some other stuff I turn to the manufacturer directly, like I will typically buy Microsoft equipment directly from Microsoft. I also check Costco, but they have exceptionally limited options.
Walking into my local PC repair shop, I found knowledgeable staff but prices that couldn't compete with B&H.
I built my last desktop with parts from Best Buy (except the SSDs which I was carrying over to the new one). They don't have a huge selection so you won't be able to build anything very high or low end but it was very competitively priced and I was able to get it all same day pickup. Their case selection is pretty much limited to the glass side panel/RGB LED stuff though.
This was in very early 2020 just right before everything got crazy so I'm not sure how it is now.
Last time I resorted to walking into John Lewis. I probably paid more than elsewhere, but life's too short to buy from somewhere that doesn't stand firmly behind their products.
Since you haven’t specified country, I have to assume you mean USA. From Ireland, I’ve had good experiences with Caseking DE, Scan Computers UK, and Computer Universe DE
Though, with Brexit, my purchasing from Scan has dropped - less hassle ordering from Germany.
why not amazon? you can return any SBA/FBA hardware no questions asked. cpus are not exactly at a high risk of counterfeits. microcenter is pretty good if there's one near you, but otherwise not worth ordering from online imo.
In Australia we also have https://staticice.com.au/ which lets you find stockists, and quickly compare prices for, any piece of IT gear. Sadly it doesn't include postage, which can add $20 onto even the smallest / cheapest bit of kit.
Plus we've got our own local version of https://au.pcpartpicker.com/ though I've had mixed success with that the past few years. Supply chains are still really screwy domestically.
There's a bunch of highly dubious vendors in AU, no one quite knows how they stay in business. Best bet is to search whirlpool.net.au for horror stories if you're about to make your first transaction with a new vendor.
PCCG aren't spectacular to deal with. They sent me a Ryzen chip that had a single pin broken due to Auspost chucking it over the gate to my door (something I offered video evidence of!)
After threatening them with the ACCC (and CC'ing the ACCC IN the email to prove I was serious) they "generously" offered to send the CPU back to AMD to be "repaired"
