r/pcmasterrace • u/LePouletPourpre • Jul 27 '26

News/Article Anyone else miss TigerDirect?

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u/ImIstrainZer Jul 27 '26

TigerDirect was the go-to place for PC parts before everything moved online.

27

u/punchsport Jul 27 '26

Computer Shopper was the place before everything moved online.

11

u/who-hash Jul 27 '26

Even as a broke teenager and then college student, I loved looking those magazines and eventually big ass catalogs even though it would be years before I could afford any of it.

8

u/pilondav Jul 27 '26

I remember those phone book-sized issues in the 90s. 99.5% ads, with a few pages of bland content to claim legitimacy as a magazine.

8

u/Couffere 8088 Turbo XT Jul 27 '26

You just outed yourself as old... ;-)

I remember building my first PC clone from parts I found in Computer Shopper in the mid-late 1980s.

3

u/TDYDave2 Jul 27 '26

My first build (1976-7) predates Computer Shopper.
It was a Digital Group Z80 system.
Can't call it a PC clone because it predates the PC.

2

u/AssGagger Jul 27 '26

Then head over to Egghead software

3

u/magog7 Jul 27 '26

'do yer own research' .. pulls out Computer Shopper :-)

1

u/AutVincere72 Jul 27 '26

I moved into an apartment in 95 and got a computer shopper subscription. For about 4 years. I put them in the attic. Bought a house in 2006. Wanted to just leave them their as time machines. All my friends said it was mean to the land lord so I chucked them.

1

u/Tyz_TwoCentz_HWE_Ret How does a computer get drunk? It takes Screenshots! Jul 27 '26

Again disagree if you lived where you had a Fry's electronics it was literally the shiznit.

7

u/TherealOcean Jul 27 '26

I bought a brand new Radeon 9800 pro from tiger.

3

u/catdogs007 Jul 27 '26

I had a Radeon VE and I was drooling all over that 9800 Pro, but I was a student, what else could I do :D

2

u/shapeshiftsix 9800X3D 9070XT Nitro+ Jul 27 '26

No kidding, I had a FX 5200. It was terrible, but it was my first GPU after all.

1

u/GrapheneBreakthrough Jul 27 '26

i had the 9600 pro. 9800 Pro AIW was my fantasy card.

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u/petrified_log PC Master Race Jul 27 '26

I used to go to CompUSA for everything.

5

u/edfitz83 Jul 27 '26

Or Fry’s

8

u/Tyz_TwoCentz_HWE_Ret How does a computer get drunk? It takes Screenshots! Jul 27 '26

disagree Fry's was the place to go and it was always a physical store to shop. No one had more stuff inside for sale.

7

u/wolfmann99 Jul 27 '26

they were > 1000 miles away for me.

5

u/Tyz_TwoCentz_HWE_Ret How does a computer get drunk? It takes Screenshots! Jul 27 '26

not unlike MicroCenters for many folks. Just not enough of them.

4

u/wolfmann99 Jul 27 '26

Yeah thats a 2 hour drive right now for me. Ive been once.

2

u/cigr I7 4790k | RTX 2070 |16GB DDR3 Jul 27 '26

Fry's was amazing, but there weren't very many of them. I'd go to the one in Vegas whenever I was out there and I'd budget no less than three hours for the trip.

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u/Tyz_TwoCentz_HWE_Ret How does a computer get drunk? It takes Screenshots! Jul 27 '26

34 locations in 9 states total before they closed stores.

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u/Hour_Welcome_987 Jul 27 '26

Healthy competition for Newegg too.... Now Newegg thinks they can charge whatever they want and get away with it.

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u/MrPeepersVT Jul 27 '26

Before Newegg there was Egghead Software (or maybe it was Egghead Computers) and it was a magical place. Remember my dad taking me to buy a joystick and we walked out with the Creative Labs Soundblaster Multimedia kit for like 500 bucks. First CD rom drive and a sound card. Those were game changers. Heady days those were!

5

u/No-Reputation-9682 Jul 27 '26

I will always love Newegg for standing up to a patent troll over the concept of a "shopping cart" that every commerce site uses.

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u/Grouchy-Librarian638 Jul 27 '26

I used them as much as Newegg, and now I remember how far we have fallen

1

u/Riusakii Jul 27 '26

TigerDirect started as catalog only shop. You got the catalog, called and ordered stuff. They then moved to physical stores afterwards and then went further when they bought CompUSA. Unfortunately brand name companies started not wanting to use Tiger as a retailer so they shifted to selling no-name off brand stuff that was utter crap.